This week, our first readings in the daily Masses come from the book of Revelation. The Catholic Church sees this book in the New Testament from a symbolic and historical point of view, rather than to see it as a prediction of things that will happen in the future or a literal step-by-step timeline of the end of the world. In its historical context, this book was written around the year 95 AD to offer hope and encouragement to the Christians of that era who were facing persecution in the practice of their faith.
I want to focus on the four living creatures who are centered around God’s throne in the vision in Revelation today. The first creature resembled a lion, the second an ox, the third had the face like a man, and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight. In some interpretations, these creatures are seen as the summit of God’s creation — the lion being the king of beasts, the ox representing the animals that were sacrificed to God, the eagle being the lord of the air, and the human person, the summit of God’s creation. Writing in the second century, St Irenaeus saw these four creatures as representing the four Gospel writers. Mark represents the lion, as he begins his Gospel with Jesus’ royal proclamation as the Son of David and son of God. Luke represent the ox, because the ox was present at Jesus’ birth, as presented in his nativity narrative. John represent the eagle, because of the advance form of theology that is present in his Gospel. Matthew represents the man with the face of an angel, because of his focus on Jesus as the Son of Man and presence of the angels in his Gospel.
It is interesting for us to reflect on the readings in Scripture not just from our own personal perspective, but from the perspective of the community and the Church, and the historical perceptive as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment