The Golden Lampstands
ONE: The Apocalypse or Book of Revelation shows us the proper way to view the churches and the Church. Our Lord Jesus reveals hinself as intimately aware of the detailed virtues and faults of the seven local churches listed in the early chapters (Apoc. 1:17-3:22). He acknowledges their good but chastises them for their evils. He encourages them to be steadfast in virtue and to promptly repent from sin.
So we have a complete picture of the local assemblies or churches of His people being good but also containing serious evil that must be immediately addressed. Yet in this same book of Scripture we have the description of the Church as the woman glorified by the sun, the moon and the stars (ch. 12) and as the spotless Bride (ch. 21).
TWO: In St. John's first vision in the Apocalypse (ch. 1) Jesus is standing amid seven gold lampstands holding seven stars in his hand. The Scripture itself explains that the golden lampstands are the seven churches to whom the revelation is addressed and the stars are their angels.
Before the Book of Revelation we encounter the exact same Greek word for “lampstand” in Mark 4:21, Matthew 5:15, and (twice!) in Luke 8:16 and 11:33. Each usage concerns revealing – revealing good deeds or someone's goodness. While the Gospel of John does not seem to use the word for lampstand, the whole gospel speaks about light versus darkness: John 1:4-5 and 3:19 are important examples. In John the wicked love darkness to hide their evil deeds.
THREE: Jesus is within the lampstands. He is the light, the local churches display the light. Our Lord in the passages mentioned above says that we do not have a lamp to hide it but to put it on a stand for light. The Apocalypse is clearly using this imagery with the churches and our Lord. And please note: these “ecclesias” are not random slices of the Christian people located in some civic population center. Their identity should be seen as it is examplified in the rest of the New Testament – centered around the bishop and presbyters.
FOUR: Jesus speaks to the seven churches and details how they have responded to grace and how they have fallen to temptation. He reveals their spiritual condition – all are golden lampstands with angels in Heaven but they also obscure the light by falsehood, sin and mediocrity. Jesus says: “But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth.”(Rev. 3:16).
FIVE: Is it not extraordinary to our ordinary idea of the Church and the New Testament to realize that Sacred Scripture ends with Jesus' criticism of the various local churches? There is a tendency in churchmen with Holy Orders to attempt to hide their human limitations, mistakes, errors in administering the sacraments, pastoral bad judgment and sins by only emphasizing the holiness of the Church universal and our faithful obligation to love her and reverance her deacons, priests and bishops.
Every deacon, priest, bishop and pope is a sinner. They can be terrible sinners. They are often more in need of repentance and the sacraments than others in different callings. Does that imply a lessening of respect for them and their office? No – it means that we try to love and honor them as we would a parent. We honor our origin in the Church by honoring those we call “father”. But we honor the Church by following our Catholic moral and doctrinal training as officially given and interpreted by the Magesterium. We dishonor the Church when we passively go along with “pastoral” activity contrary to that training.
SIX: Enlightened by the Catholic Faith we can clearly see the development by the Church of her understanding of doctrine. As a case in point, simply read the Acts of the Apostles on the question of admitting and how to admit gentiles. But in viewing the wonderful increase in faith and numbers what is sometimes obscured is what was mentioned in FIVE – the human mistakes and sins of even New Testament Christians. During the gospels, did the Apostles understand and accept all that Jesus did and said? Throughout the Acts, did not the Church realize the fuller implications of Christ's redeeming act
(Acts 10:34 – 11:26; 15:1-29)? Was there not fraud (Acts 5:1-11)? Was there not jealousy (6:1-2)? Clerical ambition (8:17-24)? Disagreement and division between saints (15:36-41)? Fear about churchmen abusing authority (20:28-35)? Is not every epistle concerned with some falsehood, disorder or sin in individuals and the local church?
SEVEN: Yet, in spite of sin, there is the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ (Acts 21:2). We individual sinners and groups of sinners assembled in local churches can attempt to hide the light under a bushel basket but the Body of Christ, the Church, participates in the sinless glory of her head.
“The light shines on in darkness, a darkness that did not overcome it.” John 1:5
Post Script on Today's Scandals
See above.
