Revelation -- Understanding the Apocalypse

The Book of Revelation #41 This last major vision reveals the bride as seen from Heaven. Because the Catholic understanding of Scripture is rooted in the Church and because the Mystical Body of Christ is already glorious, we understand this vision to be a heavenly perspective on the one-and-only Church of Jesus Christ: the Catholic Church. The Mystical Body of Christ is one, holy, catholic and apostolic on Earth as it is in Heaven. Thus, this bond of unity and love extends throughout the ages and what St. John saw some 2,000 years ago is as relevant and true today as it will be at the end of time. The uniting bond of love that joins the first vision, that of Christ walking within the particular churches of Chapter 2 and 3 and the heavenly Jerusalem is the Eucharist through which one is transformed into the other -- earthly into heavenly, human into the divine and this process is guided by Providence, the hidden rule of Christ. Thus the book of Revelation witnesses this act of transformation that is on-going throughout history and that can be only comprehended when one realizes the centrality of the Church in the plan of salvation that Christ inaugurated in his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection.