3rd Michaelmas
October 19, 2014
Revelation 12: 1-17
And a momentous image was
unveiled in the world of spirit: a woman, clothed with the radiant power of the
sun, the moon under her feet, her head adorned with the crown of the twelve
stars of heaven. And she is with child and cries out in the labor and pain of
giving birth.
And at the same time a second
image was revealed in the heavens: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads
and ten horns. On its head it has seven crowns and its tail is sweeping a third
of all the stars in heaven and dashing them onto the earth. And the dragon is
standing before the woman about to give birth, so that when she bears the child
he can devour it. And she bore a child, a son “who would shepherd all nations
with a rod of iron.” And the woman’s child was caught up to God and to his
throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place that God
keeps ready there, so that they can take care of her for days numbering one
thousand two hundred sixty.
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| Michael, Durer |
And a war flared up in the spirit world. Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought in the midst of his
own angels, but he was not strong enough, and there was no longer any
place for them in heaven. Down came the dragon, the giant, the serpent, the
evil one called both Satan and the devil, deceiver of all the world. Onto the
earth he came hurtling down, and all his angels with him.
And I heard a great voice in
heaven, saying:
Now can begin the working
which proceeds from our God—
The power to heal the
world,
The power to transform all
being,
The power to draw
everything into godly being.
Arisen is the spirit
leadership of his Christ.
Overthrown is the accuser
of our brothers,
He who accused them night
and day before the countenance of God.
They have overcome him
through the blood and the sacrificial power of the Lamb
And by the divine Word to
which they bore witness.
They did not love their own
lives too dearly, nor did they fear death.
Therefore, rejoice you
heavens
And all who lodge therein!
But woe to the earth and
the sea:
For the Adversary has come
down to you,
And he seethes with
measureless fury,
For he knows that his time
is short.
And when the dragon recognized
that he had been cast onto the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had
borne the son. Then the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that
she could fly into the desert to her appointed place, where she is to be
nourished for a cycle of time, for cycles of time, and for half a cycle of
time, far from the face of the serpent.
And the serpent opened his
mouth and spewed out a river of water after the woman so she would be swept off
her feet by the river. But then the earth came to the woman’s assistance; it
opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon spewed from his
mouth. And the dragon burned with fury against the woman. He stormed away to
make war on the rest of the woman’s seed, people who keep to the divine world
aims and who are united with the destiny and witnessing of Jesus. As I saw this
I was standing on the sandy shore of the sea.
3rd Michaelmas
October 19, 2014
Revelation 12: 1-17
When we undertake to create
something new, something that has never before existed, there is a period of
laboring. And in this creative struggle, we are vulnerable. We can become
anxious about whether we can achieve the new; we can be anxious about whether
our inner and outer resources will suffice; we can experience inner and out
opposition to what we are trying to achieve.
Humankind is struggling to
give birth to a new way of being. The cosmic woman in the gospel reading is
crowned with ideals from the realm of the stars. She is clothed with
sun-radiant loving kindness; she stands upon earthly deeds done in justice, in
accordance with reason and God’s higher purposes. She is the soul of humanity.
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| Glorification of the Virgin, St. Jans |
She is vulnerable. She is
being attacked by the universal many-headed dragon of fear and doubt, of hatred
and greed. For the dragon and his minions have been cast down onto the earth by
the progressive powers that serve the good. Michael and his angels have cleared
the heavens of pollution, so that from there they can send us powers of
healing, powers of transformation, powers of spiritualization. It is these
powers for the good that humanity is trying to gestate. These are the powers of Christ in us.
Yes, we are persecuted by
powers of destruction. But at the same time, we are protected. We have been
given the wings of prayer, the wings of meditation, the wings of the sacraments
and community life. They bring us to the protected place, the place of divine
nourishment. And we can know that the dragon’s persecution is ordained by God
to last only for a short time. This is why the dragon ‘seethes in measureless
fury.’ For his time is short. And his power to destroy everything is thwarted.
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