All Things New
“I, John, saw a new Heaven and a new Earth.” Revelation 21:1
We are introduced to the book of Revelation’s great concluding vision in our second reading. The completion of God’s project of salvation is described as a new Jerusalem coming from heaven, to form a new heaven and new earth. The image of a marriage articulates this a vision, in which the two sides of God’s good creation, earth and heaven, are joined in a final union. Earth (the physical universe) will not be destroyed, but instead be fully renewed.
This vision rejects any notion that the physical and the spiritual are ultimately separate and opposed to each other. It rejects the idea that heaven is an escape from a prison of earthly life. Like a marriage partnership, these two sides of reality are fundamentally made for each other. Life in heaven and life on earth are quite different now. But the life of faith, here and now, offers a foretaste of God’s promised future.
The new heaven and new earth described by Revelation is where God will dwell fully among God’s beloved creation. God’s reign will be a reign of love, where death will be no more. In Revelation, death fuels fear and resentment, which turn to cycles of violence and destruction, and to social systems that sustain injustice. These cycles of death will one day be broken by love. In Gad’s reign of love, new energies of creativity and human fulfillment can be released.
When God says “behold, | make all things new,” God is speaking of both the present and the future. God is working now, in every person and community, in every part of creation, to bring about this new reality. We the Church must learn to see God working in our lives, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods, breaking cycles of death. We are summoned to join in what God is doing, releasing new energies of love, anticipating the final fulfillment of God’s work.
Readings for the Week
Monday: Acts 14:5-18; Ps 115:1-4, 15-16; Jn 14:21-26
Tuesday: Acts 14:19-28; Ps 145:10-13ab, 21; Jn 14:27-31a
Wednesday: Acts 15:1-6; Ps 122:1-5; Jn 15:1-8
Thursday: Acts 15:7-21; Ps 96:1-3, 10; Jn 15:9-11
Friday: Acts 15:22-31; Ps 57:8-10, 12; Jn 15:12-17
Saturday: Acts 16:1-10; Ps 100:1b-3, 5; Jn 15:18-21
Sunday: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Ps 67:2-3, 5-6, 8; Rv 21:10-14, 22-23; Jn 14:23-29
Saints & Special Observances
Sunday: Fifth Sunday of Easter
Wednesday: St. John I
Friday: St. Bernardine of Siena
Saturday: St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions; Armed Forces Day