2023/06/12

95. The White Horse

In the worldview of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God is always present as a reality. Therefore, seven "blessedness" accompany the trainee of Revelation so that he can share its prophecies with John, its author. The first "blessedness" (cf. Revelation 1:3) accompanied the trainee of Revelation so that he could recognize the prophetic words about the themes such as seven church issues, the formation of the New Testament, the priesthood, the birth of the Eucharist, and the dragon and serpent, the devil and Satan and their angels, the beasts, the false prophet and the demonic spirits. The second "blessedness" (cf. Revelation 14:13) accompanied the trainee so that he could share the prophecy about the first church community, which had the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father of the Lamb on its forehead. The third "blessedness" (cf. Revelation 16:15) accompanies the trainee so that he can share the prophecy that the Church would then divert from the path of the first church community, commune with the beast and become the great harlot. 

With the above in mind, let us examine the fourth "blessedness" of chapter 19 (Revelation 19:9), which we have discussed several times in this blog, from the perspective of the Book of Revelation. It reads: "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9). Here, it also says: "These are true words of God", and the description that follows testifies, as the previous "blessedness" did, that these words will complement the fourth "blessedness" and accompany the trainee. 

"Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself. He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God" (Revelation 19:11-13). 

The description above elicits the following statement from our memory, which refers to the Gospel of Matthew (cf. blog № 13). "And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer" (Revelation 6:2). The expression, "clad in a robe dipped in blood," is consistent with the words, "put a scarlet robe upon him" (Matthew 27:28), which only the Gospel of Matthew mentioned in the scene of Jesus' Passion, and is also suggestive of the Gospel of Matthew. 

So, looking for passages in Matthew's Gospel that relate to "blessedness," are called "Faithful" and "True", and refer to the one who is "the Lamb", we come to the passage where Peter says of Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). "You" signifies "the Lamb," "the Christ" refers to "Faithful" and "the Son of the living God" to "True." Furthermore, Jesus responded to these words of Peter by calling them "blessed": "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17). That testifies these words of Peter are "true words of God." 

Based on these grounds above, the fourth "blessedness" can be paraphrased as follows. "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Maria K. M.

[Notice] The statement, "the 'city' represents the formation by the Holy Spirit, the 'gates' the Mass" in № 93 was an error for "the 'city' represents the Mass, the 'gates' the formation by the Holy Spirit," which we have already corrected.