2024/09/02

159. Vocation of the Apostle Paul

Paul says: "Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24). His experience of having encountered Jesus on the way to Damascus and being baptised with the help of Ananias gave him that realization. To "put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God" means rediscovering within oneself that one is made after the likeness of God and putting on the experience of being a new man in collaboration with the Holy Spirit. Living "in true righteousness and holiness" is also with the Holy Spirit. 

That is why Jesus said, "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me" (John 6:45). As Jesus said, "But the Counselor, 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" (14:26), the "one who has heard and learned from the Father" is the one who learns from "the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name". 

Paul had experienced the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, Paul, who had not known Jesus directly like the other Apostles and did not have "all that I have said to you" in his memory, could not draw anything out of himself. The Apostle Paul was under a very different divine election from those whom Jesus had chosen to be his Apostles to share in his three years of public life, to encounter his Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension, and to experience the descent of the Holy Spirit. 

In these circumstances, he commanded Timothy, who had been familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures from his childhood, to "attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching" (1 Timothy 4:13) and taught him: "[The sacred writings] are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:15-16). The very wisdom that leads to "salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" is what Paul believed he possessed. 

God chose him and led him in such a way that everything about him was for his good. Among "everything" he wrote about when he said, "Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8), were his belief in the resurrection as a Pharisee, his Roman citizenship as a native of Tarsus, and his profession as a tentmaker. Paul put to use all these as blessings from God a lot. Hence, he could say, "[O]ne thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (3:13-14). Thus, the end of the fourth century, with the establishment of the New Testament canon and Christianity's becoming the state religion of the Roman Empire, was an extension of Paul's "I press on towards my goal". 

Having already foretold the fall of the Jerusalem temple, Jesus was preparing the "New Jerusalem" for future Christians. It was Paul's vocation to pave that way towards Rome. Hence, Jesus stood by Paul in the barracks of the tribune and commanded him: "Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome" (Acts 23:11). The Lord keeps the door open for Paul (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:8-9; 2 Corinthians 2:12; Colossians 4:3). 

In the letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, the following verse is found: "I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name" (Revelation 3:8). Accordingly, his reward is as follows: "He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name" (Revelation 3:12). 

Maria K. M.

 2024/08/26

158. The Kingdom of God

The Apostle Paul taught the Gentiles by saying, "Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24), so that they might become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Jesus Christ through the gospel. He told them, "[A]ddressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart" (Ephesians 5:19), and encouraged them to do so to support that life. This appeal is also found in the letters to the Corinthians and Colossians (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:26; Colossians 3:16). This way of instilling in the Gentiles the mentality of the Old Covenant people still waiting for the Saviour to come was effective in imprinting the words of the prophecy in their memory and in making them believe that Jesus Christ was the prophesied Messiah. Paul, who himself had made it a habit and was convinced that he had been called by Jesus, did not hesitate to do so. 

On the other hand, Jesus came down from heaven not only to fulfil the prophecies of the Old Covenant but also to do the will of the Father (cf. John 6:38). That was to settle the events that took place in the Garden of Eden long before the prophets appeared. God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Genesis 3:22), and then He "drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life" (3:24). Since then, God had been waiting for a time of eternity. As Jesus said, "For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40), that was not about resurrecting people from the dead. 

Jesus had a plan for that. That was to fulfil his own words when he said, "[H]e who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (6:54). These words were fulfilled at Jesus' last supper as follows: "Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.' And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'" (Matthew 26:26-28). At that time, Jesus foretold, "I will never drink anything made from the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes" (Luke 22:18). This announcement was fulfilled when Jesus received the sour wine on the cross (cf. John 19:28-30). So, the Kingdom of God has already come. 

The precondition for the Kingdom of God that Jesus had proclaimed to become visible to the world was satisfied at the end of the fourth century, with the establishment of the New Testament and Christianity becoming the state religion of the Roman Empire. However, the Church has kept Paul's exhortation "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart" and has developed it as the framework of the Mass liturgy. The witnesses of Jesus' resurrection, those who had been with him, had received his direct teaching and had a worldview of Jesus Christ, died long ago, and there was no way of knowing their tacit knowledge. At that time, they did not think of the Book of Revelation, built into the New Testament that was then established. 

