BTS of what I am preaching for April 24

We always talk about Doubting Thomas, let's look instead at The Book of Revelation

As I looked over the readings for this Sunday, I know that as always this is about Doubting Thomas. I preach about this Gospel annually and I know I did it last year, so I thought I would take my preaching in another direction. the second reading is from the beginning of the Book of Revelation. I realized this might be a good time to make a Catholic reflection on this particular book of the Bible.

It is in the news a lot lately, especially with concerns about the Bible. I do not take some of the end-times ideas appearing in our culture lately. I definitely do not get into the concerns about the vaccine being the Mark of the Beast or the vaccine passports or anything else. This is because I consider the book far deeper than a simple prophecy for the future, or the end of the world.

So I decided to research more of the chapter.

I then decided that my homily will talk about a central aspect of our Christianity—the mysticism that is a central part of who we are as disciples of Christ.

I also found, which I do not touch on in the homily, the definition of Hell from which we are saved. Those in Hell are deprived of the vision of God. “Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell”—Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek—because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 633)

This certainly gives us a better understanding than images that claim it to be a place of torture. It certainly makes sense that Hell would be the place where people who chose to separate themselves from God are outside of contact with Him.

I also will preach on why everything is focused on Jesus and not any other form of deity. That I will reveal in the homily which can be heard at 10:00 am Sunday and at 3:00 pm on WROLRADIO.com WROL 950 am in Boston and at 3:16 at catholicaudiomedia.com

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