From: Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
The Great Multitude of the Saved
[9] After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number,
from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their
hands, [10] and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who
sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” [11] And all the angels stood round the
throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their
faces before the throne and worshipped God, [12] saying, “Amen! Blessing and
glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our
God for ever and ever! Amen.”
[13] Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in
white robes, and whence have they come?” [14] I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
And he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation;
they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
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Commentary:
1-17. This chapter consists of two visions designed to illustrate God’s protection
of Christians and the happy circumstances of the martyrs. The victory of the
Church is depicted — of the entire Church, made up of people from the four points
of the compass (vv. 9-12). What is not so clear, however, is who the one hundred
and forty-four thousand are, drawn from the twelve tribes of Israel, whom an angel
has marked with the seal of the living God (vv. 1-8). Some commentators inter-
pret them as all being Christians of Jewish background (Judaeo-Christians). O-
thers say that they are those who make up the new Israel which St Paul speaks
about in Galatians 6:17; that is, all the baptized viewed first as still engaged in
their battle (vv. 1-8) and then after they have won victory (vv. 9-17). The most plau-
sible interpretation is that the one hundred and forty four thousand stand for the
Jews converted to Christianity (as distinct from those not converted) — the ‘rem-
nant of Israel’ (cf. Is 4:2-4; Ezek 9; etc.). St Paul says that they prove the irrevo-
cable nature of God’s election (cf. Rom 11:1-5) and are the first-fruits of the resto-
ration which will come about at the End (cf. Rom 11:25-32).
The hundred and forty-four thousand are included in the second vision; they would
be part of the great multitude “from all tribes and people and tongues”. Thus, the
vision in vv. 9-17 takes in the entire Church without any distinctions, whereas the
vision in vv. 1-8 can refer only to a part of the Church — those Jews who, by beco-
ming Christians, made up the original nucleus of the Church. The Church admits
these on the same basis as all those who become Christians later without having
had to pass through any stage of Jewish observance.
1-8. In Jewish tradition angels were divided into two groups — angels of the Pre-
sence and sanctification, and those charged with controlling the forces of nature.
Both kinds appear in this passage.
According to the custom of the time, when something bore the mark of a seal or
brand that meant that it belonged to the seal’s owner. This passage is saying
that the one hundred and forty four thousand belong to God and therefore will be
protected by him as his property. This fulfills what Ezekiel prophesied about the
inhabitants of Jerusalem (cf. Ezek 9:1-7): some would be sealed on the forehead
with a tax (the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet) and would therefore escape the
punishment to be inflicted on all the rest: this shows the special way God makes
provision for those who are his not only because he created them but also by a
new title.
The Fathers of the Church saw this mark as symbolizing the character Baptism
impresses on the souls of the faithful to show that they are destined for eternal
life. Thus, the persons preserved from harm are the Jews who were converts to
Christianity: their Baptism marked them out from those Jews who rejected Christ
and were not baptized.
The list of tribes is somewhat different from the usual list which keeps the order
of Genesis 29. The name of Judah is put first because the Messiah came from
that tribe, as St John recently mentioned (cf. 5:5); and there is no mention of the
tribe of Dan, presumably because it fell into idolatry (cf. Judg 17-18) and eventual-
ly disappeared. To make up the tally of twelve the tribe of Joseph is mentioned
twice — as that of Joseph and as that of Manasseh, his first-born.
The number of those sealed (12 x 12 x 1000) symbolizes completeness, totality
— in this instance, a huge multitude, depicted as the new Israel. Included in this
number are the descendants of Jacob who receive Baptism, irrespective of when
they do. Obviously this number is not meant to be taken literally, as if only one
hundred and forty-four thousand people will attain salvation. In this scene all
those of Gentile background who become Christians over the course of history
are explicitly not included. They will appear in the vision which follows.
9-17. Bl. John Paul II has commented on this passage as follows: “The people
dressed in white robes whom John sees with his prophetic eye are the redeemed,
and they form a ‘great multitude’, which no one could count and which is made up
of people of the most varied backgrounds. The blood of the Lamb, who has been
offered in sacrifice for all, has exercised its universal and most effective redemp-
tive power in every corner of the earth, extending grace and salvation to that ‘great
multitude’. After undergoing the trials and being purified in the blood of Christ, they
— the redeemed — are now safe in the Kingdom of God, whom they praise and
bless for ever and ever” (”Homily”, 1 November 1981). This great crowd includes
all the saved and not just the martyrs, for it says that they washed their robes in
the blood of the Lamb, not in their own blood.
Everyone has to become associated with Christ’s passion through suffering, as
St Augustine explains, not without a certain humor: “Many are martyrs in their
beds. The Christian is lying on his couch, tormented by pain. He prays and his
prayers are not heard, or perhaps they are heard but he is being put to the test...
so that he may be received as a son. He becomes a martyr through illness and
is crowned by him who hung upon the Cross” (”Sermon” 286, 8).
“It is consoling and encouraging to know that those who attain heaven constitute
a huge multitude. The passages of Matthew 7:14 and Luke 13:24 which seem to
imply that very few will be saved should be interpreted in the light of this vision,
which shows that the infinite value of Christ’s blood makes God’s will be done:
“(God) desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”
(1 Tim 2:4).
In vv 14-17 we see the blessed in two different situations — first, before the resur-
rection of the body (v. 14) and, then, after it, when body and soul have been reu-
nited (vv. 15-17). In this second situation the nature of risen bodies is highligh-
ted: they cannot suffer pain or inconvenience of any kind: they are out of harm’s
reach; they have the gift of “impassibility” (cf. “St Pius V Catechism”, I, 12, 13).
This consoling scene is included in the vision to encourage believers to imitate
those Christians who were like us and now find themselves in heaven because
they have come through victorious. The Church invites us to pray along similar
lines: “Father, you sanctified the Church of Rome with the blood of its first mar-
tyrs. May we find strength from their courage and rejoice in their triumph” (”Ro-
man Missal”, Feast of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome, opening pra-
yer).
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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: 1 John 3:1-3
We are Children of God
A Child of God Does Not Sin
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Commentary:
1-24. This entire chapter shows how moved the Apostle is when he contemplates
the marvelous gift of divine filiation. The Holy Spirit, who is the author of all Sa-
cred Scripture, has desired John to pass on to us this unique revelation: we are
children of God (v. 1).
It is not easy to divide the chapter into sections, because the style is very cyclic
and colloquial and includes many repetitions and further thoughts which make for
great vividness and freshness. However, we can distinguish an opening proclama-
tion of the central message (vv. 1-2) and emphasis on two requirements of divine
filiation — rejection of sin in any shape or form (vv. 3-10), and brotherly love lived
to the full (vv. 11-24).
1. “We should be called children of God”: the original Hebrew expression, which
reads “we are called...”, is also used by our Lord in the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:9):
“to be called” means the same as “to be called by God”; and in the language of
the Bible, when God gives someone a name he is not simply conferring a title but
is causing the thing that the name indicates (cf., e.g., Gen 17:5), for the word of
God is efficacious, it does what it says it will do. Hence St John’s adding: “and
so we are”.
Therefore, it is not just a matter of a metaphorical title, or a legal fiction, or adop-
tion human-style: divine filiation is an essential feature of a Christian’s life, a mar-
velous fact whereby God gratuitously gives men a strictly supernatural dignity, an
intimacy with God whereby they are “domestici Dei”, “members of the household
of God” (Eph 2:19). This explains the tone of amazement and joy with which St
John passes on this revelation.
This sense of divine filiation is one of the central points in the spirituality of Opus
Dei. Its founder wrote: “We do not exist in order to pursue just any happiness.
We have been called to penetrate the intimacy of God’s own life, to know and
love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and to love also — in
that same love of the one God in three divine Persons — the angels and all men.
“This is the great boldness of the Christian faith — to proclaim the value and dig-
nity of human nature and to affirm that we have been created to obtain the digni-
ty of children of God, through the grace that raises us up to a supernatural level.
An incredible boldness it would be, were it not founded on the promise of salva-
tion given us by God the Father, confirmed by the blood of Christ, and reaffirmed
and made possible by the constant action of the Holy Spirit” (”Christ Is Passing
By”, 133).
“The world does not know us, (because) it did not know him”: these words are
reminiscent of our Lord’s at the Last Supper: “the hour is coming when whoever
kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because
they have not known the Father, nor me” (Jn 16:2-3). Divine filiation brings with
it communion and a mysterious identification between Christ and the Christian.
2. The indescribable gift of divine filiation, which the world does not know (v. 1),
is not fully experienced by Christians, because the seeds of divine life which it
contains will only reach their full growth in eternal life, when we see him “as he
is”, “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12); “this is eternal life, that they know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (Jn 17:3). In that direct sight
of God as he is, and of all things in God, the life of grace and divine filiation
achieve their full growth. Man is not naturally able to see God face to face; he
needs to be enlightened by a special light, which is given the technical theologi-
cal name of “lumen gloriae”, light of glory. This does not allow him to “take in”
all God (no created thing could do that), but it does allow him to look at God di-
rectly.
Commenting on this verse, the “St Pius V Catechism” explains that “beatitude
consists of two things — that we shall behold God such as he is in his own na-
ture and substance; and that we ourselves shall become, as it were, gods. For
those who enjoy God while they retain their own nature, assume a certain admi-
rable and almost divine form, so as to seem gods rather than men” (I, 13, 7).
“When he appears”: two interpretations are possible, given that in Greek the verb
has no subject: “when (what we shall be) is revealed we shall be as he is”; or, as
the New Vulgate translates it, “when he (Christ) is revealed we will be like him
(Christ)”. The second interpretation is the more likely.
3. “Purifies himself’: Christian hope, which is grounded on Christ, is something
active and it moves the Christian to “purify himself”. This verb is evocative of the
ritual purifications required of priests in the Old Testament prior to engaging in
divine service (cf. Ex 19:10; Num 8:21; Acts 21:24); here, and in other places
in the New Testament, it means interior purification from sins, that is, righteous-
ness, holiness (1 Pet 1:22; Jas 4:8). Our model is Jesus Christ, “as he is pure”;
he is the One who has never had sin, the Righteous One (1 Jn 2: 29; 3:7); a
Christian has no other model of holiness, as Jesus himself said: “Learn from me”
(Mt 11:29; cf. Jn 14:6). “We have to learn from him, from Jesus, who is our only
model. If you want to go forward without stumbling or wandering off the path, then
all you have to do is walk the road he walked, placing your feet in his footprints
and entering into his humble and patient Heart, there to drink from the wellsprings
of his commandments and of his love. In a word, you must identify yourself with
Jesus Christ and try to become really and truly another Christ among your fellow
men” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 128).
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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.