The habit of repeatedly imprinting the sentiments of the Old Testament people waiting for the Saviour into the memory of Christians unconsciously implants in their memory the feeling that Christ's salvation is also a future event. It infects them with Paul's intense longing: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12). It decisively contradicts the thought of Jesus, who, at instituting the Eucharist, sowed the seed of making his own time present for the future liturgy of the Mass by his words, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). 

Maria K. M.

 2024/08/19

157. The Time is Near

The Apostle Paul told the Ephesian believers: "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father" (Ephesians 5:18-20). He thought that by making it a habit for them, as Gentiles, to speak to each other through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and to sing sincere praise to the Lord, they would not become foolish and, like him, learn the testimony about Jesus Christ from the Hebrew Scriptures and thank God, the Father. The Psalms, said to be David's work, contain a prophecy of the Saviour, and David, who was told by God about his son Solomon, "I will be his father, and he shall be my son" (2 Samuel 7:14), must have had the idea of God becoming the father of men. 

As Paul recalls that he was "a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee, ... as to righteousness under the law blameless" (Philippians 3:5-6), the righteousness of the law based on the Hebrew Scriptures was deeply rooted in his memory. At the bottom of his memory must have lay knowledge that could not be easily verbalised, based on experience, sense and intuition gained in keeping the righteousness of the law. His "righteousness under the law" was changed and oriented to its perfection when he was called by Jesus, who had said, "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them" (Matthew 5:17). That righteousness became his guide in approaching Jesus so that he could gain Christ and be found in him. Then, he went so far as to say: "not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Philippians 3:9). 

On the other hand, as a Pharisee who believed in the resurrection, Paul's desire to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to somehow attain the resurrection from the dead must have been ultimate. But he honestly said, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own" (Philippians 3:12). Continuing, he encouraged himself and gave the community advice then wrote: "But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (3:20). In these words, we can see a Paul who is no different from the man he was before he encountered Christ. 

These words of Paul, which look to salvation as a future event, tell us that the mentality of the people of the Old Covenant, who were still waiting for the Saviour, was alive in his memory. Paul's memory, deep within him, was keeping the memory of the people of the Old Covenant waiting for the Saviour. It was that memory that gave the Ephesians the exhortation, "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart". The habit of speaking to each other through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and singing sincere praise to the Lord was something that Paul, a Hebrew, himself had practised. 

Paul's encounter with Jesus enabled him to say, "giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father". But the habit of speaking to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing hearty praise to the Lord worked continually in his inmost being, making him a keeper of what was written therein, a keeper of the memory of the people of the Old Covenant, who were waiting for the Saviour. 

Through Jesus Christ, the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures were fulfilled. However, as Paul himself tells us in his letter to the Corinthians, some of the witnesses of Jesus' resurrection had already died (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:6). They had been with Jesus, had been directly taught and had the worldview of Jesus Christ. In preparation for the time when these witnesses would soon cease, the Holy Spirit added the Book of Revelation to the New Testament and wrote in it as follows: "Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein; for the time is near" (Revelation 1:3). 

Maria K. M.

 2024/08/12

156. Priesthood Leading to the Last Table of Jesus.

The genuine image of the priesthood, hidden in the wilderness, was that of a "servant". The priesthood makes those who assume this office not servants like servants of the world but friends of Jesus Christ, leading all men to his last table. The Lord said, "Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:19). So, we can roughly summarise the characteristics of the "servants" who receive the rewards given to "He who conquers" in each of the letters to the angels of the seven churches that we examined in the previous issue, as follows. 

