In today’s first reading we hear how an angel seizes Satan and imprisons him in the abyss for a thousand years. This passage has been the source of much speculation and endless calculation as people catch “millennial fever” trying to figure out when this 1,000-year period will be. These numbers, like all the numbers in Revelation, are symbolic and should not be taken in a literal sense. no one knows and no one can calculate when the second coming or advent of Jesus will happen since Jesus himself does not know as we hear in Mark’s Gospel: “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” (Mark 13:32-33).
The important teaching in today’s reading is that God is more powerful than Satan and the Kingdom of God is at hand and there will be a final victory when God’s will is done on earth as it is now done in heaven: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, one earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus in his time on earth tied up Satan as he performed healing and exorcisms and welcomed the outcasts, lepers, and sinners. Revelation describes this in the symbolic language of the millennium: “I, John, saw an angel come down from heaven…He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil or Satan, and tied it up for a thousand years and threw it into the abyss.” There is still evil and sin in the world after Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, but God promises final victory as we hear in today’s first reading:
“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. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
As we come to the end of the liturgical year, we look forward to Jesus’ second coming or advent while we recognize that Jesus is already here among us as we prepare to celebrate his first coming or advent at Christ. We recognize that we are and are called to be the holy city, the bride prepared to welcome, Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Image: “The Angel Michael Binding Satan (‘He Cast him into the Bottomless Pit, and Shut him up’)” by lluisribesmateᥩ is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.