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The Lamb’s SupperWeek 11 First Comes Love Part 2

I took this list right out of Scott’s book showing all the elements of the liturgy found in the Book of Revelation, with the corresponding chapter and verse.

Sunday worship a high priest an altar priests (presbyteroi) vestments consecrated celibacy lamp stands, or Menorah penitence incense the book, or scroll the Eucharistic Host chalices the Sign of the Cross (the tau) the Gloria the Alleluia Lift up your hearts the “Holy, Holy, Holy” the Amen the “Lamb of God” the prominence of the Virgin Mary intercession of angels and saints devotion to St. Michael, archangel antiphonal chant readings from Scripture the priesthood of the faithful catholicity, or universality silent contemplation the marriage supper of the Lamb

1:10 1:13 8:3–4; 11:1; 14:18 4:4; 11:15; 14:3; 19:4 1:13; 4:4; 6:11; 7:9; 15:6; 19:13–14 14:4 1:12; 2:5 ch. 2 and 3 5:8; 8:3–5 5:1 2:17 15:7; ch. 16; 21:9 7:3; 14:1; 22:4 15:3–4 19:1, 3, 4, 6 11:12 4:8 19:4; 22:21 5:6 and throughout 12:1–6; 13–17 5:8; 6:9–10; 8:3–4 12:7 4:8–11; 5:9–14; 7:10–12; 18:1–8 ch. 2–3; 5; 8:2–11 1:6; 20:6 7:9 8:1 19:9, 17

But there is one prominent item that needs to be added to this list and we see it mentioned in this verse, Revelation 11:19 (RSV2CE) 19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. The Ark had been missing from the Temple in Jerusalem for generations…but now John is seeing the Ark of the Covenant in his vision.

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It is so important to remember that in the Old Covenant, wherever the Ark of the Covenant was, that place was a holy place. The Tabernacle did not make the Ark holy, it was just the opposite, the Ark of the Covenant made the Tabernacle holy. When the magnificent Temple was built to house the Ark in the Holy of Holies, the same becomes true, the Ark of Covenant made the Temple holy because wherever the Ark was, that place was holy…end of story. That Temple was built in such a way as to center and focus everything toward the very presence of God. The design of the Temple allowed the limits of time and space to come together in the Temple to show earth time giving way to the eternity of heaven, to allow for the worship of heaven to be revealed in the Holy of Holies on this earth. Bishop Barron says that time collapses during the Holy Mass, and the veil between heaven and earth is pulled back.

We need to understand what John understood about the Holy Temple, and what it meant to the Jews of that time. To relate the importance of the Temple back in John’s time to our generation it would be a combination of the importance of the Vatican, Washington D. C., the Capitol and the Supreme Court, Wall Street, and the Central Bank in our generation. The Temple, that one complex, was all of those put together in John’s heart and mind, in his time. As Scott said, you can not over exaggerate the importance of the Temple in Jerusalem at the time John saw this vision. That temple and the one that preceded it, had stood as the center of the worship of the one true God for all the nations, for over 1000 years.

Those early Christians would have profoundly understood what this new heavenly temple in the Book of Revelation was revealing was a new way to worship, not like the Old Covenant imitation of what is going on in heaven. Instead, John’s vision is showing what Jesus had prophesied to the woman at the well, John 4:23 (RSV2CE) 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. No more mere imitation of what is going on in heaven, imitation was giving way to participation allowing the Church on earth to join the Church in heaven, joining

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all of our voices with the saints, and the angels and archangels singing Holy, Holy, Holy. That makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Every time we come to Mass, we need to renew our love for every holy thing provided for us as we gather together to worship and participate in the heavenly liturgy as the veil between heaven and earth is pulled back. Thank God for the

holy water placed for us as we enter our church, realizing that crossing ourselves is a renewal of our baptismal vows. As you kneel at your pew, don’t forget to look at the beautiful tabernacle and the lit candle proclaiming to all who enter, here is the very presence of Our Lord Jesus. Take in the beauty of the building provided for us with all the holy stained-glass windows showing our salvation story. Take in with awe the high ceiling with graceful arches drawing us ever upward as we anticipate heaven coming down to earth as the Mass begins. Gaze at

the magnificent altar as the center of our worship, and the scene of the Last Supper sculpted into the base. Thank God for the beautiful statues of the saints, Our Blessed Mother, and Jesus, reminding us continually of their very real presence with us in the Mass. DON’T JUST CLOCK IN AND CLOCK OUT!!! This is an encounter with the Trinity, God the Father and God the Son, and God the Holy spirit, at a holy time, in a holy place, as the Holy Body of Christ.

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St. Gerome, St. Cyril, and Origen…all early fathers of the Church spoke passionately about the reverence each of us needs to bring to each and every Mass. What happened to our sense of “awe” as we gather to worship Our Father and Our God. Many Catholics

are bored at Mass, and they will gladly tell you so. To many it is same old stuff, nothing new, and nothing exciting. I cringe when I hear that…from my early Catholic days all of my senses engaged when I came into a Mass that is about to begin. My sight, touching holy water, hearing the Rosary and music and the homily, smelling the incense, and tasting the blessed host, are all involved in worship during that Mass. God became one of us, He became human, so He truly knows our need and desire to use every one of those five senses to worship God. God himself looked

through human eyes, touched with human hands, heard with human ears, took in aromas with a real human nose, and tasted with the same millions of human taste buds that you and I have. God did that as He walked this earth.

All five senses were engaged in the worship of the Old Covenant Temple in Jerusalem. We should be thankful for some of things that have changed. They say you could smell the Temple long before you could see it in the distance. The smell was a combination of a slaughter house, and a BBQ. They could see the blood pouring out of the sacrificed animals, they could see and smell the incense rising

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from the golden bowls representing the prayers of the people. If they were there to offer a certain kind of animal sacrifice, they would have joined in the eating of the sacrificed animal along with the priests and their family and friends. All five of their senses were involved and they thanked God with all their hearts, and souls, and all of the five senses of their bodies.

That Old Covenant Temple was a picture, an imitation of the worship the rabbis believed was going on in heaven. The New Covenant was initiated, not to destroy that image, but instead to fulfill it, to make it a reality. In the New Covenant it was no longer of imitation, but instead of participation with the saints and angels in the liturgy celebrated eternally in heaven. No more smell of slaughtered and roasting animals, no more witnessing all that blood pouring out of sacrificed lambs and bulls and goats. Instead, under this New Covenant, this better covenant, we celebrate a bloodless and eternal sacrifice at Mass. Jesus Christ of Nazareth poured out His precious blood, once and for all, on a cruel Roman Cross and that one sacrifice was worth all the animal sacrifices that came before, for all eternity.

What would we as Catholic Americans feel about terrorists blowing up the Vatican including St. Peter’s Basilica, and simultaneously attacking Washington D. C., destroying the Capitol and the Supreme Court, Wall Street, and the Central Bank all in one fatal moment. Needless to say, the impact on Catholics all over the world would be even stronger than a 9/11. That is exactly what happened to the Jews in the year 70 AD when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and raised the Holy Temple to the ground, utterly destroying it. The only thing left standing to this day is the Wailing Wall.

Jesus warned them that this was coming, John 2:18–19 (RSV2CE) 18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” 19

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus had just driven out the money changers and cleansed

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the Temple, and the Jews demanded a sign, some explanation of what Jesus was doing. He told them what would happen at the very moment of His death. You will remember the moment He died on that cross, the veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom. That was a powerful and historic moment, signifying that the Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem was in that moment obsolete. The tearing of the curtain in the Holy of Holies was a desecration to the Jews. In reality the Ark of the Covenant had been gone from the Holy of Holies for a long time, going all the way back to the prophet Jeremiah. The presence of God had been gone from the Temple for generations. But now John is seeing the Ark of the Covenant in the New Temple in the Heavenly Jerusalem in his vision.

2 Maccabees 2:4–8 (RSV2CE) 4 It was also in the writing that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God. 5 And Jeremiah came and found a cave, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense, and he sealed up the entrance. 6 Some of those who followed him came up to mark the way, but could not find it. 7 When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: “The place shall be unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. 8 And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated.”

Even His disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” It was only after His resurrection that they began to understand

what had happened in the historic moment of his last breath on this earth. Before that moment, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and that was only once a year. But now, with the curtain torn

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from top to bottom, anyone had access to the Holy of Holies. Think about that for a moment, what does that mean for you and me? It was a desecration for the Jews, but to the followers of Christ, it was the dawning of a New Covenant with a New Temple and a new Holy of Holies. The Kingdom of God had come to earth and Jesus was the first born of an entire kingdom of priests, you and me. And through Jesus, everyone of us is welcome in the Holy of Holies…those are shouting words…but reverent shouting words.

What Temple was Jesus talking about that He would raise in three days; it was the New Temple of the New Covenant, it was His own body. The Spirit of God had been gone from the Temple in Jerusalem for many generations, the Ark was long gone. But Jesus comes to us as a babe in the manger, born in the tiny village of Bethlehem. He is God Incarnate. His human body housed not only God the Son, that body also was the source of God the Holy Spirit. He was the New Temple of the New Covenant. His body did not contain the Holy of Holies, it was the Holy

Holies, and when the Jews destroyed His body on that cruel Roman cross, God raised up that Temple in just three days. The Jews didn’t get it…His disciples didn’t understand but thank God they later learned and passed that powerful truth on to us this morning. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God, forever and ever.

It would be another 40 years after the crucifixion, in the year 70 AD, the Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed, but it had been empty and void of the presence of God and useless long before that. But we’re not done yet. The body of Jesus was not only raised from the dead, He also ascended into heaven. He initiated the New Covenant

through the Eucharist at the Last Supper, and the New Temple, His incarnate body, ascended into heaven.

On the day of Pentecost, Jesus sent the God the Holy Spirit, to fill up to overflowing His brand-new body on the earth with His presence. John 14:16–20

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(RSV2CE) 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

On the day of Pentecost, the Church was born, and the Church became the mystical body of Christ on this earth, filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. He promised not to leave us desolate. Too many of us are going to Mass looking desolate, that is not Jesus’ intentions for us. Instead we should know without a doubt our Lord Jesus is in us and we are in Him. If we don’t know before we eat His body and drink His blood, we sure ought to know right after that. He is in us…and we are in Him. That ought to put a smile on all our faces. We are the New Temple on this earth and St. Paul makes this very clear.

1 Corinthians 3:16 (RSV2CE) 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? But we’re not done yet…it gets gooder yet. As Catholics, can you guess what sustains us and empowers us to continue as the Body of Christ? Have you heard the phrase, you are what you eat? Praise God, every time we come to Mass, we take into our physical bodies, the Body and Blood of Jesus. We truly are what we eat. You and I are the Temple of God, that is why something very special happens every time we gather for this class. Matthew 18:19–20 (RSV2CE) 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

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“Blessed are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” We say that in our liturgy, but to look at some us at Mass some might think, desolate are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Once we know deep in our hearts that truth and the power of the Mass, it is up to us to act on that truth. We need to begin to act like all of that is true…because it is true. That is what faith is all about, especially Catholic faith.

Hebrews 11:1–16 (RSV2CE) Hebrews 11:32–40 (RSV2CE) 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old received divine approval. 3 By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having

pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning

events as yet unseen, took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who

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had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 13 These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, illtreated—38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Hebrews 12:1–2 (RSV2CE) 1 Therefore, (whenever you read the word therefore in the Bible, you need to look and see what it is there for) since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our

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faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.