Father Mayer jumps into the heart of Revelation, the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the innumerable diversified multitude worshipping a lamb. Find out what all of this means and how it relates to today's world of ostracism and cutting out of your life those with whom you disagree. Learn about the Catholic response of hope and healing to this downward cultural spiral. This homily was given on May 8, 2022.
Father Mayer jumps into the heart of Revelation, the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the innumerable diversified multitude worshipping a lamb. Find out what all of this means and how it relates to today's world of ostracism and cutting out of your life those with whom you disagree. Learn about the Catholic response of hope and healing to this downward cultural spiral. This homily was given on May 8, 2022.
We are in an Eastertide homily series reflecting on the book of Revelation, and as crazy as this apocalyptic genera sounds to our modern ears, it is Holy Scripture and has much to convey about the Church, about who we are. Last Sunday I shared how the worship described in the book of Revelation reminds one of a Catholic Mass: incense, and priests, and white robes, and candles and gold, that in the Mass heaven and earth join together which is why it is so important to celebrate the Mass with all of your heart, to sing jubilantly, less your love for our Lord grow cold.
Context: Today, the second reading was from Revelation chapter seven describes a great multitude in heaven of every nation, tribe, and tongue, but you cannot fully understand this chapter, unless you put it into context, so I would like to begin by explaining Revelation six, which describes the four horsemen of the apocalypse, four horsemen which are released by our Lord to bring punishment upon the earth.
- Horses & year 70: A man on a white horse with a bow is told to conquer, a man on a red horse with a sword is told to take away peace from the earth. A man on a black horse holding a balance, a scale is told to bring about inflation, and a man on a pale green horse given the power to bring famine and pestilence. What is all of this pointing to? The Book of Revelation was written shortly before the destruction of the temple in the year 70. The temple, for the Jewish people, was their world, in fact the temple was understood by them as a microcosm of the world and that world would come crashing down in the year 70 during the siege of Jerusalem led by the Roman general Titus.
- Curiously, it is recorded by first century Roman historian Flavius Josephus that immediately prior to the siege on Jerusalem, during the setting of the sun, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about in the clouds and it happened just as was predicted by our Lord and recorded in the book of revelation. Peace was taken from earth. There was great civil unrest in Palestine with Romans and Jews and Syrians all opposing each to such extent that some historians thought that Rome itself would collapse. Like often happens in war time, inflation sky rocketed as did famine and pestilence and sedition. The four horsemen were at work. Jerusalem was under attack and the temple was destroyed.
This soon coming prophecy of the four horsemen was a warning to the first readers of revelation , the end of the temple, the end of the world as it was known to the Jewish people. Forty years earlier, our Lord had predicted that this would take place within a generation, and indeed that’s exactly what happened. The four horsemen were unleashed. That is what is described in Revelation chapter six.
The big question of course is why is this? Why were these four horsemen unleashed? Why the destruction of the temple. And again, what does this have to do with today’s reading, the gathering of people of every tribe and nation and people and language, clothed in white, standing before the lamb, serving him in the temple – basically an innumerable gathering of altar servers. What is going on here? How did we move from the four horsemen of the apocalypse to the largest ever gathering of acolytes, to a heavenly worship service, a Mass? Why did God, reign down from the heavenly liturgy this destruction, this war upon Jerusalem?
- The mission: It is because the Jews were not fulfilling their mission to the people which would gather together others to the worship of the one true God from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. You see, the very purpose of God choosing the people of Israel is so that they would be a light to the nations. He wanted to reveal himself through them to all peoples. You can actually see this beginning to happen in Israel under the reign of Solomon, the son of David. The world at the time was fascinated by him and his kingdom and they began to stream to Israel and to the temple from all over the world, seeking wisdom, seeking the belief system of the Israelite people. The temple that Solomon built had a courtyard, the outermost courtyard that was put in place specifically for the gentiles, for the non-Israelite people who wanted to learn about this religion, who wanted to pray.
