Exclusively published to the Touchstone website each week, these Daily Reflections are brief commentaries on the lectionary readings contained in the St. James Daily Devotional Guide. The reflections are penned by Patrick Henry Reardon, editor of the Daily Devotional Guide and a senior editor of Touchstone. Father Reardon provides here a very brief directional clue for one of the readings each day. Long-time readers of the Daily Devotional Guide will find these reflections an additional help to their reading of Holy Scripture which they can print and keep with their Guide.

The Daily Reflections will be updated weekly.

Sunday, December 9

Revelation 18:1-8: The exhortation to "flee" the falling city puts one in mind of Genesis 19, where Lot was obliged to depart from Sodom if he and his family were not to share the city's fate. In its historical context, John's warning to leave Babylon may be related to the final days before the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in the year 70. We do know that the Christians there managed to survive, because they followed a prophetic counsel to leave before it was too late. The true "flight," of course, is a matter of the spirit. To flee Babylon is to safeguard one's soul from its contamination.

Monday, December 10

Revelation 18:9-24: Babylon is here portrayed as a great mercantile power, the embodiment of greed, crass materialism, oppression, and the subjection of human beings to the unbridled forces of commercial demons. In the Old Testament this kind of civilization was embodied in the Phoenician capitals of Tyre and Sidon; John’s vision appears to regard Rome in this way. It is the merchants who bewail the fall of this great commercial city, for there will be no more "business as usual." Today the ruins of Ostia, Rome’s sea port, bear stark historical witness to the destiny of all institutions of commercial idolatry.

Tuesday, December 11

Revelation 19:1-10: Against the backdrop of the burning, smoking city, this passage begins with "Alleluia!" The text returns us to the throne room of Chapter 4 and the vision of the Lamb in Chapter 5. The Bride of the Lamb is now introduced; she stands in contrast to the harlot in Chapter 17-18. Like the Gospels, this text describes eternal life in the imagery of a wedding banquet, with special emphasis on being properly clad.

Wednesday, December 12

Revelation 19:11-21: Before there can be the wedding banquet, however, there must still be a good deal of fighting. Just as the Lion of Judah appears as a Lamb in Chapter 5, He now appears as a warrior on a white horse. The emphasis in this passage is on the vindication of justice, the theme with which the chapter began. The description of Jesus as warrior here is similar to the description of Him as priest in 1:12-16. In the closing verses God’s enemies are defeated.

Thursday, December 13

Revelation 20:1-6: According to some Jewish speculation of the period, as reflected in such works as The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, the coming Messiah would reign on the earth for a thousand years. In our passage today, this trope becomes the thousand-year reign of the saints, the number 1000 being understood by most of the Fathers of the Church in the metaphorical sense of Christ's reign in His saints throughout history. The thrones of the saints, from which they judge history, are also spoken of in Matthew 19 and Luke 22.

Friday, December 14

Revelation 20:7-15: This "reign of a thousand years" partakes of two worlds, both our earthly existence and the eternal life that already fills our hearts. The followers of Christ are said to reign because they have refused to become slaves to the beast and its image. At the end of time the final judgment will reveal that the saints were, all along, history's authentic judges. The character of Gog, employed here as a metaphor for evil power, was originally a real person, a king of Lydia well known to history. This Hebrew form of his name comes from Exechiel, whereas he is referred to as "Gyges" in Greek authors and as "Gugu" in Assyrian sources. "Magog" (in Hebrew "from Gog") is another form of evil power.

Saturday, December 15

Revelation 21:1-13: In these last two chapters John will say "no more" with respect to seven things: the sea, death, sorrow, crying, pain, the curse, and the night (21:1,4; 22:3,5). We are arriving at the definitive abolition of conflict, the end of chaos. The sea is the supreme symbol of formlessness; it is the hiding place of the monster and the place where the harlot sits on her throne. It must disappear at the appearance of the new heaven and the new earth. God’s "dwelling" with man is literally a tent, a skene. It is the tabernacle of the divine presence (Leviticus 26:11).

 

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