No More Darkness

The Book of Revelation has been featured during the last two weeks of Ordinary Time as well as the Sundays of the Easter Season this year. It will be at least two more years before we are asked to immerse ourselves in this last book of the Christian Scriptures. Today’s reading features strong images of hope for the future as we continue to hear about the new Jerusalem.

It is somewhat ironic that the last book of the Bible should be the source of an answer to a question that arises in the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures; namely, the book of Genesis. In Genesis, chapter one, we hear the first words God uttered were: “Let there be light!” It wasn’t until the fourth day of creation that God creates the sun and the moon and the stars. How could there be light without the sun? Today’s passage from the Book of Revelation answers that question. “Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.” In other words,  darkness was a product of sin, a reality that St. Paul recognized in his writings when he writes in his Letter to the Romans: “Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” (By coincidence, we will hear this particular verse tomorrow as we begin Advent.) Jesus himself says in the Gospel of John that he is the light of the world. We look forward to the new heaven and the new earth where light will be abundant and darkness will be no more.

The reading ends with an assurance from John that all that we have read in this book is trustworthy and true. We also hear words that fill us with hope as the voice of Jesus proclaims, “Behold, I come very soon.” In this fashion, the church connects the end of our liturgical year with the beginning of another. Advent asks us to look forward to the second coming of Jesus which he promised to his apostles and disciples and us.

The Gospel reading for today also asks us to maintain our readiness for the return of Jesus when he will come with our salvation, with our redemption. He has gone home to the Father to prepare a place for us, and we long to be with him in his kingdom. In this final liturgy of the liturgical year, we express our longing for the day when we shall see him face to face.