From: Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23
A New World Comes Into Being. The New Jerusalem (Continuation)
[22] And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty
and the Lamb. [23] And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for
the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
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Commentary:
9-21. In contrast with the punishment visited on the evil city, Babylon, the harlot
(cf. 17:1), we are now shown the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, the spouse, co-
ming down from heaven. There is a significant parallel between 17:1ff and 21:9ff.
The author writes with a truly remarkable mastery of language: after the introduc-
tion (v. 9), he describes the Holy City using three literary devices which, after gi-
ving the measurements of the city, he repeats in more or less reverse order. The
description is like the impressions a traveler has as he approaches: first, from a-
far, he sees its radiance—the city as a whole and the glory of God (vv. 10-11); as
he comes closer he can distinguish walls and gates (vv. 12-13), and when closer
still its foundation stones (v. 14). Once inside, he realizes its sheer scale (vv. 15-
16) and is able to assess the size and richness of its walls (vv. 17-18) and foun-
dation stones and gates (vv. 19-21); and he is spellbound by the brightness that
shines from the glory of God (21:22-22:5).
The city is given the titles of Bride and Wife (Spouse) which are normally used to
designate the Church (cf. 19:7). This is easy to understand in the context of the
imagery used: the city represents the Church, the community of the elect viewed
in its complete, indissoluble union with the Lamb.
10-14. This vision is rather like the one the prophet Ezekiel had when he saw the
New Jerusalem and the temple of the future (cf. Ezek 40-42). However, St John
stresses (cf. also 21:2) that the city comes down from heaven: this shows that
the full establishment (so long desired) of the messianic kingdom will be brought
about by the power of God and in line with his will.
The description of the Holy City begins with the view from outside. This is the first
thing that is seen and it is what makes it strong and unassailable. He speaks of
walls and gates and foundations. The names of the tribes of Israel and the twelve
Apostles show the continuity between the ancient chosen people and the Church
of Christ; and yet the point is made that the Church is something quite new which
rests on the twelve Apostles of the Lord (cf. Eph 2:20). The arrangement of the
gates, in threes facing the four points of the compass, indicates that the Church
is universal: all nations must come to it to gain salvation. This is what St Augus-
tine means when he says that “outside the catholic Church one can find every-
thing except salvation” (”Sermo Ad Cassar”, 6).
21b-27. After taking us up to the walls and through the gates of the City, the au-
thor brings us right inside, to its very center; this also is amazingly rich. However,
surprisingly, there is no temple. This makes it different from the Jerusalem de-
scribed by Ezekiel, for the center of that city was the temple (cf. Ezek 4042). The
temple in Jerusalem and the tent of the tabernacle in the wilderness symbolized
the fact that God dwelt there; it was the visible sign of divine presence (”shekinah”
in Hebrew), a presence revealed by the descent of the cloud of the glory of God.
In the heavenly Jerusalem there is no longer any need for God to have a dwelling-
place, because God the Father himself and the Lamb are always present. The
Godhead does not need to be brought to mind by the temple (the symbol of his
invisible presence), because the blessed will always see God face to face. This
sight of God is what causes the righteous to be forever happy. “There are no
words to explain the blessedness which the soul enjoys, the gain which he ob-
tains once his true nature has been restored to him and he is able henceforth to
contemplate his Lord” (Chrysostom, “Ad Theodorum Lapsum”, 1, 13).
In the Old Testament theophanies of Yahweh, a splendid brightness revealed the
divine glory. And so, the presence of God will fill the heavenly Jerusalem with such
a brightness of light that there is no need of sun or moon. Beside God the Father,
with equal rank and dignity, is the Lamb, whose glory will also shine out, revealing
his divinity.
This light will illuminate all those who worship the Lord, thereby fulfilling the mes-
sianic prophecies of Isaiah (cf. Is 60:3, 5, 11; 65-66).
The gates of the Holy City will stay open by day, that is, always, because there
will be no more night, nor anything unclean: the saints will be the only ones to en-
ter.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: John 14:23-29
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
[25] “These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. [26] But the
Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach
you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” [27]
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give
to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [28] You have
heard Me say to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you
would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.
[29] And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take
place, you may believe.
