The "New” Jerusalem

The last part of the Book of Revelation shows the passage from Babylon to Jerusalem. With a series of ghostly scenes, John presents the great transformation of humanity, from prostitute to wife. From chapter 17, where corrupt humanity is symbolically described, until chapter 21, where redeemed humanity is symbolically described, the Christian prophet presents a series of images of transformation.

At the center, in chapter 19, he shows the decisive symbol of this change: it is the Risen Christ, represented as one who rides a white horse. Remember that the series of seals began with a white horse. It was said that it was the image of humanity created good at first. White is the color of life, of light, the horse is a symbol of cosmic strength. The white horse is the power of resurrection; it is the novelty of God. “Then I saw the heavens opened, and there was a white horse; its rider was called ‘Faithful and True.’ His name is the word (Logos) of God”. He judges and wages war in righteousness… and his name was called the Word of God.”

It is the Risen Christ presented as a victorious hero. The word of God that rides in the skies followed by an army dressed in white on white horses. A fabulous mythical image to evoke the power of the Risen Christ that goes through history. And in this gallop, it transforms the world. The negative army that is about to invade the world destroying everything, opposes a positive and beneficial army that goes through the history of humanity to save.

"He wore a cloak that had been dipped in blood” but it is not the cloak of enemies, it is not the blood of the enemies that has soaked its cloak. It is his own blood; He is the one who gave his life to save enemies. What is represented is a strange army, the opposite of today's mind-set. This is a general who died to save enemies and the effect of his intervention is the transformation of Babylon into Jerusalem, the corrupt city in the city of God.

The effect is the transformation of the prostitute into a wife, the change of corrupt humanity marked by evil, in humanity redeemed. Shortly before the image of the Logos of God mounted on the white horse, John proposes a heavenly song; it is the song of Revelation. The liturgy proposes it to us for the eve of Sunday. It becomes our church song; is the song of the hallelujah, the wedding of the lamb has arrived, his wife is ready; but first he speaks of the condemnation of Babylon, the prostitute. It is the ruin of a world and the construction of a new world.

Saint Paul adopts the image of the old man and the new man. When he talks about baptism he says to get rid of the old man to put on the new man. He opposes Adam to Christ; the first Adam and the last Adam. The disobedient Adam and the obedient Christ. This contrast is analogous in Revelation, where, however, John uses a feminine imagination; instead of an old man and a new man, he talks about a woman prostitute woman and a woman wife. He uses another type of language to communicate an identical message.

And here we are coming to the grand finale when the Christian prophet presents the Lamb's wife, it is the new Jerusalem. I wouldn't say the heavenly Jerusalem because John says he saw it come down from heaven, but on earth it is not a Jerusalem that is in heaven, it is a city that descended from heaven; strange, but it serves to say that it is a humanity not built with the power of man, but is freely donated by God.

It is the intervention of heaven that made this city, this possible coexistence of people, it is the communion of humanity; it is the redemption of the person who becomes capable of building good social relations. This is the dwelling place of God with people. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared; the sea no longer exists.

It is not describing the other world; it is not describing what the eschatological future will be like. He is using prophetic language to indicate the transformation of this world. How come the sea is gone? Because it is a symbol, it is the symbol of evil. Heaven and earth are recreated; they are made new. And the symbolic element of evil disappears. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” Also saw “the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

City - bride. It is the same figure of Babylon, it is the same figure of the woman clothed in the sun, of the project of humanity as the Lord had conceived it at the beginning. To the historical reality of corruption, now we add the historical novelty of redemption. There is a new possibility, a new city, a new humanity, a new creation, the Lamb's bride is the result of the Lamb's work, it is his death and resurrection the one who prepared the bride; prepared her for the wedding and the encounter.

Then comes one of the seven angels who had the seven cups. “One of the seven angels who held the seven-bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God.” John contemplates the descent of a new humanity. “Its radiance was like that of a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a massive, high wall.”

All ancient cities were surrounded by walls. John cannot imagine a city differently. And on this wall there were twelve doors. The insistence on the number 12 is important. It is the typical number of Israel, but it is also the number of the months; it is the number of time, of history and humanity. "It had twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed and on which names were inscribed, the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites.” How are these doors located? "There were three gates facing east, three north, three south, and three west.” That is, there are openings in all cosmic directions. "The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” Twelve tribes – twelve apostles.

