Revelation concerning the present

Antonietta Potente, «Il miele e l’amaro Lettura mistico-sapienziale dell’Apocalisse»
[The Honey and the Bitter Mystical-Sapiential Reading of Revelation],
Paulines

With the end-beginning of the liturgical year, a book on Revelation seemed appropriate, and although it came out in 2021, right after the pandemic, this one by Antoinette Potente was very relevant to me. In fact, the book is not a timely commentary, but while providing accurate and up-to-date data on the foundational and characteristic elements of the text it remains in the mystical sapiential realm. The interconnection between the visions and religious-political context of the author of the biblical book and those of today is frequent, indeed perhaps the most interesting of the book’s innovation.  For example, the dominant system from which it is difficult to escape -both because of its structure and because of the thought behind it in the 2nd century CE- is the Roman empire. Today, this is actualized in the economic system of various strong powers from whose dynamics no one can escape.

Revelation, the author seems to tell us, is about the present and not the future because it is not born out of nothing, but in concrete contexts, those of the ekklesia-that is, of the Churches, and it is possible for every woman and man to see and hear together with that multitude that cannot be counted, but exists, and to effect transformation.

Rosa Lupoli is a Capuchin nun in Naples, abbess of the monastery Santa Maria in Gerusalemme known as the Trentatrè, founded by Blessed Maria Lorenza Longo