5th Sunday in Easter (Rev 21:1-5a)

5th Easter Sunday (year C)

(Rev 21:1-5a)

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

Revelation 21:2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, from God, ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

John contemplates the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy: "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (Is 65:17; 66:22). God had already manifested his will to make a new heaven and a new earth in the context of the return of the Israelites from the Babylonian exile, celebrating a new splendour for Jerusalem like the joy of a bride preparing for her wedding. Revelation takes up the imagery to announce the fulfilment: the dwelling place of sinful humanity must undergo a transformation that will make it fit to be the dwelling place of a renewed and holy humanity. The apocalyptic concept of the re-creation of heaven and earth finds an anthropological application with the Apostle Paul, who speaks of Christians as a "new creation" (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15).

John also says that "the sea was no more", that is, the presence of the negative and evil, synonymous with the demonic, is no more. The sea represents dangers, chaos. Recall the primeval abyss of Gn 1:2 ("darkness covered the abyss") and the waters of the flood of Gn 7:11 ("all the springs of the great deep erupted"). The chaotic and disturbing power from which the satanic beast had emerged (Rev 13:1) disappears. The sea will also separate and keep peoples apart from one another, while future humanity will form one family.

In this new heaven and new earth, even Jerusalem, the city of God, his dwelling place on earth, will be new. The Greek adjective "kainēn" is not meant to indicate a chronological newness, but a qualitative newness: something that never existed before. Jerusalem, descending from the new heaven onto the new earth, adorned like a bride awaiting her bridegroom to celebrate the wedding. John recapitulates the whole unfolding of human history in the manner of a bride leaving her father's house to meet her bridegroom. The image of the bride indicates that the relationship with God is based on love and service, and no longer on laws and rituals.

The bride is not Israel, a people who regarded the Kingdom as a human achievement based on religious merit, but is the new humanity that possesses the Spirit, recreated by Jesus. The new Jerusalem is all the righteous, the saints, the martyrs; it is the glorious society of the resurrected in glory, triumphantly ascending to heaven, descending to celebrate the eternal wedding with the Lamb and take possession of the new creation. The new Jerusalem is the glorious Church in each of her children. Glorious in soul, but also in body, which has been resurrected and created new in everything like the glorious body of Christ. The Bride (nymphēn) is ready for the Bridegroom because the consummation of the wedding takes place in the glory of the resurrection.

For the saints of the Lord, there will no longer be any possibility of falling into disobedience, since they are made one in Christ, and this unity between God and his creatures takes place through the celebration of an eternal marriage, of which the earthly one is only an image. It no longer matters to be a man or a woman, the marriage takes place not on the level of the individual but on the level of the human race. We might ask ourselves what sense it can have in eternity to still be man or woman made not for each other but both for the Lord. The answer is given to us by Jesus himself when he says that in the kingdom of heaven there will be neither those who marry nor those who are married but we will all be like angels. With regard to the angels, however, it must be understood that there is a spiritual diversity whereby they are divided into groups and even hierarchies, of which Scripture gives us some names: principalities, powers, dominions, thrones, etc. Therefore, while there is only one way of relating to Christ, the relationship that follows cannot be uniform and undifferentiated.

The new Jerusalem indicates both the people of God in their fullness of glory and the new environment in which they find themselves. Thus what on earth was the 'holy city', made so by belonging to God and the presence of the temple, now becomes the new Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem is surpassed, the 'new' Jerusalem, in fact, does not have, like the first, an earthly origin: it comes directly from 'heaven'. Whereas Jerusalem was the centre of God's kingdom on earth, the new Jerusalem is the centre of God's new kingdom in the new heavens and new earth. New are the heavens, new is the earth, new is the kingdom, new is the capital city of the kingdom. New is everything that belongs to this kingdom and this creation.

The new Jerusalem, because it descends from heaven, is of divine origin: God is the architect and builder of the city. It is 'holy' because it is consecrated to God. St. Paul also speaks of the Jerusalem up there and calls it our mother, indicating how for the Christian community the new creation has already begun.

The new Jerusalem does not remain in heaven, in transcendence, it is seen as 'descending', and descent indicates a movement towards immanence. But immanence is no longer what it was before; now it is adapted to accommodate the divine. John sees this Jerusalem descending from heaven with an ongoing action ('katabainousan' is a present participle), in other words, the new Jerusalem is not created out of nothing and instantly. Moreover, God's own action is paralleled by an action proper to God's people - the 'bride' of the Lamb - who throughout the course of history make their wedding garments to prepare for the wedding.