This new reality is characterized by the number twelve. Then the angel who is describing to John the new reality takes action. We are always in a symbolic game. "The city was square" – or better, cube. A cube-shaped city is strange. "Its length the same as also its width. The angel "measured the city with the rod and found it fifteen hundred miles” or twelve thousand stadia." Always twelve, this time for a thousand. A stadium corresponded in our decimal metric system to 185 meters. Try multiplying 12,000 by 185 and that gives us a figure of about 2,220 kilometers. The side of this city is quite large, it is more than two thousand kilometers, but it is shaped like a cube, reason why not only the length and width are 2,220 kilometers, but it is also 2,220 kilometers high.

Poor Everest is only 8 kilometers high and this city is 2,220 kilometers high. An impossible height. It is not a concrete reality; he is not describing a historical event; he is using a symbol to indicate something else. It is an imaginary city, which is not a real city that can be found in the geographical atlas; it is the new reality of humanity. It also measures the walls. They are 144 cubits. 144 = 12 X 12. The cubit is a submultiple of the stadium, and therefore corresponds to 1.85 centimeters. Multiplying 144 x 1.85 gives 266 meters. It was not the length of the walls; it was its thickness.

Again, it is an unimaginable thickness, but we must not take realistic reconstruction into account. Here John is playing with numbers and images. What was cubic in shape? In the ancient tradition of Israel, it was 'the Holy of Holies', the sanctuary was cube-shaped: length, width and height were the same. The new city is the sanctuary of God; it is the presence of God in history.

“The foundations of the city wall were decorated with every precious stone; the first course of stones was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh hyacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.” There are 12 random gemstones; these gemstones are those that appear in the biblical tradition present in the breastplate of the high priest, that represented the unity of Israel, the preciousness in diversity.

The city is cube-shaped like the sanctuary; the foundations are precious stones like the breastplate of the high priest. That is the new sacred reality. “The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made from a single pearl; and the street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass.” What is surprising is that there is no temple.

In ancient Jerusalem, the characteristic element was the temple, everyone went to Jerusalem for the temple. The construction of the Jerusalem temple was enormous, very striking; from any point where you looked at the city of Jerusalem, you could see the temple. In the new Jerusalem, says John, there is no temple. Why isn't it there? “For its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.” It is the replacement of the masonry sanctuary, with the presence of God. The new Jerusalem is the temple. The Lord lives among his people.

The temple is the Lamb. Christians understood that the encounter with God does not take place through sacred places, but through the encounter with the person of Jesus; with the paschal mystery of the dead and risen Lamb. Through Him you can reach God. That is the meeting point. "The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb." It is a different light, it is the light of complete revelation, brought by the Risen Christ.

But does this description correspond to paradise, to the other world, what will be at the end of the world? It does not seem to me because John continues: "The nations will walk by its light, and to it the kings of the earth will bring their treasure.” If the nations walk in the light of the new Jerusalem, it means that history continues, that the path of nations and their leaders continues, but a kind of cosmic pilgrimage is described.

The new Jerusalem sheds light on the world and all the diverse cultures of the world orient themselves to this new Jerusalem bringing their riches. The gates of Jerusalem, of the new Jerusalem, “During the day its gates will never be shut, and there will be no night there.” They are always open doors, “The treasure and wealth of the nations will be brought there.” "Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of its street.” From the throne springs the source of life, as in the paradise of God, in the great primordial garden. “On either side of the river grew the tree of life."

Here is the tree of life that humanity can access, but the tree of life is the cross of Christ. The fruit of the tree of life is the Eucharist. In the center of the city is the cross of Christ. That is the spring of life; it is the symbol of the sacraments; of the new possibility for transformation given to people. It is a tree “that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month” –not once a year but continuously– “the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations.” There are still some sick people who need to be healed. That tree feeds, that tree heals.

I see in all this the image of the novelty of the redeemed person and the community who live the redemption, and who knows that they are open to the world in order to build in time the work of salvation. This new Jerusalem is redemption, accomplished actually accomplished already in this story, but it tends to full future fulfillment.

And so, the Book of Revelation ends with a dialogue, just as it had begun. A dialogue between different people: the wife, the assembly, the Christ, the angel, John himself. And, in the end, together with the ritual recommendations, there is an invocation of the wife asking the Lord to come soon.

And the answer is not "He will come," but “Yes, I am coming soon.” It is a guarantee of presence, of immediate coming. It is not simply waiting for the end of the world, nor predicting the end of the world, it is the complete fulfilled expectation that salvation has already been achieved. John remembers the work of Christ, dead and risen. John celebrates its realization liturgically in the present, he hopes for the definitive fulfillment. He exhorts, comforts, and encourages his Church to live the memory, the present certainty and the expectation of the future. What was valid for the Christians of the past also applies to us. Perhaps not everything is clear, but it seems to me that the central message may emerge conspicuously as comfort and encouragement for our redeemed life today. Thank you for your attention and until the next series.