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Commentary:
22-23. It was commonly held by the Jews that when the Messiah came He
would be revealed to the whole world as King and Savior. The Apostles take Je-
sus’ words as a revelation for themselves alone, and they are puzzled. Hence
the question from Judas Thaddeus. It is interesting to note how easy the Apos-
tles’ relations with our Lord are: they simply ask Him about things they do not
know and get Him to clear up any doubts they have. This is a good example of
how we should approach Jesus, who is also our Teacher and Friend.
Jesus’ reply may seem evasive but in fact, by referring to the form His manifesta-
tion takes, He explains why He does not reveal Himself to the world: He makes
Himself known to him who loves Him and keeps His commandments. God repea-
tedly revealed Himself in the Old Testament and promised to dwell in the midst
of the people (cf. Exodus 29:45; Ezekiel 37:26-27; etc.); but here Jesus speaks
of a presence of God in each person. St. Paul refers to this presence when he
asserts that each of us is a temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:16-17).
St. Augustine, in reflecting on God’s ineffable nearness in the soul, exclaims,
“Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved You!
You were within me, and I was in the world outside myself. I searched for You
in the world outside myself.... You were with me, but I was not with You. The
beautiful things of this world kept me far from You and yet, if they had not been
in You, they would have no being at all. You called me; You cried aloud to me;
You broke my barrier of deafness; You shone upon me; Your radiance enve-
loped me; You cured my blindness” (”Confessions”, X, 27, 38).
Jesus is referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the soul renewed by grace:
“Our heart now needs to distinguish and adore each one of the Divine Persons.
The soul is, as it were, making a discovery in the supernatural life, like a little
child opening his eyes to the world about him. The soul spends time lovingly with
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and readily submits to the work of the
lifegiving Paraclete, who gives Himself to us with no merit on our part, bestowing
His gifts and the supernatural virtues!” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 306).
25-26. Jesus has expounded His teaching very clearly, but the Apostles do not
yet fully understand it; they will do so later on, when they receive the Holy Spirit
who will guide them unto all truth (cf. John 16:13). “And so the Holy Spirit did
teach them and remind them: He taught them what Christ had not said because
they could not take it in, and He reminded them of what the Lord had taught and
which, either because of the obscurity of the things or because of the dullness
of their minds, they had not been able to retain” (Theophylact, “Enarratio in Evan-
gelium Ioannis, ad loc”).
The word translated here as “bring to your remembrance” also includes the idea
of “suggesting”: the Holy Spirit will recall to the Apostles’ memory what they had
already heard Jesus say—and He will give them light to enable them to discover
the depth and richness of everything they have seen and heard. Thus, “the Apos-
tles handed on to their hearers what He had said and done, but with that fuller un-
derstanding which they, instructed by the glorious events of Christ (cf. John 2:22)
and enlightened by the Spirit of truth, now enjoyed: (Vatican II, “Dei Verbum”, 19).
“Christ has not left His followers without guidance in the task of understanding
and living the Gospel. Before returning to His Father, He promised to send His
Holy Spirit to the Church: ‘But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remem-
brance all I have said to you’” (John 14:26).
“This same Spirit guides the successors of the Apostles, your bishops, united
with the Bishop of Rome, to whom it was entrusted to preserve the faith and to
‘preach the Gospel to the whole creation’ (Mark 16:15). Listen to their voices, for
they bring you the word of the Lord” (John Paul II, “Homily at Knock
Shrine” 30 September 1979).
In the Gospels is consigned to writing, under the charism of divine inspiration,
the Apostles’ version of everything they had witnessed—and the understanding of
it, which they obtained after Pentecost. So it is that these sacred writers “faithful-
ly hand on what Jesus, the Son of God, while He lived among men, really did and
taught for their eternal salvation, until the day when He was taken up (cf. Acts 1:
1-2)” (Vatican II, “Dei Verbum”, 19). This is why the Church so earnestly recom-
mends the reading of Sacred Scripture, particularly the Gospels. “How I wish
your bearing and conversation were such that, on seeing or hearing you, people
would say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 2).
27. Wishing a person peace was, and still is, the usual form of greeting among
Jews and Arabs. It is the greeting Jesus used, and which the Apostles continued
to use, as we can see from their letters (cf. 1 Peter 1:3; 3 John 15; Romans 1:7;
etc.). The Church still uses it in the liturgy: for example, before Communion the
celebrant wishes those present peace, a condition for worthily sharing in the holy
sacrifice (cf. Matthew 5:23) and also a fruit of that sacrifice.
