What was it about that scroll?

In today’s first reading, from the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation, we hear about a scroll that is the center of considerable drama. We hear that the writer actually breaks down and cries at the thought that the scroll might not be opened. In subsequent chapters, the drama goes off the scale: the scroll’s seven seals are opened one-by-one to unleash a new apocalyptic terror.

What was it about that scroll and why is Christ, the lamb that was slain, the only one worthy to open it?

The scroll corresponds to God’s plan for the world he has created. God’s plan is ultimately a plan of salvation, but that is sometimes very hard for us to understand.

As it turns out, God’s plan is often made plain to us only after suffering. Thus, in these early chapters of the book of Revelation, as disasters befall the world, we see that another of the scroll’s seven seals has been broken and God’s plan has unfolded even more.

The fact that this plan is salvific, even with the disasters that go with it, is reinforced by the fact that it could only be revealed and implemented by Christ: the lamb that was slain, whose blood has purchased us for God.

If it were not for Christ, God’s plan would not be salvific: there would be no remedy for sin and finitude.

But because Christ did indeed die for our sins, all things (the good and the disastrous) work together for the good of those who love him.

Only Christ can reveal and consummate God's plan for creation because Christ is the Savior.

We cannot always understand exactly how God's plan for salvation takes place, either for ourselves as individuals and for all of God’s creation.

But we know that although there will be struggles, as we move from a world of sin to a world of grace, we know even more assuredly that our Savior will be with us, and that when God's plan is ultimately consummated, no earthly disaster will be able to keep us from being fully revealed as the holy and beloved ones of God... and we will reign with him in glory.