In the second reading this morning we heard part of the final chapter of the Apocalypse. It presents a wonderful contrast with the rest of the book. The earlier parts are so full of violence, terror, death, mayhem, hatred of God and of mankind, persecution of the just who are faithful to God, and visions full of darkness, destructive fire falling to earth, seas of blood, mighty earthquakes, terrifying, deafening noises and cruel voices screaming blasphemies against God, that it is a strange and welcome relief to arrive at this final peaceful, brilliant vision of the new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven, bedecked with all the radiant glory of God, glittering like some precious crystal-clear diamond.
After describing the city’s walls and gates, St John notices two things in particular: First, that there is no temple in this city. This might seem strange until we realise that there is no need of a temple like the one in the earthly Jerusalem of old, the temple which was built by men’s hands. Many years before the time of this vision, the young beloved disciple John had heard these words of our Lord: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up.’ In these words our Lord had identified Himself as the true and living Temple. For it was as a Temple that He would be the place of sacrifice to God the Father, and it was as the victim that He would be offered on the Altar, just as He will be on this altar here in a little while. Just before the consecration we will hear these words in the Preface: ‘by the oblation of His body, He brought the sacrifices of old to completion…and by commending Himself to you for our salvation, [O father, He] showed Himself the Priest, the Altar and the Lamb of Sacrifice.’
This is why in the new, heavenly Jerusalem there is no temple to be seen. It is because Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the only Temp le in heaven; there, too, He is the only priest and the only victim. Yet here on earth He gives us a real sharing in this heavenly sacrifice that He offers to His Father: day by day, through the ministry of anointed priestly hands like mine, Jesus offers His own Body and Blood on the altar that represents Him. He is the victim who is offered as the one perfect sacrifice to take away all sin, uniting us to God and to each other in charity.
Then there is another aspect of this glorious new city that John notices: there is no need of sun or moon for light. And the reason why there is neither sun nor moon is the same as why there is no created, man-made Temple. There is no need for a created light, such as sun or moon, because God’s own radiant glory is itself the light, fully suffusing the city from within. Everything that belongs in that city is shot through with that uncreated light which is eternal joy, love and communion. It is a light that illuminates from within, not, as the sun and moon do, from without.
During this wonderful season of Eastertide, at Mass it is as though we are almost in heaven already. After the rigours of Lenten fast and penance, which resemble the trials and difficulties of this present life, we now celebrate a time of light, peace and joy – which share in the reality of heaven to come. In the Masses of the Easter Season we rejoice in the light of the Paschal Candle here on the Sanctuary, which represents to us the light of our risen Lord and Saviour. It is in this light that we hear our Lord’s teaching in the Gospel. It is in this light that we are brought by the Holy Spirit to a deeper understanding of that teaching. This is what our Lord means when He says in the Gospel today: ‘the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.’ This is why we call the Holy Spirit ‘the Spirit of understanding’, for in the light which He pours into our hearts and minds we are made able to understand, as far as is open to us, the very God who is light itself.
The first forty days of the Easter season will come to an end this Thursday on Ascension Day. During these forty days after His resurrection our Lord was appearing to His Apostles, teaching them in preparation for the great event which follows on from the Ascension. In other words, He was preparing them for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, on the fiftieth day of Eastertide, still a fortnight away. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches all truth, who reminds us of all that Christ taught the disciples in His lifetime, and the same Spirit who fills us with joy at this knowledge.
What out Lord promises His disciples in today’s Gospel passage is nothing less than the indwelling of God in our very selves, so as to make us His temples. Here is what He said: ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.’ This is the heart of the mystery that our Lord tells us, that God chooses to live within those who love Him, not merely to allow them to know Him, as it were, from afar, but to know what it is for Him to take up his dwelling in them. This is an extraordinary promise indeed, and one that far exceeds all expectations that we might ever have had of God towards us. For this is a promise that does not even need to await heaven for the beginning of its fulfilment. Even now, our Lord says, those who love God will come to know what it is to have Him living within them.
This is the truth that requires no sun to enlighten us, just as St John sees is the case in the heavenly City. The Holy Spirit is the light of God in person, and when He comes to us He enables us to do what by nature alone we could never do: to know who God is; to know Him first of all as Father – the source and origin of everything, and not just of all create things, but then also as the source and origin of the Son and Holy Spirit. This year we are celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, at which was drawn up for the shole Church the Creed which we will proclaim in a few moments’ time as we do every Sunday and Holyday. In that Creed we proclaim our faith in three persons who are one undivided God.
What, then, does our Lord mean when He says in today’s Gospel: ‘the Father is greater than I’? Does He mean that the Father alone is really God, and that He, the Son, is a lesser kind of divine being? No. Far from it. Our Lord means that He is ‘God from God, Light from light….’ The Father is greater in the sense that the Father is the origin of the Son. The Son is not the origin of Himself, but is ‘begotten of the Father’. He is begotten, not made, meaning that He is not a creature, but is, as we say in the Creed, ‘consubstantial’ with the Father. Similarly, the Holy Spirit, like the Son, is not self-caused, but ‘proceeds’ from the Father and the Son, as we say in the Creed. This means that He, too, is of one and the same nature as the Father and the Son, and therefore with the Father and the Son He is adored and glorified as one and the same God. Because He is God, the Holy Spirit makes us to understand the true meaning of all that our Lord came to teach us.
As Pentecost draws near, we begin to see what Christ was doing in those forty days after His resurrection. He was preparing His Apostles for the immensity of the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who was about to descend upon them to live in their hearts and minds, and to fill them with knowledge, love, wisdom, fortitude, courage and joy – such that they had never known even when Our Lord walked in their midst. For the Spirit would also make the Lord present within them in a wholly new way. From that day onwards, the Church has always been filled with the Holy Spirit, and even in the midst of this world’s trials, sufferings, disappointments, failures and even spiritual perplexity, there will always be, from that first Pentecost onwards, this light and life dwelling within our hearts, giving us hope and joy, and calling us on towards the eternal heavenly light of the living Temple – God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to Whom be all glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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