On our Lord’s lips this common greeting acquires its deepest meaning; peace is
one of the great messianic gifts (cf. Isaiah 9:7; 48:18; Micah 5:5; Matthew 10:22;
Luke 2:14; 19:38). The peace which Jesus gives us completely transcends the
peace of the world, which can be superficial and misleading and compatible with
injustice. The peace of Christ is, above all, reconciliation with God and reconci-
liation of men with one another; it is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gala-
tians 5:22-23); it is “serenity of mind, tranquility of soul, simplicity of heart, a
bond of love, a union of charity: no one can inherit God if he does not keep His
testament of peace, or live in unity with Christ if he is separated from Christiani-
ty” (St. Augustine, “De Verbis Domini Serm.”, 58).
“Christ ‘is our peace’ (Ephesians 2:14). And today and forever He repeats to us:
‘My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you’. [...] Never before in the histo-
ry of mankind has peace been so much talked about and so ardently desired as
in our day. [...] And yet again and again, one can see how peace is undermined
and destroyed. [...] Peace is the result of many converging attitudes and realities;
it is the product of moral concerns, of ethical principles based on the Gospel
message and fortified by it. [...] In his message for the 1971 Day of Peace, my
revered predecessor, that pilgrim of peace, Paul VI, said: “True peace must be
founded upon justice, upon a sense of the untouchable dignity of man, upon the
recognition of an indelible and happy equality between men, upon the basic prin-
ciple of human brotherhood, that is, of the respect and true love due to each man,
because he is man’. This same message I affirmed in Mexico and in Poland. I re-
affirm it here in Ireland. Every human being has inalienable rights that must be re-
spected. Each human community — ethnic, historical, cultural or religious — has
rights which must be respected. Peace is threatened every time one of these
rights is violated. The moral law, guardian of human rights, protector of the digni-
ty of man, cannot be set aside by any person or group, or by the State itself, for
any cause, not even for security or in the interests of law and order. The law of
God stands in judgment over all reasons of State. As long as injustices exist in
any of the areas that touch upon the dignity of the human person, be it in the po-
litical, social or economic field, be it in the cultural or religious sphere, true peace
will not exist. [...] Peace cannot be established by violence, peace can never flou-
rish in a climate of terror, intimidation and death. It is Jesus Himself who said: ‘All
who take the sword will perish by the sword’ (Matthew 26:52). This is the word of
God, and it commands this generation of violent men to desist from hatred and
violence and to repent” (John Paul II, “Homily at Drogheda”, 29 September 1979).
The peace and joy which Christ brings us should be typical of believers: “Get rid
of those scruples that deprive you of peace.—What takes away your peace of
soul cannot come from God.
“When God comes to you, you will feel the truth of those greetings: My peace I
give to you..., peace I leave you..., peace be with you..., and you will feel it even
in the midst of troubles.” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 258).
28. Jesus Christ, as Only-begotten Son of God, possesses divine glory for all
eternity; but while He is on earth this glory is veiled and hidden behind His holy
human nature (cf. 17:5; Philippians 2:7). It only shows itself on a few occasions,
such as when He performs miracles (cf. 2:11) or at the Transfiguration (cf. Mat-
thew 17:1-8 and paragraph). Now, through His death, resurrection and ascension
into Heaven Jesus will be glorified — in His body also — as He returns to the Fa-
ther and enters into His glory. Therefore, His departure from this world should be
a source of joy for His disciples; but they do not properly understand what He is
saying, and they are saddened because they are more aware of the Master be-
ing physically separated from them than the glory which awaits Him.
When Jesus says that the Father is greater than He, He is thinking about His hu-
man nature; as man Jesus is going to be glorified, ascending as He does to the
right hand of the Father. Jesus Christ “is equal to the Father in His divinity, less
than the Father in His humanity” (”Athanasian Creed”). St. Augustine exhorts us
to “acknowledge the twofold nature of Christ — the divine, by which He is equal to
the Father; the human, by which He is less than the Father. But the one and the
other are together not two, but one Christ’ (”In Ioann. Evang.”, 78, 3). However, al-
though the Father and the Son are equal in nature, eternity and dignity, our Lord’s
words can also be understood by taking “greater” to refer to His origin: only the
Father is “beginning without beginning”, whereas the Son proceeds eternally from
the Father by way of a generation which is also eternal. Jesus Christ is God from
God, Light from Light, True God from True God (cf. Nicene Creed).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.