1st November Trinity
Revelation 1, 1-20
This is the unveiling of the being of Jesus Christ, which proceeds out
of the divine world for those who would serve him. To them shall be revealed
what must of necessity happen in the future and which powerfully presses into
world events. God formed this revelation in imagery and sent it through his
angel to his servant John. And so John speaks as a witness to everything he
saw, that is, to the Divine Word, and to the life of Jesus Christ, which serves
as a testimony. Blessed is he who knows how to read the prophetic words, and
blessed are those who know how to hear them, and all who take what is written
in this book into their souls; for time presses.
John, to the seven congregations in Asia:
Grace and peace to you
From Him who is, and who was, and who is coming
And from the seven creating spirits before his
throne
And from Jesus Christ.
By his witnessing he is the archetype of trust.
He is the first born from the realm of death,
He is the leading spirit of the Kings on earth.
He has turned to us in love, and by the power of
his blood
He has released us from the spell of sin which lay
upon us.
He has established us as true kings and made us
into priests
before the divine Ground of the World, his Father.
To him belongs all light of the spirit and all
power of soul from aeon to aeon. Amen.
See: he comes in the realm of the clouds.
All eyes shall see him, also the eyes of those who
pierced him.
And men down the ages will lament about him. Yes.
Amen.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
Thus speaks the Lord our God
who is, and who was, and who is coming
the divine ruler of the world.
I, John, your brother and your companion in all trials and also in the
inner kingdom and in the power of endurance which we possess through our
one-ness with Jesus: I was on the island of Patmos. There it was granted to me
to receive a share of the divine Word and to bear witness to the sufferings of
Jesus.
On the Lord’s Day I was lifted up to the world of spirit, and I heard
behind me a mighty voice like the sound of a trumpet. It said: write what you
see in a book and send it to the seven congregations: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to
Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia and to Laodicia.
And I turned to see him whose voice was speaking to me. And as I turned
I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, a figure
like that of the Son of Man:
clothed with a long billowing garment,
encircled round his breast with a golden band;
his head and his hair shining white like snow white wool,
his eyes like a flame of fire,
his feet like burnished bronze glowing in a furnace,
his voice like the rushing of many streams of water.
In his hand he held seven stars;
from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword
and his face shone, as the sun shines in its full radiance.
And when I saw him, I fell at this feet and was as if dead. But he laid
his right hand upon me and said:
“Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I
was dead, and look! I am living and I bear the life of the world through all
aeons. Mine is the key to the realm of death and of the shades. Write down what
you see: what is now, and what is to come.
The secret of the seven stars, which you see in my right hand, and of
the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the picture in the
spirit for the angels of the seven congregations, and the seven lampstands are
the seven congregations themselves.”
1st Sunday November Trinity
Revelation 1:1-20
The sun shines like a great globe in the heavens. It
illuminates the sky and the earth, giving objects clear outlines, delineating
light and shadow, shining on everything in an equally objective way. It draws
growth upward. Its light is so intense that we cannot gaze at it directly.
Today’s reading unveils the dead and risen Christ as a being
like the sun:
Head and hair shining white…
Eyes like a flame of fire…
Feet glowing…
Breast encircled with gold…
Face shining like the sun in its
full power.[1]
The intense light of His being reveals all, both light and
shadow, in an entirely objective way. In His light we see ourselves as the
creatures of light and shadow that we are. Yet his gaze also contains another
element. It is the fire, the living force and power of love. He shines on us in
love, coming to our aid, banishing fear, helping us to rise and stand. Bathed
in his light, objective but not judging, we are helped and healed, encouraged
to grow.
Thomas Aquinas says:
Nothing in existence is turned
away.[2]
The delight a child can know,
My Lord confesses He experiences
Whenever He looks at you.
God sees nothing in us
That He has not given.[3]
He is our soul’s sunlight. In Him we rise and grow.
[1]
Rev. 1: 13-16
[2]
Thomas Aquinas, “The Mandate”, in Love Poems from God, by Daniel Ladinsky,
p. 127
[3]
Thomas Aquinas, “ Whenever He Looks at You”, Ibid., p. 132.
