G
Gloria_de_G
Guest
Since I really think Dr. Scott Hahn has done a lot of harm with his little book to the interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Here are some extracts of the conclusion to a review of his book by a Catholic, immerse on the Apocalypse for the last 30 years.
** see at the bottom…
"Conclusion
Here is an opportunity, then, to summarize this review of “The Lamb’s Supper” and speak directly to the author. (…)
Dr. Hahn (…) you overlooked the temporal progression of the heavenly liturgy described in the Book of Revelation and, due to a spurious intuition you received at your first Mass, you have assumed that the heavenly liturgy has already arrived at its conclusion—the celebration of the marriage of the Lamb with his bride, the Church—even though you know very well that the Church is still not fully prepared for this event. As the Catechism says: “The Church…will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven’, at the time of Christ’s glorious return” (CCC 769, also Rev 19,6-9).
However, the linkage of the marriage feast with the Second Coming has not deterred you. You have simply brought Christ’s Second Coming forward by equating it with his Real Presence at the Mass. You then argue that every Mass is a celebration of the marriage feast, precisely because every Mass is a Second Coming or ‘return’ of Christ (‘Parousia Now’). You actually go further. You compare the Mass to the ‘consummation’ of the marriage—to the intimate, quasi ecstatic, union between Christ and his people. By referring to the Mass in this way, you have gone far beyond the teaching of the Church in the Catechism, which refers to it modestly as an ‘anticipation’, ‘foretaste’ or ‘pledge’ of the future consummation.(CCC You have ‘glorified’ the Mass in a way that was never formally taught or intended.
You have achieved this ‘glorification’ of the Mass by claiming it is the fulfillment of all the hopes and expectations that, in truth, await their realization at Christ’s Second Coming. To this end, you have accommodated the Book of Revelation to your scheme of realized eschatology (‘Parousia Now’), thus minimizing the transformation of creation at the Second Coming and depriving the book’s final visions of a concrete realization in the future. In the process, you have downplayed the universality and severity of the final judgment, failing to consider the unspeakable tragedy of eternal condemnation. At the cost of these essential elements of Christian eschatology, you have portrayed the Catholic Mass as the goal of history and the ultimate fulfillment of Christian prophecy and expectation. One wonders what has inspired you to falsely exaggerate the scatological dimension of the Mass in this way, at the cost of diminishing the true scatological significance of the Book of Revelation.
(…)
But why, you may wonder, am I so concerned about what you have written in your little book, so many years ago? Let me explain: I believe, and hope to have shown, that the realized eschatology expressed in this interpretation is not only erroneous, but is also harmful for the Faith. It is erroneous because it ignores the temporal progression of the heavenly liturgy described in the Book of Revelation and misreads the New Testament’s most complete vision of the eschatological transformation of life on this planet (Rev 21-22). It is harmful because it raises false expectations of the Mass and, at the same time, undermines the final visions of Revelation, weakening faith in God’s promises, dimming hope in their future fulfilment and blunting respect for the Scripture in which these things are revealed.
Nevertheless, “The Lamb’s Supper” has been widely diffused and has become very influential among the clergy of the Catholic Church. So much so, that your little book is now regarded by some as a standard of orthodoxy in Eucharistic piety and in the interpretation of the Book of Revelation. (…) I believe it is time to speak out against your teaching before this ‘school’ becomes a sect of proud and emboldened elites, armed with a special set of Eucharistic beliefs, and branding everybody else as a heretic. "
**"Before studying “The Lamb’s Supper” to understand its alluring message, I first seek reassurance from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). Again and again, the Eucharistic Mass is described as a pledge and an anticipation: it is “a pledge of the life to come” (CCC 1402), and an anticipation of “eternal life” (1326), of “the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem” (1329), of “the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom” (1340) and of “the heavenly glory” (1402). If the Mass is a pledge or anticipation of all these promises, one wonders how it can also be considered their fulfillment. And since the celebration of the Mass will cease with Christ’s return (1337, 1341, 1344), one is surely justified in saying that it is not the fulfillment itself, but only a means to this end: “Therefore we celebrate the Eucharist ‘awaiting the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ’” (1404). My definition of the Mass is not so heretical after all. But how could the priest be so sure that it was? This leads us back to the growing influence of Dr. Scott Hahn’s popular little book “The Lamb’s Supper—The Mass as Heaven on Earth”. "
You can see the full review here:
newtorah.org/Review%20Lambs%20Supper.html
In the love of the Truth,
Gloria
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