Readings:
Revelation 21

John sees the final vision of Revelation and it takes up the last two chapters of the book. He sees the end of all, after the battles, after the millennium, after the beast and the harlot, after the dragon is cast into the lake of fire. He sees the final consummation of all time and matter into the reality of perfect creation that was God’s plan from the beginning but was spoiled by sin.

The sea being erased in this new creation is a metaphor for the end to death and destruction. In Hebrew poetic literature, both biblical and extra biblical, the sea represents death, monsters, unknown evils and foreign invaders. All these come to an end.

At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed: “The Church . . . will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ.”

CCC 1042

Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world, “new heavens and a new earth. “It will be the definitive realization of God’s plan to bring under a single head “all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.”

CCC 1043

In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”

CCC 1044

The new Jerusalem is the antithesis of the Harlot city described earlier in the book. It is unspoiled and unspotted, it is pure and holy and comes as virgin bride dressed in white for the marriage of the lamb, rather than a harlot dressed in scarlet and gold to stand on the street and entice lustful men to be customers. Everything the harlot city represents is remade and transformed in the new Jerusalem.

V9

The gates of this city are inscribed with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel and the foundations are inscribed with the names of the 12 Apostles. This is showing that the old and the new covenants are inextricably linked and that without the names found in the Old Testament you’d be unable to enter the city, because it was through the old that the new was born, but the foundations rest on the Apostles because that is the foundation of the church and our bishops today are their successors (see Four Marks of The Church; Apostolic)

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Revelation 22