but now it is hidden from your eyes.
How do we learn the things that make for peace? We really want to know. Not knowing them has consequences. Because the people at that time don't know them Jerusalem faces judgment and is destroyed in 70 AD. How do we keep our home under the blessing and protection of God? How do we live in peace and not judgment?
I, John, saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne.
It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals.
This scroll is sealed. We can't open it to see what it contains. We can't learn from it the secrets of peace and judgment.
“Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”
But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth
was able to open the scroll or to examine it.
No wonder John cries when no one can open the scroll. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem for the same reason. The things that make for peace are concealed from the people.
I shed many tears because no one was found worthy
to open the scroll or to examine it.
Yet there is hope. What Jerusalem failed to realize in 70 AD we are invited to realize this morning.
One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep.
The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed,
enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals.”
The scroll can be opened, but not by us.
Who can open it? "a Lamb that seemed to have been slain."
He came and received the scroll from the right hand
of the one who sat on the throne.
The secrets of peace can be learned if we just turn to the one who is the source of peace. What are the things that make for peace? Jesus tells us, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives." We are weeping because we can't solve the troubles of the world but he assures us, "I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!"
When the gospel is proclaimed at mass we are invited to this encounter in a special way. That is why we sing our chorus of alleluias. It is for the same joy that those in heaven rejoice.
When he took it,
the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders
fell down before the Lamb.
Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense,
which are the prayers of the holy ones.
They sang a new hymn:
“Worthy are you to receive the scroll
and break open its seals,
for you were slain and with your Blood you purchased for God
those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation.
You made them a kingdom and priests for our God,
and they will reign on earth.”
We are made members of a kingdom which, unlike Jerusalem, will never be destroyed. We are made partakers of the only peace which can truly last. We share in this peace because we share in the very Lamb who is the source of peace. That is the reason for the last petition in the Agnus Dei. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace!
There's nothing to weep about any more. All that's left is to party. Let's rejoice in the joy of the LORD.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.
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