January 2003 BOOK OF REVELATION      (continued from previous issue) By Carlos Mesters

Continue from ...... The future: the judgement and condemnation of the Beast and the Dragon (14:6-20:15) The Final Feast (21:1-22:5) "I saw a new heaven and a new earth" (21:1) The future that had been announced as the end of the journey arises like a new creation. It comes like a gift from God, as the fruit of the struggle of the persecuted and faithful people. Here, the plan of the new Exodus (cc. 4-11) is made real through freedom, and the plan of the judgement (cc. 12-20) through justice. The traits of the true countenance of God, which we had been searching for along the entire journey, are now shining in their full splendour. The veil is totally lifted. The Face of God may be contemplated in the transformed world. One does not interpret a face, especially the one of a loved person: one looks at it and contemplates it. Commentaries could spoil the beauty of a poem and of love. It is better to contemplate them. Similarly it is better to contemplate the future which God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). The vision of this future nourishes faith, hope and love. It nourishes also our struggle against and resistance to the empire which even today desires to devour the fraternally organised communities. Seven reflections on the future which God offers The future that God offers us is now gestating in history. Its seed is found in the past of the people. An example of this future may already be seen in the struggle of the persecuted people who organise themselves into a fraternal community. John tries to imagine the future from the seed and the example mentioned above, just as if he took seven slides, put them before the lamp of faith and projected them onto the screen of the future. He thus offers us the vision of the final feast which will crown the journey of the people (21:1-22:5). The future which God offers us is a new creation It is a new heaven and a new earth in which the sea, symbol of the power of evil, no longer exists (21:1). In the first creation, God began His work by creating the light (Gen. 1:3). But night still exists and there is still darkness (Gen. 1:5). But in the new creation of the future light is fully victorious. Darkness and dimness no longer exist (21:25; 22:25), everything is light! God Himself shines on His people (22:5). Jesus the Lamb is the Lamp that illumines everything. The ancient world no longer exists. Everything has disappeared (21:1-4). And God proclaims, "Look, I am making the whole of creation new!" (21:5).

. . . to be continued

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