JESUS CHRIST - THE LIVING ONE

II EASTER SUNDAY - Apocalypse 1:9-13,17-19

In this Sunday’s liturgy, the second reading comes from the book of a Revelation, a book that many people interpret in the most strange ways. It should be read alone, without any connection to the other books of the Bible, mainly from the ones that influenced its language and style.

The book of Revelation starts with the great vision of the Risen Lord - Jesus Christ, Son of Man - a title that Jesus applied to himself, and which is taken from the book of Daniel (Dan 7:13).

I saw “a figure like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle.

  When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, 

‘Do not be afraid; 

it is I, the First and the Last; 

I am the Living One, 

I was dead and now I am to live 

for ever and ever, 

and I hold the keys of death 

and of the underworld. 

Now write down all that you see of present happenings and things that are still to come.” (Rev 1:17-19)

Jesus Christ - the Risen Lord - is the Living One, the First and the Last. He has risen from the dead, and he will live for ever. As Paul wrote to the Romans, he is the Lord of the living and of the dead (Ro 14:9).

Indeed, He is our Lord, who will bring us to life. United with him in death, we will be united to him in the resurrection.