Monday – 33rd Week – Ordinary Time [II]
Revelation 1:1-4;2:1-5  +  Luke 18:35-43
November 14, 2016

“When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.” 

Today we begin hearing at weekday Mass from the Book of Revelation.  We will continue to hear from this book through the last day of the Church year.  This is fitting, of course, since Revelation is the last book of the Bible, and treats of the “Last Things”, although in a highly mysterious manner.

The Book of Revelation is literally the book of a revelation:  namely, the “revelation of Jesus Christ”.  In turn, Saint John the Beloved Disciple “gives witness to the word of God”, the same Word of God of whom John wrote in the prologue of his Gospel account.  Given the mysterious manner in which the Book of Revelation is recorded, the link between these two books of the New Testament is important to keep in mind as one reflects on John’s “witness to the word of God”.

A final introductory point:  the evangelist calls this witness a “prophetic message”.  As such, we note a correspondence between the structure of the Old and New Testaments.  In each Testament, there are four types of books.  In both testaments, the fourth type of book is prophetic.  The Old Testament contains 18 books of prophecy, but the New Testament only the Book of Revelation.  All books of prophecy look to the future:  those in the Old Testament to the first coming of God’s Word made Flesh, but the Book of Revelation to His second and third comings.