2023/05/08

90. In the Spirit, Part 1

In the last issue, I wrote that the Church remains amidst chapters 17 and 18 of the Book of Revelation. Therefore, I would like to discuss this theme with the keyword "in the Spirit," which has drawn my attention. This state, "in the Spirit," which appears four times in Revelation, happens in the "spot" where the author prophesies what he has seen and heard. The numbers in brackets indicate the chapter and verse of Revelation. 

The first spot is on an island called Patmos, where the author prophesies the scroll to the seven churches (1:11-3:24). The second spot is in heaven with an open door, where he prophesies about the following several prophecies. (1) the appearance of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the New Testament (4:1-11:19); (2) the appearance of the "divine knowledge" of the priesthood and the Eucharist and the "human knowledge" that tries to block its memory and the battle between them (12:1-13:18); (3) the appearance of the companions of the Lamb, or the Church (14:1-5); (4) the battle in which Babylon the Great is led to its fall, torn into three parts, by the spread of the Gospel (14:6-16:21). The third spot is in the wilderness, to see and prophesy the judgement against the great harlot, sitting on the waters, accompanied by an angel (17:1-18:24). Fourth spot is on the high mountain, again accompanied by an angel, to see and prophesy about the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, namely the New Testament (21:9-27). 

Chapters 17-18, which we are discussing, are in the third spot. The "great harlot who is seated upon many waters" (17:1), which the angel said he would show, was a woman seated on a scarlet beast when the author saw her in the Spirit. Characteristically, it reads, "on her forehead was written a name of mystery: 'Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth's abominations'" (17:5), and the name of "Babylon the great" (14:8), written in the second spot as "fallen," is inherited to this spot. 

The author writes: "And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her I marveled greatly" (17:6). The expression, "the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus," hints at the city of Jerusalem. And a description relating to King David, who established Jerusalem as the capital, is suggestively placed in Revelation (3:7, 5:5, 22:16). Jesus here refers to himself as "the root and the offspring of David" because he has achieved what Solomon, David's son, failed to realise, that of calling God his Father. 

On the other hand, the people of the Old Covenant, who had failed to form a parent-child bond with God, likened God to a bridegroom and the people to a bride, imagining the marriage bond as a bond with God. The Church, while calling God its heavenly Father, inherited this image. And, skilfully using a sophisticated vocabulary and logic, the Church has let it bloated to the extent of significantly influencing theology as nuptial mysticism. The woman marked on her forehead with the name of mystery, "Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth's abominations," was the Church. So, the author was astonished to find that the Church had become something quite different from the image of "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (12:1). The prophecies in Chapter 18 that follow are reminiscent of the Age of Exploration, which took place between the 15th and 17th centuries. The Church is forced to make a decisive shift and is in dire straits.

Maria K. M.