A Reflection for Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
“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,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Rev. 21:1-2)
“Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.” (Lk 21:29-31)
I have always thought of the words “pass away” as simply a euphemism for death—which of course they are. What I didn’t truly understand until recently was these words are lifted directly from Scripture. In today’s readings they are used both in Revelation and the Gospel of Luke.
What does this mean for us as believers? For someone who has lost a loved one, the words “pass away” can seem unsuited to the task at hand—too weak to capture the enormity of what has happened. But Scripture gives these words new meaning.
Everything will pass away, heaven and earth and the sea. That can seem like mere metaphor until you reach a time in your life when the people in your life actually do pass away. Contemplating a world where the sea is “no more” is difficult to do. But when your parents are no more it’s a different story. An abyss gapes before you.
But the story doesn’t end there. The words “pass away” do not exist by themselves on the page. In Revelation, they are placed between the lines “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth” and “I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem.” Hope brackets our grief.
And in Luke: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Jesus hardly gives us a moment to mourn the passing of the old order. Just a comma, and then the promise.
So yes, heaven and earth and the sea and everything we love and hold dear will pass away. But his words will not pass away. A holy city is on the horizon. Nothing less than the new Jerusalem.
