Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Listen on SoundOn
Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Revelation 11:4–12
Today the Book of Revelation shows us two witnesses.
They stand before the world.
They speak God’s word.
They call people to repentance.
They remind us of Moses
and Elijah.
Moses stood before Pharaoh
and called Egypt to let God’s people go.
Elijah stood before Israel
and called the people back to the Lord.
Both faced resistance.
Both confronted power.
Both spoke when silence would have been easier.
The two witnesses do the same.
They speak to a world that does not want to listen.
They call for conversion.
They warn against sin.
They expose oppression.
They remind the world that God is not absent.
But the world rejects them.
The beast rises against them.
He makes war on them
and kills them.
For a moment,
evil seems to win.
The witnesses lie dead.
Their enemies rejoice.
Their voices are silenced.
This is one of the great sorrows of every age.
The world often celebrates when truth is silenced.
It is relieved when prophets disappear.
It prefers comfort to conversion.
It prefers darkness to repentance.
Revelation calls the city where the witnesses die
Sodom
and Egypt.
These names are not only places on a map.
They are symbols.
Sodom stands for sin,
pride,
indifference,
and a heart closed to the poor.
Egypt stands for slavery,
oppression,
and the power that refuses to let God’s people go.
The shocking thing is this:
Revelation applies these names to the city
where the Lord was crucified.
Even Jerusalem,
the holy city,
can become Sodom.
Even Jerusalem can become Egypt.
Even a religious place
can become a place of sin and oppression
when it refuses the voice of God.
This is a warning for every city,
every nation,
every Church,
and every heart.
Holiness is not protected by a name.
A holy name does not guarantee a holy life.
We must listen.
We must repent.
We must return to God.
But the story does not end with death.
After three and a half days,
the breath of life from God
enters the witnesses.
They stand on their feet.
Fear falls on those who see them.
Then they hear a voice from heaven:
Come up here.
And they are taken up to heaven.
The world can reject God’s witnesses.
The beast can fight against them.
Evil can seem to triumph for a time.
But God has the last word.
The witnesses rise.
Their testimony is not lost.
Their death is not defeat.
This is the hope of the Church.
We are called to witness.
Sometimes by words.
Sometimes by suffering.
Sometimes by fidelity when the world refuses to listen.
The mission is not easy.
But the Lord does not abandon His witnesses.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Mark
Year of Mark - Get it from Amazon
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Content License
© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
(Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).