They test those who call themselves apostles but are not and find them false. They endure patiently, bear up for Jesus' name's sake, and have not grown weary. They remember from what they have fallen, repent and do the works they did at first. They do not fear what they are about to suffer. They awake, leaving the works of those who have the name of being alive and are dead, strengthen the rest who are dying, remember what they received and heard, and keep them and repent. They hold what they have fast so that no one may seize their crown. They come out of the state of lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, and buy from Jesus Christ gold refined by fire, that they may be rich, and white garments to clothe them and to keep the shame of their nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint their eyes, that they may see (cf. 2:1-3:22). 

Establishing the New Testament was indispensable for understanding and carrying out what is said above. That is because the priesthood of Jesus and the formation of those who have taken it entirely differ from that of the priesthood of the Old Covenant. Jesus said, "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old garment; if he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old" (Luke 5:36), and said, "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins" (5:37-38), warning of the danger of mingling old and new Covenant teachings. He continued, "And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, 'The old is good.'" (5:39), foretelling that if the Old Covenant teachings are continually input into those who are under the New Covenant, they will prefer the Old Covenant teachings. 

If believers read and listen to the books of the Old Covenant, constantly injecting the teachings of the Old Covenant into their memory and retaining them, the teachings of the Old and New Covenants will be placed mixed in their memory. There will be a danger of a preference dependence when we, even unconsciously, begin to sympathise with the laments and appeals to God of the people of the Old Covenant times who were waiting for the coming of the Saviour and, in time, begin to taste them superimposed on the situation in which we find ourselves. That is because we often try to draw comfort from the vision of Jesus of the Second Coming, even though we do not know when he will come, forgetting the Holy Spirit, who is always with us and working among us. 

As Jesus himself said, "You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me" (John 5:39), and, "These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44), now that Jesus had come into the world, and that God's definitive plan of salvation through Jesus Christ has been made clear by the establishment of the New Testament, we should handle the earlier teachings as an essential object of historical study for understanding it. 

When we sit around Jesus' last table, made present by his words commanding us, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19), the preference dependence on the Old Covenant makes us obsessed with our unworthiness to receive the Lord, rather than makes us concentrate on Christ present in the Eucharist as God with us. So, many believers around the world, even when they see the Eucharist before their eyes, fail to realise that the desire to confess that he is God with us and our Saviour lurks deep within them. Even though that desire is a divine blessedness that the Father in heaven had already revealed to Peter the Apostle and Jesus to Martha and had been given to the believers. 

Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus rose from supper and washed the feet of the Apostles. That must have been to wash away the memory of all previous covenants before entering the new Covenant with them. To Peter, who said, "You shall never wash my feet," Jesus answered, "If I do not wash you, you have no part in me" (John 13:8). 

Maria K. M.

 2024/08/05

155. Priesthood and the Angels of the Church

In the previous article, we discussed the phrase, "Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, 'Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.'" (Revelation 21:9), and concluded that the "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb" was the cross of the Lord, i.e., the priesthood, the office borne by the priests who perform the words of Jesus in memory of him. In this issue, we will discuss angels appearing in Revelation like that angel and the priesthood. 

At the beginning of Revelation, the author heard a loud voice like a trumpet, saying, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Per'gamum and to Thyati'ra and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to La-odice'a" (1:11). He then was ordered to write a letter to each of these churches, with the instruction: "To the angel of the church in XX write:". In some of these letters, the singular 'you' and the plural 'you' are written separately, evoking the image of a church community with a priest and a congregation (Smyrna, Per'gamum, Thyati'ra). The letters also depict the recipients of the letters confronting various issues for the sake of the church community to which they have been entrusted, despite their own shortcomings and weaknesses. So, the "angel " refers to the priest. However, why is the priest called an "angel?" 

Elsewhere in Revelation, an angel describes himself as follows: "I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus" (19:10). The expression "hold the testimony of Jesus" is found only in two places in Revelation, in this passage and the sentence "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus" (12:17). And in this "dragon" scene, Revelation says: "[T]he woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days" (12:6). Therefore, we have considered that the "woman" i.e., the priesthood was hidden in the memory of the Apostles, the "wilderness." 

