Today’s
first reading, Revelation 18: 1-2,
21-23; 19: 1-3, 9a, continues with John’s vision. This time he sees a “mighty
angel [pick] up a stone like a huge millstone and [throw] into the sea and said: ‘With such force will
Babylon the great city be thrown down, and will never be found again….Because
your merchants were the great ones of the world, all nations were led astray by
your magic potion.’” After this scene of
the destruction of Babylon, John heard “what sounded like the loud voice of a
great multitude in heaven, saying: ‘Alleluia! Salvation, glory, and might
belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the
great harlot who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. He has avenged on her
the blood of his servants.’….Then the angel said to me, ‘[Write this: Blessed
are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”
You
and I live in a world that has, in many ways, led people astray. Extreme efforts to destroy the faith of its
inhabitants are exerted by the powerful and mighty in every nation on this
planet. Desolation is spreading
throughout the world: natural disasters, wars, violence of every kind, moral abominations,
idolatry (worshipping sex, material fortunes, “freedom,” pleasure, power and
control, etc.). “…Flee to the mountains,” we are told in
today’s Gospel, Luke 21: 20-28, that is, take refuge in God. Pray, pray, pray for the conversion of this
world.
I know
in faith that the “Babylons” of this world will be destroyed. I also know in
faith that there is a remnant of people in the U.S., in Europe, Asia, in Africa
and other parts of the world, as in the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in
70 A.D., who will remain steadfast in worshipping the one true God, who will
follow the Lamb wherever He goes and are called to the eternal wedding feast.
May I be among those chosen few who keep the faith, no matter how bad it gets
before Jesus’ return.
