Today's first reading, Rev 20: 1-4, 11-21:2, St. John has a vision in which he sees an angel coming down from heaven,"
holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain." He sees this angel seizing "
the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil or Satan." Satan is tied up and thrown into the abyss and is no longer able to "
lead [nations]
astray." He also sees saints in heaven
"who had not worshiped the beast [Satan]
or its image nor had accepted [Satan's]
mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to live and they reigned with Christ..." St. John also has a vision of "
the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne [of God]
, and scrolls were opened," one of which is the book of life. Each person was judged
"according to their deeds....Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the pool of fire," a second death. Following these aspects of the vision, John "
saw a new heaven and a new earth..." He "also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
What a description of the acts of redemption: Satan is locked up so to speak. And is so to this very day. Satan may be roaming the earth looking for someone to devour but, so, too, is Christ roaming this earth, protecting us from Satan's snares, from Satan's lies and corrupt ways, as the Devil endlessly attempts to lure us away from that which is right and pure and holy and sacred! The Strong One, the Cosmic Christ, the Holy One, our Redeemer, a Warrior God is on our sides! God is at work, here and now, making all things new, forging a new heaven and a new earth. "The former heaven and the former earth," St. John tells us in this passage from Revelation, has "passed away, and the sea [is] no more."
May we have eyes--eyes of faith, that is--to see God at work in our world battling Satan. God will win! Satan will lose, whether that is in our individual lives, the lives of our community, family or nation!
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