Memorial of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
As we conclude liturgical year “C,” the last week has featured the Book of Revelation. No book of the Bible is more misunderstood or more widely misused.
The highest grossing book, besides the Bible, of the 1970s and into the 1980s was Hal Lindsy’s The Late Great Planet Earth. Millions were convinced that Russia and China were going to gang up on Israel at Armageddon and it was all predicted by John of Patmos, right there in Revelation—as if Saint John was obsessed with our time.
The Left Behind series was wildly popular in the 90s, wherein the “rapture” (never mentioned in Revelation and an obscure passage only found in II Thessalonians) took front and center. Some parents of students I taught at St. X worried incessantly that the rapture was upon us. Some double checked after dropping their sons off at school, looking back to make sure he hadn’t been “taken up.” All in all, not a bad idea. There were a few students I would have liked to have been “taken up.”
Every generation has believed themselves the most important and every generation has believed themselves the last. Hubris rules.
“Apocalypse” does not mean “run for the hills…Jesus is coming and he’s taking names!” Rather, “apocalypse” translates to “what was hidden is revealed.” All apocalyptic writing illustrates the struggle between good and evil in every time and in every place.
As the Nazis were swarming over Belgium, a community of nuns fled their motherhouse and hid in the subbasement of a barn on their property. They had enough food and water stored to survive for months. But what really sustained them was the Book of Revelation which the sisters communally read aloud everyday. Revelation’s author, St. John of Patmos, would smile broadly because apocalyptic writing has as its purpose granting hope to the suffering righteous.
Be wary of those who are proponents of fear. Pope Saint John XXIII’s response to such doomsayers was, “I’m afraid we must disagree with the prophets of doom. It is only dawn.”
-Timothy J. Cronin