The Gospels depict Jesus talking about the "servant" to the Apostles, infusing this Word into their memory (cf. Matthew 20:26-28; Mark 9:35; 10:43-45; Luke 22:26). In the memory of the Apostles was placed the word "servant", which the angel said about himself. This Word is Jesus himself. At the last table, Jesus commanded the Apostles, "Become ... as one who serves" (Luke 22:26), and said, "For which is the greater, one who sits at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27). For this reason, the priests, the recipients of the seven letters, are also called an "angel" as a "servant." From this fact, we can see that the "servant" was the genuine image of the priesthood that had been hidden in the Apostles' memory. 

So, returning to the seven letters of Revelation and reviewing the contents of each letter with the word "servant" in mind, we can see answers to the various problems described therein. Furthermore, the descriptions of the rewards given to "He who conquers" at the end of each letter reveal a new picture of the "servant" and end up with the last table of Jesus (see notes). The priesthood is the servant with the brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus, just as the angels are. The priesthood leads all to the last table of Jesus. We know these things because we already have the New Testament. After the letters to the seven churches, Revelation proceeds to the third prophecy of the Prophetic Composition of the Book of Revelation (see diagram below), the Prophecy of the Establishment of the New Testament (chapters 4-11). 

Notes: Rewards received by "He who conquers"

1. "To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7/Ephesians).

2. "He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death" (2:11/Smyrna).

3. "To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it" (2:17/Bergamon).

4. "He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father; and I will give him the morning star" (2:26-28/Tyatira).

5. "He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels" (3:5/Sardis).

6. "He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name" (3:12/Philadelphia).

7. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne" (3:20-21/Laodicea).

 Maria K. M.

 2024/07/29

154. The Priesthood and the Cross

The first paragraph (Revelation 21:1-8) of the Prophecy of the Spirituality of the Holy Spirit (chapters 21-22), the seventh prophecy in the Prophetic Structure of the Book of Revelation (see diagram below), has the same structure as the last paragraph (20:11-15) of the Prophecy of the Completion of the Liturgy of the Mass (chapters 19-20), in which the Eucharist hidden in heaven in the fourth prophecy appears, as discussed in the previous issue. From this fact, we saw that the first paragraph of the Prophecy of the Spirituality of the Holy Spirit reveals the mystery of the Eucharist. 

The following second paragraph of the Prophecy of the Spirituality of the Holy Spirit (chapters 21-22) begins with the phrase: "Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, 'Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.'" (Revelation 21:9). Here, "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb" represents the cross on which Jesus' body was nailed and which supported it (cf. blog № 149). This cross signifies the priesthood, the office that the priest himself bears, who performs the words of Jesus in memory of him. So, when Jesus chose the Apostles and sent them out, he told them, "[H]e who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:38). 

When the priest, who asked the Father for the bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of Jesus in Jesus’ name, takes the bread and lifts it above the altar that he surrounds with the congregation, his body becomes the cross to which Jesus' body was nailed and which supported his body. The Gospel reads, "But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Mag'dalene" (John 19:25). Jesus looked at them from the cross and spoke to them (cf. John 19:26-27). Hence, the priest shows the consecrated host towards the congregation gathering around the altar together. 

All these events accomplished by Jesus were inscribed in the memory of the Apostles, who had stated, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you" (Matthew 26:35) at Jesus' last table but failed to fulfil the words. At the same time, Jesus' prayer that the Father's name would continue to protect the Apostles was there (cf. John 17:11-19). 

Jesus told the Apostles, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:13-14) and continued, "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15). He then prayed to the Father, "And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth" (John 17:19). 

The "truth" is Jesus himself (cf. John 14:6). It was on the cross that Jesus, the Truth, consecrated himself. Hence, when the priest lifts the Eucharist, which became the body of Christ in response to his prayer, above the altar that he sourounds with the congregation, the very body of the priest who supports the Eucharist becomes the cross that supports the body of Jesus and becomes the one consecrated together, being nailed to Jesus. Thus, Jesus' prayer that "they also may be consecrated in truth" is fulfilled. 

The friends Jesus said he would "lay down his life for his friends" refer to the Apostles, who were to assume the priesthood. It was Jesus' determination not to lose any of the Apostles (cf. John 18:9), to whom he said, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you" (John 15:16). 

Maria K. M.

 2024/07/22

153. The Mystery of the Eucharist Appearing in the Book of Revelation

Previously, we reviewed our discussion of the Eucharist and the priesthood hidden in heaven and the wilderness in the fourth prophecy of the Prophetic Composition of the Book of Revelation (see diagram below), the Prophecy of the Fate of the Church with the Priesthood and the Sacrament of the Eucharist Hidden in the Wilderness and Heaven (chapters 12-16). Based on this reflection, we will go on our current discussion. 

The Eucharist, hidden in heaven in the fourth prophecy, appears in the last paragraph of the sixth prophecy, the Prophecy of the Completion of the Liturgy of the Mass (chapters 19-20). In this paragraph that begins with the phrase, "Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them" (Revelation 20:11), the "great white throne and him who sat upon" evokes the image of the Eucharist, and it describes the salvation of the evil spirits by the Eucharist (cf. 20:12-15). Then, the paragraph ends with the phrase: "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if any one's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (20:14-15). This structure, with the bolded passages as the decisive clues, shows that also the opening paragraph of the seventh prophecy, the Prophecy of the Spirituality of the Holy Spirit (chapters 21-22), continuously describes the Eucharist (cf. 21:1-8). 

The opening paragraph of the Prophecy of the Spirituality of the Holy Spirit begins with the statement: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more" (21:1). It is followed by the phrase "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (21:2), which indicates that this paragraph is related to the sixth prophecy, the Prophecy of the Completion of the Liturgy of the Mass (chapters 19-20). That is because "a bride adorned for her husband" represents the table of Jesus' last supper, i.e. the altar (cf. blog № 149). Hence, both the "loud voice from the throne" (21:3) and the voice of "he who sat upon the throne" (21:5) that the author heard in this paragraph are from the Eucharist. Here, the story tells how the Eucharist, the mystery of the second incarnation, so to speak, by the Holy Spirit, continues and preserves all that Jesus Christ has accomplished (cf. 21:3-7). The paragraph ends with, "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, ... their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death" (21:8).

Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human, cast out the demons but did not save them while he was alive in this world in a human body. Instead, he did save them by dying and descending into hell (cf. blog № 147). The Eucharist still saves demons similarly, i.e. by being eaten by believers and dying (cf. 20:12-15). Furthermore, the Eucharist makes us realise that God is with us, just as Jesus was with the people, and that the Kingdom of God is there (cf. 21:3-4). 

The Holy Spirit, who makes us realise all that Jesus Christ has achieved, fulfils in the believers who receive the Eucharist the words of Jesus, who said, "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (John 14:20) and makes them experience concretely, as it were, the mystery of the third incarnation. By doing so, the Holy Spirit leads them into the spirituality of the Holy Spirit, which can reproduce in them the state of the mystery of the third incarnation (cf. Revelation 21:5-6). In the spirituality of the Holy Spirit, the Christian who calls God his heavenly Father becomes at the same time a child of Jesus, who is God (cf. 21:7). In this way, the Christians, when united with the Holy Spirit sent in the name of Jesus and collaborating with him, will bring the image of Jesus Christ into the world. 

So, the warning at the end of this paragraph, which reads as follows, is here addressed to us Christians, as the words "the faithless" indicate: "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death" (21:8). 

Even Christians who have received the Holy Spirit, like the Apostles, who were told by the ascending Jesus, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (Acts 1:8), will not escape the second death if they do not believe in the power that they have received but become cowardly and faithless and commit one unrighteous act after another. 

Thus, the first paragraph of the Prophecy of the Spirituality of the Holy Spirit (chapters 21-22), together with the last paragraph of the Prophecy of the Completion of the Liturgy of the Mass (chapters 19-20), reveals the mystery of the Eucharist hidden in heaven in the fourth prophecy. As for the mystery of the priesthood, also hidden in the wilderness, we will discuss it in the articles from the next on. 

Maria K. M.