- Failed Mission: Unfortunately, Solomon began to waver in his faith, he allowed his love of wealth and pleasure, especially as experienced in the many women that he had around him, to dilute his faith in the one true God and this of course effected, not only him, but the entire nation. How can you be a light to the nations if your light is growing dim? The result of Israel’s waywardness was civil war and eventually exile. The problem was the same during Jesus’ day. The court of the gentiles, at the Temple, instead of being used as a place for the non-Jewish people to gather for worship and learning about the one true God, was being used as a market place. This is why he flipped over the tables and causes such a ruckus in this part of the temple. He said, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all people.” And because the purpose of the temple to bring all people to the one true God, was being undermined, he prophesied that it would be destroyed and that is exactly what happened.
So, why where the four horsemen of the apocalypse released? Why was the temple destroyed? It was because the people of the temple had repeatedly turned away from their mission of bringing the world to the one to God, of being a light to the nations. They were not living out their mission of drawing the world to the one true faith.
And yet this mission was still to be accomplished through the new temple, through Christ and his body, the Church. In Christ’s Revelation to his Church, as recorded in the book of Revelation, you get to see the purpose of Christ, the purpose of the Church, the purpose of the new temple. The purpose of the people of God is to be a light to the nations, to bring together all peoples of every nation and tribe and color, in spite of all of the challenges, of all the forces that are working against this cause.
- Catholic vs Separatist: This is why we are called the Catholic Church. Do you know what the word Catholic means? It means including a wide variety, it means inclusive, it means universal, it means, “for everyone”, bringing everyone together into a whole. Today we live in a world that is shaped and molded by what have become known as culture wars. It is a world that lambasts everyone that you disagree with, a world in which you trumpet your position and shut down your opponents. We have people creating their own worlds so that they do not have to hear from those that disagree because they have been completely shut out. On social media, people tend to friend those with like political and religious views. I was reading the other day that this is not only happening on line, but that people are separating themselves on a geographic scale throughout our nation. Conservatives are moving to conservative friendly counties and states and liberals are moving to liberal states and counties. Our world is becoming ever less diversified and ever more divided and closed to one another. Even worse, people are becoming more privatized. Friendships are down and loneliness and isolation is up.
- Fraternity & Catholicity: Yet, we are Catholic. Pope Francis has repeatedly reminded us that we are people of accompaniment, of walking with and getting to know others. We are people of dialogue and fraternity. Just two years ago he published a document titled, Fratelli tutti. It is a document on fraternity, on friendship in which he held up the example of Sr. Francis of Assisi who was known to have gone out of his way to befriend Muslims, to befriend those who were attacking Christians. He did this during the time of war. This is who we are as Catholics. We are people of encounter and welcome.
- Application: The question then for you and me is, “As a temple of the Holy Spirit, you are a temple according to Scripture, you are connected to the temple, Christ and his Church” what does your court of the gentiles look like? Is it so full of money changers, of people buying and selling, of commerce, that there is no room for the Gentiles?” Are you so busy with your life, with your job, that you do not have time for outsiders, for strangers, for gentiles? And if this is so, how do you change that, who do you create a part of your life that is open to non-believers, to allowing them to discover the true faith.
How are you living out your Catholicity? How are you being inclusive and welcoming? How are you living out your calling to be a city on a hill, a light to the nations? Has your light grown dim? Do you have some cleaning up to do? Perhaps you might consider allowing the Lord to come in and turn over some tables. To clear some space for welcome and hospitality, get the place back in order, to help you get back to your purpose.
The people of God, are those in the white robes, those who gather together before the Lord, those who gather at Mass to worship the Lamb of God, those who gather from every race and tongue and people and nation. We know about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. We realize the seriousness of this warning. We know what happened in the year 70 as predicted by our Lord. We know about what it means to shut out the gentiles from the temple, to shut outsiders out from the one true God, from the one true faith and that is not who we are. We are people of encounter, people of inclusion, of hospitality and welcome. We are Catholic, we are people of every tribe nation and language, worshiping almighty God, together. Amen.