Father Mike Schmitz

So if you wish to escape such punishments, have no desire to commit such grave sins.

For in the present age, Babylon is always going to destruction and burning up in part.

And that's just, that's really interesting and fascinating.

Now question, of course, who or what is Babylon?

There are many theories, obviously, and the two primary theories are that Babylon is a symbol of Rome or Babylon is a symbol of Jerusalem.

And there's an ancient, I mean, gosh, and there's so much evidence that it could be either.

And that's the crazy part is that here is Rome.

I mean, think about all of the blood of the martyrs that the Roman Empire shed in those first centuries of Christianity, in the first decades of Christianity.

And at the same time, remember, in the Old Testament, here is the way in which the prophets spoke about Jerusalem as being unfaithful, as being unresponsive to God's promises.

And there are a number of reasons that you could make a case for Rome being the Babylon or Jerusalem being Babylon.

And what that ultimately means, though, for us is it's important, right?

Obviously, it matters whether this is Rome or Jerusalem.

In some ways, you could say it could be both.

But what we're really talking about when you and I are reading Revelation, yes, we're reading something from the past.

We're reading about the revelation of John of this judgment that came upon the ancient peoples.

But we're also reading about our own lives.

That's why St.

Caesarius of Arles had his words about pointing out that,

One of the reminders of Revelation is for us is that sense of, am I being faithful?

Am I walking in the Lord?