Tag Archives: Book of Revelation

Every Eye Shall See

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Eve is born from the side of Adam.
Left: Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily (built AD 1172-1267)
Right: Basilica of St. Mark, Venice (mosaic approx. 13th century)

“Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him.” (Apoc. 1:7)

The first chapter of the Apocalypse is the “cover letter” that was sent to accompany each of the seven letters to the seven churches, whose contents we read in chapters 2-3. This sentence quotes Zechariah 12:10, which is also quoted in the Gospel of St. John (19:37) in connection with Christ’s side being pierced by a spear as he hung on the Cross. The prophet in the Old Testament describes how God will share the suffering of His people in exile and that those who inflict this suffering will realize–too late?–who it is that they have been really tormenting. The gospel cites this allusion to illustrate how Christ is the fulfillment of all that Israel has been hoping for. In the Apocalypse, the true identity of the letter-writer–the true author who ‘dictates’ the letter to John, to be written down–is the same Christ who hung on the Cross and was pierced.

When Christ’s side was pierced on the Cross, blood and water poured forth. (Scientists report that the “water” was most likely hydropericardium, a clear fluid that collects around the heart during intense physical trauma.) Early Christians saw the piercing of Christ’s side as the birth of the Church. Just as Eve was born from Adam’s side as he slept in Paradise, many preachers and teachers said that the Church was born from the side of Christ as he “slept” on the Cross. Methodius of Olympus, a famous second century preacher and Biblical interpreter, said that “Christ slept in the ecstasy of his Passion and the Church–his bride–was brought forth from the wound in his side just as Eve was brought forth from the wound in the side of Adam.” The Church, the Bride of Christ, is often identified as the “new Eve” just as Christ is the New Adam. (In other contexts, the Mother of God is also identified as the New Eve. Both can be the New Eve, just as the Church and the Eucharist are both the Body of Christ–just in different manner and context.)

The blood and water that poured from Christ’s side are also considered signs of baptism and the Eucharist. Read selections from a sermon by St. John Chrysostom here about those images.

SS. Raphael, Gabriel, and the Trumpet

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Statues of the four archangels at the Church of the Transfiguration (“Little Church Around the Corner”) in New York City: Uriel holds the book, Gabriel the lily, Michael the sword, and Raphael the fish. Read the history of the Little Church here.

The Archangel Raphael is said to be the angel always ready to blow the trumpet to announce the General Resurrection and the End of Time, according to Islam. Christians, on the other hand, expect the Archangel Gabriel to be the one who will blow the trumpet on the Last Day to announce the General Resurrection and Judgement.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

(1 Thess. 4:16)

A statue of Gabriel, often depicted with the lily which is associated with the Mother of God (because he brought the Good News of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin), is frequently found atop the roof at the east end of churches already blowing the trumpet. It is always Gabriel’s job to announce; he is the “announcer” of God.

We are told in the Old Testament to blow a trumpet to celebrate the New Year (Leviticus 23:24) or to announce a fast (Joel 2:15). Trumpets announce the coming of God as king and call the people to get ready to greet him. In the New Testament, trumpets announce the arrival of God’s judgement and call the people to turn their lives around (“repent”) in order to face the coming judgement. That is why Gabriel blows the trumpet atop a church: to announce the End that comes during the celebration of the Eucharist on the altar below the statue’s feet.

The most famous trumpets in the Bible are the seven trumpets blown in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 8-11). Angels blow the first six trumpets to call sinners on Earth to repentance. Each trumpet blast brings a plague, each one more disastrous than the one before it. The trumpet is used to build anticipation and tells the reader that an alert, announcement, or warning is about to take place. The seventh trumpet does not bring a plague with it. Instead, an angel blows the seventh trumpet to announce the glory of God and the coming of his kingdom.

How did Raphael get associated with the trumpet in Islam? Islamic folklore says that Raphael was the first of the archangels to be created and that he visited Mohammed even before the archangel Gabriel came to reveal the Qur’an. The Islamic folktales also say that Raphael is a master of music, who sings praises to God in a thousand different languages. It is probably this association with music that results in Raphael being given the honor of blowing the trumpet.

We never read explicitly in the New Testament that Gabriel is the archangel that will blow the trumpet on Judgement Day. I think we have come to expect him to do this precisely because he is God’s “announcer,” who announced the meaning of Daniel’s visions to the prophet (Daniel 8-9) and the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zachary as well as the birth of Christ to the Mother of God. So we expect him to announce the End of Time and the General Resurrection as well.

But the association of Gabriel with the trumpet can only be dated with certainty to the 1300s: the earliest known identification of Gabriel as the trumpeter comes in John Wycliffe’s 1382 tract, De Ecclesiæ Dominio. In the year 1455, there is an illustration in an Armenian manuscript showing Gabriel sounding his trumpet as the dead climb out of their graves. Two centuries later, Gabriel is identified as the trumpeter, in John Milton‘s Paradise Lost (1667).

Dragons, Dragons Everywhere

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Every culture has dragon folktales and these dragons share the same characteristics. David Jones reaches fascinating conclusions about our fear and fascination with these creatures, including that we are essentially “hardwired” to believe in them. Get a copy here.

Dragons are not just fairy tale creatures who like to eat an occasional princess or fight a knight or two. Dragons are mythic-poetic creatures used in tales or sermons to make sophisticated points. Perhaps rooted in early human experience of three major predators–lions, eagles, and large serpents–dragons both warn of danger and show how to escape that danger.

Although we think of dragons as fire-breathing serpents with legs and wings, the oldest stories report that dragons had a foul, poisonous breath, the stench of which could kill anything that inhaled it. Dragons are Chaos. Dragons are spiritual and emotional energy that is out of control. Unfocused. Wild. They are in stories or texts what horses with loose, untied tails are in icons.

In the New Testament (Revelation 12:3) we read about a vision of a Great Red Dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns, and a massive tail, an image which is clearly inspired by the vision of the four beasts from the sea in the Book of Daniel and the Leviathan described in various Old Testament passages. This dragon is the enemy of the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of 12 stars upon her head: the Church. The dragon attacks the Church at the End of Days and slays the martyrs as Judgement Day approaches. In the lives of the saints–such as SS. Margaret or George–a dragon is the enemy of the saint or of specific persons now, during history.

In the story of St. Margaret, she is swallowed alive by a dragon in her jail cell but she makes the sign of the Cross and the dragon’s stomach explodes… allowing her to step out, unharmed. (Not unlike Red Riding Hood and her grandmother stepping unharmed from the wolf’s stomach.) In the story of St. George (whose horse’s tail is always tied in a knot), the dragon is attacking a town and is about to devour a princess as its most recent victim but George is able to kill it; in some versions, he wounds it so that it becomes a tame beast and he can lead it into the town with a leash made of the princess’ belt.

St. Margaret is clearly attacked by the enemies of God but is able to overcome them by her faith in Christ, crucified and risen. The princess (soul) is attacked by the passions–anger, jealousy, greed, etc.–but is able to either overcome them by the help of the saints and the Cross of Christ (the wooden spear of St. George). In the versions where the dragon is wounded, it means the soul is able to redirect its energy away from destructive desires into constructive desires, such as righteous anger on behalf of the oppressed, desire to care for the needy, or peace-making between enemies.

Dragons are the great enemy both at the End of Time and now, as history plays itself out. They are the spiritual energy that we can channel to come close to God or that we can let it create chaos in our lives to destroy us. We can embrace the dragon within or we can tame it. The choice is ours.