The symbolism of the new Jerusalem is complex. It symbolises the saints, but at the same time it is distinct from the saints: the city is "like" a bride; if it is like a bride, it is not the bride, or at least it is not only the bride. It is both city and bride; city insofar as it represents the dwelling place or glorious state of the saved after the final judgement; bride insofar as it personifies the inhabitants of the heavenly city, objects of an ineffable love and united forever to their Saviour in a spousal relationship.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books

- Revelation - exegetical commentary

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

The Church and Israel according to St Paul - Romans 9-11

(Buyable on Amazon)

184 Last modified on Monday, 12 May 2025 21:29

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Argentino Quintavalle

Argentino Quintavalle è studioso biblico ed esperto in Protestantesimo e Giudaismo. Autore del libro “Apocalisse - commento esegetico” (disponibile su Amazon) e specializzato in catechesi per protestanti che desiderano tornare nella Chiesa Cattolica.

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The Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy refers precisely to this Gospel passage to indicate one of the ways that Christ is present: "He is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has promised "where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them' (Mt 18: 20)" [Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 7]

La Costituzione sulla Sacra Liturgia del Concilio Vaticano II si riferisce proprio a questo passo del Vangelo per indicare uno dei modi della presenza di Cristo: "Quando la Chiesa prega e canta i Salmi, è presente Lui che ha promesso: "Dove sono due o tre riuniti nel mio nome, io sono in mezzo a loro" (Mt 18, 20)" [Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7]

This was well known to the primitive Christian community, which considered itself "alien" here below and called its populated nucleuses in the cities "parishes", which means, precisely, colonies of foreigners [in Greek, pároikoi] (cf. I Pt 2: 11). In this way, the first Christians expressed the most important characteristic of the Church, which is precisely the tension of living in this life in light of Heaven (Pope Benedict)

Era ben consapevole di ciò la primitiva comunità cristiana che si considerava quaggiù "forestiera" e chiamava i suoi nuclei residenti nelle città "parrocchie", che significa appunto colonie di stranieri [in greco pàroikoi] (cfr 1Pt 2, 11). In questo modo i primi cristiani esprimevano la caratteristica più importante della Chiesa, che è appunto la tensione verso il cielo (Papa Benedetto)

A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: “Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed” (Pope John Paul II)

Pochi giorni prima della sua deportazione la religiosa, a chi le offriva di fare qualcosa per salvarle la vita, aveva risposto: "Non lo fate! Perché io dovrei essere esclusa? La giustizia non sta forse nel fatto che io non tragga vantaggio dal mio battesimo? Se non posso condividere la sorte dei miei fratelli e sorelle, la mia vita è in un certo senso distrutta" (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)

By willingly accepting death, Jesus carries the cross of all human beings and becomes a source of salvation for the whole of humanity. St Cyril of Jerusalem commented: “The glory of the Cross led those who were blind through ignorance into light, loosed all who were held fast by sin and brought redemption to the whole world of mankind” (Catechesis Illuminandorum XIII, 1: de Christo crucifixo et sepulto: PG 33, 772 B) [Pope Benedict]

Accettando volontariamente la morte, Gesù porta la croce di tutti gli uomini e diventa fonte di salvezza per tutta l’umanità. San Cirillo di Gerusalemme commenta: «La croce vittoriosa ha illuminato chi era accecato dall’ignoranza, ha liberato chi era prigioniero del peccato, ha portato la redenzione all’intera umanità» (Catechesis Illuminandorum XIII,1: de Christo crucifixo et sepulto: PG 33, 772 B) [Papa Benedetto]

The discovery of the Kingdom of God can happen suddenly like the farmer who, ploughing, finds an unexpected treasure; or after a long search, like the pearl merchant who eventually finds the most precious pearl, so long dreamt of (Pope Francis)

La scoperta del Regno di Dio può avvenire improvvisamente come per il contadino che arando, trova il tesoro insperato; oppure dopo lunga ricerca, come per il mercante di perle, che finalmente trova la perla preziosissima da tempo sognata (Papa Francesco)

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