What Do Catholics Believe about the Apocalypse?

the book of revelation one of the most amazing and craziest and mystifying books of the bible also a really popular one a lot of people have heard of this book but we don't quite know how to read it or make sense of it here to give us some keys for understanding and reading this book dr michael barber professor of theology the gusman institute [Music] sort of the person of faith you read the book of revelation there's things in it that are mind-blowingly beautiful a whole lot of it that is really confusing for the person who has no faith they pick up the book of revelation they think is this an acid trip i mean this is just like this is craziness what am i reading i have no idea how to make sense of this at all help us unlock this right i think one of the things that you hear a lot of are speculations about when is jesus coming back and are we living in the end times and a lot of people read the book of revelation with sort of one eye on the biblical text and the other eye on sort of the news headlines right yeah this is happening in the middle east therefore this must be a sign that the end is near and that's not the way the book of revelation is meant to be read you know when people hear the word apocalypse they think of devastation they think of cataclysmic destruction doom but the word apocalypse actually means to reveal revelation right so there's another name for the book of revelation right the apocalypse the apocalypse and so because apocalypse is linked to the book of revelation which describes jesus coming at the end of time any movie any story that seems to point to cataclysmic destruction end times is seen as apocalyptic all right but really the word apocalypse means to reveal ooh beautiful and so now hence revelation right yeah now you might say well okay or to to take the veil away right i love that so so for a lot of people my daughter just got married [Laughter] yes right it is it is and actually the book ends with a wedding so there is maybe some character there but but the thing is i think for a lot of people if this is what unveiling is then put the veil back on beasts and dragons i'd rather imagine the fire and plagues and all that i mean when people think of the book of revelation what comes to mind i think what immediately comes to mind is things like the antichrist or the mark of the beast or the four horsemen of the apocalypse or uh plagues right things like that the beast uh i already mentioned that um the dragon you read about that yeah there's a lot of different heads right you know the reality is when people sort of make those things the ultimate truth of the book of revelation sort of obviously they've actually never read the book yeah because the word antichrist actually never appears in the book of revelation though the idea of the mark of the beast only appears once yeah the four horsemen only occur really about revelation six and then and seven and they really don't play a huge role in the rest of the yeah the story the millennium the thousand years they're striking images they're striking images right but they're but they're not the major theme of the book what's the major theme in the book is that yeah we need to need a theme to make sense of the rest that's right and the idea is that christ is coming he's coming and certainly what the book wants us to see is that despite all the difficulties that that we face in this world and despite the fact that satanic powers are at work with world powers and political powers to conspire against the righteous that's a major theme in the book there's hope because at the end of the story christ is coming and the righteous will be delivered and they will find salvation in the savior who's described over and over again in the book as the lamb and one of the things that's really interesting about the book is that it describes christ's coming all throughout with liturgical images images from worship right liturgy worship which was going on in the early church when this was written yeah and and it was well rooted in ancient judaism so you see things like altars and incense and men wearing white vestments right and the whole idea is christ coming as described through this imagery one of the key ideas in revelation is that christ is coming not just at the end of time but to his people even now not long ago beautiful yeah i was invited to be interviewed on a national television show about the book of revelation really and they asked me so when is jesus coming i can tell you when jesus is coming they were taken aback really well when is it going to be and i said well in revelation 3 jesus says i stand at the door and knock if anyone opens the door i will come into him and i will eat with him i love it and he with me so jesus's coming is linked to a meal now is there any meal that the early christians might have suffered in which they thought jesus was starting to sound really catholic right now yeah it is and in fact there is that meal it's the eucharist so christ is coming at the end of time but the book of revelation also wants to give us comfort christ is coming to us now in the church's celebration of that meal and that's how you get ready for for when it comes at the end of time that's right or at the end of our own lives that's exactly right no one gets out alive that's right so if we are just ready to receive him when he comes to us when we gather to celebrate the eucharist on sunday if i was ready to receive him on sunday i've got nothing to worry about when he comes up at the end of today's when he comes at the end of time he's not going to have one drop of glory he doesn't already have when he comes to us in the eucharistic cell that's awesome so this is the way to understand the whole arc of revelation i i think if you really want to get into reading it and and try to grasp the meaning of all the various images that that takes that takes some more work and studying right something just read peripherally into your day and it's definitely i get it what point is to some resources someone wants to do the key thing that we need to recognize is that when we read the bible the bible isn't just what god said it's what god says god is always speaking to us when you read the apocalypse you find all this imagery that might seem scary you know you have these beasts and you have these dragons like i don't know how to make heads the tales of this book or it's beasts and it's dragons you know like they're heads and tails yes exactly but the but the thing that we need to recognize is christ is speaking to us in all of these images if we sat down with our bibles open them up ask the lord speak to me in this what are you trying to tell me and one of the key things he wants us to see is that he is with his people and at the end of the story he saves his people and god is faithful so it may get hard in fact it will get hard you can count on it but look at what they did to jesus right so if they treat the king that way they're not going to roll the red carpet out for his subjects but at the end of the story christ comes and he saves his people and he's with us the way to understand the book of revelation is the victorious coming of christ the bridegroom drawing us into that wedding feast when you see that that overarching theme it helps you make sense of the book but you know it helps you make sense of well the rest of the bible frankly and your entire life you see the story's end helps you to discern the meaning of every page in the story and the end of our story is really really good you

Channel: Augustine Institute | The Catholic Faith Explained

Views: 14,943

Keywords: Catholic Eucharist, Transubstantiation, Catholic sacraments, 7 sacraments, Augustine institute, Formed catholic, Ignatius press, Lighthouse catholic media, Lighthouse talks, Dr. Tim Gray, Dr. Brant Pitre, Chris Stefanick, Holy Communion, Catholic Church, Catholic Faith

Id: UbWFCFqLTRQ

Length: 8min 0sec (480 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 22 2022