During the springtime, it is amazing to watch nature change with beautiful flowers that blossom. Is beauty simply looking at something nice and appreciating it? Or is beauty something that moves us to a higher realm, to deeper meaning in life? As we approach the readings today, let us be aware of the things that are beautiful and where they draw our attention.

Perhaps the most provocative point in today’s passage from Revelation is that something precious was being revealed like a rare jewel. In the verse before this, what is being revealed is a Bride, the wife of the Lamb. The new Jerusalem is the Bride who is completely united with her Lord. Her Lord is the very source of light and existence. She is perfectly conformed to the source of what makes her completely beautiful. This sense of the presence of God is understood as the Shekinah, which was the fiery cloud of the Spirit’s presence once witnessed and departed from the earthly temple as accounted by Ezekiel.   

This is a direct contrast to the harlot who was introduced in a similar fashion a few chapters before. The kings of the earth who follow this woman commit fornication and dwell in the earth as drunkards. She presents herself to be self-sufficient riding on the scarlet beasts engraved with marks of blasphemy. She is a symbol of the city of Babylon. She mirrors everyone in the world who rebel against God and his life-giving ways. There is no Shekinah in this Babylon for it is inflated with all that is ungodly. 

I want to draw our attention to the twelve stones which make up the foundation of this new holy Jerusalem. In Exodus, God gave Moses instruction that the breastplate of the priest should have twelve stones. This is a correlation to the foundation of the new city.

In this new city, there is no more classification of those who are priests and those who are not. The twelve stones in the foundation of this new city signal that all who belong to the city are a royal priesthood. In 1 Peter 2, the author tells us that Christ is the living stone and that we are called to be living stones that offer sacrifice to God through Christ. This is a concrete affirmation of what we have become in baptism. Through the waters of baptism, we have become children of God. We have become living stones who proclaim the praises of God. 

The Bride of the Lamb or the Harlot of Babylon. These contrasting women put before us real love rooted in God or counterfeit love obsessed with all that is ungodly. As the baptized, we must constantly choose authentic love. Let’s turn our attention to the words of Christ who command us to be living stones and moving us to authentic love.

The passage for the Sunday Gospel points that real and authentic love is only maintained when we do the will of God and keep his commands. We cannot do this solely by our own strength. Therefore, Jesus has given us an Advocate.

We have been given the Holy Spirit who animates the Church making us into living stones as prefigures in the Book of Revelation. You have become living stones of the Church when you received the Holy Spirit at your Confirmation. He has been poured out for you to be witnesses of God’s immense love.

The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal God. Rather, the Holy Spirit “will come and we shall know him; he will be with us forever; he will remain with us. The Spirit will teach us everything, remind us of all that Christ said to us and bear witness to him” (CCC 729).   Thus, the Holy Spirit “is the Church’s living memory” (CCC 1099). The Holy Spirit and the Church manifest the work of salvation that is won by Christ. When the Holy Spirit abides with us, there is nothing to be troubled. We have become his temple of living stones and Christ is the capstone; Jesus is the head.