The periods indicated by the Apocalypse always refer at the same time to
- Christ’s life,
- the life of his Church, i.e. the members of his body on earth
- what each faithful experiences in his or her own life, in which baptism incorporates him or her into Christ.
These three times overlap, and this overlap is also signified by the liturgical time in which we celebrate
- the events of Christ’s life,
- his life, shared with the whole Church and offered by it to the faithful
- the individual participation of each faithful, who is nourished by the life of Christ, who draws from this source of love that fills his or her own life, assimilates him or her to Christ and achieves, realizes, in each one the full likeness with him.
Liturgical time and the liturgy itself lead us towards and into eternal life. The sacraments we celebrate bring together the three times in one: through baptism, the faithful becomes member of the body of Christ. As the apostle says, Christ is the head of the body which is the Church: “He is also the head of the body, the head of the Church” (Colossians 1:18). Through baptism, then, the life of the faithful is simultaneously united to the earthly life of Christ and to the life of his body, which is the Church.
The members of the Church on this earth already share in eternal life and in Christ’s victory over evil, and have become members of a body of which Christ is the head, infusing life and the breath of love into the whole body. The faithfuls as members of the body of Christ therefore live on this earth what Christ lived in his earthly life: they are united to him. Just as Christ lived his Passion, when the devil could unleash his fury on him and his enemies had a free hand, so the members of his body, the Church, are daily victims of attacks and persecutions. But this time of trial, figured by the expression three and a half years, will be proportional to the one experienced by Christ, and is equivalent to the time of trial in everyone’s life, when the righteous person appears to be seemingly defeated by the enemy, but in reality in this time his victory is accomplished, in this very moment when he is attacked and persecuted his love, his faith, his trust in God is revealed, and his victory bursts forth. This is why Jesus, on the way to his passion, said to his apostles at the last supper: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (John 12:23) For on the cross, God’s love would manifest itself to mankind, revealing his infinite face of mercy, his forgiveness, his life offered for the many in remission of sins. The glory of God’s infinite love finally manifested to mankind, made visible in the love with which Christ has loved us. And this is what bears fruit: the gesture of gratuitous love, the offering of one’s life that finally gives proof, makes visible the divine love that made us in his image and resemblance. The early Christians used to say that the blood of martyrs is a seed of Christians.
This is how we might understand the expression: “A time, times and half a time” (Rev 12:14). In other words, there is :
- a single time during which the life of Christ unfolded
- times in which the Church as a whole continues to live what Christ lived. At the same time, in fact, in the world the Church is persecuted in one country, at peace in another, in thanksgiving or in affliction.
- half a time, because each faithful is now living in his or her own life what Christ lived. But this time is only half-fulfilled, because we are dealing with the living, with those who must understand the signs of the times. Give thanks for the work of the Spirit, or ask in prayer for strength in persecution or trials. This half of time continues to be fulfilled in each and every one of us.
Several commentators point out that the duration of a half time indicates the time that remains suspended, the present time that is not yet complete, the time in which Christ’s passion is prolonged in each of us.
This is how the apostle Paul expresses himself in his letter to the Colossians 1:22-24:
“But now God has reconciled you with himself, in the body of Christ, his fleshly body, through his death, in order to bring you into his presence, holy, spotless, blameless. This is realized if you remain firmly grounded in the faith, without turning away from the hope you received by hearing the Gospel proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a minister of this Gospel. Now I find joy in the sufferings I endure for you; what remains to be suffered from Christ’s trials in my own flesh, I accomplish it for his body, which is the Church.”
Nothing is lacking in Christ’s passion: he has given everything, he has given himself. But this passion continues to be lived by the members of his body who live his life, moved by the same love contrasting the darkness. Through baptism and communion with his body and blood, the faithful are incorporated into Christ, living in union with him, in his mystical body, the Church, as St. Paul explains.
So, the Book of the Apocalypse tells us of the time when the woman flies off to the desert, where she prepares herself for the final union, where the Bridegroom adorns her with every spiritual ornament, like a bride adorned for the wedding. Indeed, the woman who represents the Church was in labor pains and the dragon wanted to devour the child.
Then were given to the Woman the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly to the desert, to the place where she must be nourished for a time, times and half a time, far from the presence of the Serpent (Revelation 12, 23).
And now, in the woman, we see the time in which the humanity of Christ lives, and then the times in which the whole Church lives and in which every faithful lives, associated with the life of Christ, member of his body. But this time is not yet over; it is prolonged each time God shows mercy and waits for the sinner to convert and return to him.
For a deeper understanding of the time indications in the Apocalypse, see also the article The Thousand Years: risen with Christ – Rev 20.
Quotation from the book: Tyconius, Commentaire de l’Apocalypse, Introduction, traduction et notes par Roger Gryson, Brépols, 2011, p.124, n.57.
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev 21:4). All this happens spiritually for the Church, through the baptism as the apostle Saint Paul says: “You were buried with him (Christ) in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Col 2, 12) Through baptism, in fact, after our sins have been forgiven, and, having taken off the old man of our former life, we resurrect, we clothe ourselves with Christ (Col 3:9) and we are filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. This is the life the Lord promises to his Church in these words: “Behold, I will make Jerusalem glad, and my people rejoice; and I will be glad for Jerusalem, and rejoice for my people. The sound of weeping and the sound of crying will no longer be heard in her. There will no longer be a young person who dies prematurely or an old man who does not live out his days; for the young person will reach a hundred years, but the sinner who dies at a hundred will be cursed. They will build houses and inhabit them themselves, they will plant new vines, and they themselves will eat and their descendants.” (Is 65:18-21). All this is about spiritual cultivation, not worldly cultivation, for which we often exhaust ourselves in vain as the seasons go by. The young man will reach the age of a hundred, for though someone is a hundred years old, he nevertheless becomes a young man again; indeed, all those who are baptized, whatever their sex or age, are raised to the age of Christ, as the apostle says, to the state of a made man, to the stature of Christ in his fullness (Eph 4:13). “But the sinner who dies at a hundred years of age will be cursed,” i.e. the one who did not want to live according to God.
Augustine, City of God, Book 17, 4:
Omnes quippe unctos eius chrismate recte christos possumus dicere ; quod tamen totum cum suo capite corpus unus est Christus.
Since we can rightly call “christs” [i.e. anointed] all those who are anointed with his chrism [the baptized], because, indeed, as a whole this body with its head is a single Christ.
Augustine, Letter 199, 45:
So we shall know that he is near, when we see the fulfillment, not of some of these signs, but of all these signs, when the Son of Man comes, when he sends his angels, and gathers his elect from the four parts of the world, that is, from all the earth – this is what Jesus Christ is doing throughout this last hour. He comes in his members as on so many clouds, or in the whole Church itself, which is his body, as in a great cloud that spreads its fruitfulness throughout the whole world; Jesus Christ has been doing all this ever since he began preaching and saying, “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So, comparing and examining carefully the accounts of the three evangelists about the coming of the Lord, perhaps we would find that all these signs concern the daily coming of the Savior in his body, which is the Church, and of which he said to the Jews, “One day you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the majesty of God, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”