"Your Friends Make Known, O Lord, the Glorious Splendor of Your Kingdom"
Today's Mass Readings
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Today is the Feast of the Apostle Bartholomew, known in the gospels as Nathaniel. In today’s first reading from the Book of Revelation, we find the Church described as the bride of the Lamb, the heavenly Jerusalem, founded upon the twelve apostles and the twelve tribes of Israel. Throughout its pages, the Book of Revelation displays, in the words of today’s responsorial Psalm, the glorious splendor of God’s kingdom. This is in part what today’s reading of the Gospel is about. More importantly, this is what every celebration of the Eucharist is about: the glorious splendor of God’s kingdom. In today’s reading from the Gospel of John, Nathanael encounters Jesus and begins to believe in Him, and follow after Him. He does so after what appears to Nathanael as Jesus’ knowledge of hidden things concerning Nathanael. His response is to call Jesus the Son of God and the king of Israel. Jesus responds by explaining that, “I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Indeed, at every celebration of the Eucharist, the heavens are opened up, and we are present before the angels and the very throne of God in heaven. That is primarily what the Book of Revelation is about. The Book of Revelation, with all of its complex imagery and symbolism, is the unveiling of the heavenly Liturgy. We participate in and anticipate this very same heavenly Liturgy in each celebration of the Sacred Liturgy here on earth. The Book of Revelation reveals the worship of the saints and angels in heaven. The other name for this book is the Apocalypse. An apocalypse is not a disaster at the end of the world. Literally, an apocalypse is an unveiling. The very term apocalypse was used by Greek speaking Jews of Jesus’ day to describe the unveiling of the bride after the wedding feast has been brought to completion. The Book of Revelation is just that, the unveiling of Christ’s bride, the Church, kingdom of God in all its splendor in heaven. It provides us with a glimpse of the heavenly worship we participate in at every Mass.
With this firmly in mind, let us learn to appreciate anew the Sacred Mysteries we celebrate at every Mass. Let us follow Christ whole heartedly, as Nathan did, and as did St. Bartholomew, whose feast is today, who suffered death for the sake of Christ.