May the angels lead you into paradise;

may the martyrs come to welcome you

and take you into the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem.

May choirs of angels welcome you

and lead you to the bosom of Abraham;

and where Lazarus is poor no longer may you find eternal rest.

May saints and angels lead you on,

Escorting you where Christ has gone.

Now he has called you, come to him who sits above the seraphim.

Come to the peace of Abraham

And to the supper of the Lamb:

Come to the glory of the blessed, And to perpetual light and rest.

Before we contemplate the reality of the New Jerusalem, we must understand the significance of Jerusalem, and its destiny, prior to the Incarnation.

Jerusalem became the royal city of David after he defeated the Jebusites and took the city from them. David built a palace there from which to rule the nation of Israel, and his son, Solomon, built a temple so that the Israelite nation could worship God.

Jerusalem became a city of governance and worship. A city that symbolized national and spiritual unity.  Jerusalem became the fulfillment of the children of the Exodus.  The realization of the promise given to those who had left Egypt.

But the earthly Jerusalem was imperfect in unity, fulfillment, and realization.  Although the One True God had revealed himself to Israel, and gave them His law, and decreed that a dwelling be built for Him, the Israelites continued to worship other gods, follow their own laws, and instead of being united they fought with each other.  Until, eventually, the earthly Jerusalem came to represent division and false worship.

During that brief time, under the reigns of kings David and Solomon, Jerusalem had represented the crowning achievement of Israelite glory--a city that equaled or surpassed the cities of other nations.  And it was that moment of glory, those 80 years under David and Solomon, the people of Judah remembered and made the center of their identity after they were taken captive by the Assyrian-Babylonian empire.  The memory of Jerusalem became a hope--the feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.  Salvation.

PSALM 122

I rejoiced when they said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”

And now our feet are standing

within your gates, Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, built as a city,

walled round about.

There the tribes go up,

the tribes of the LORD,

As it was decreed for Israel,

to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

There are the thrones of justice,

the thrones of the house of David.

For the peace of Jerusalem pray:

May those who love you prosper!

May peace be within your ramparts,

prosperity within your towers.”

For the sake of my brothers and friends I say,

“Peace be with you.”

For the sake of the house of the LORD, our God,

I pray for your good.

"And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

Mural of the New Jerusalem Diocese of Phoenix

I hope this is the beginning of a project that will grow and produce spiritual fruit.  The idea of this project is to consider the reality of the "New Jerusalem" and the possibility of casting a reflection or icon of the New Jerusalem in the present world.

Why is the reality of the New Jerusalem important?

When Christ came into the world he came to save us, not individually but as a people. As a community.  In the Nicene Creed we read: For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven,...For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph 166:

• Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for our neighbor impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith.

Unfortunately, many sects within Protestantism have corrupted this understanding with their overemphasis on Sola Scriptura.  Because the Bible is believed to be the sole authority of Faith in Protestantism, certain protestants believe that their possession of the Bible and their individual interpretation of it brings them to salvation.  Therefore in the Protestant Mind, salvation is for individuals--and that by their own declaration of being saved, they create a confederation of saved individuals..., but not a community of faithful.  That is why today their are thousands of sects proclaiming their own creeds.

But Christ did not come to save only Harry and not Larry.  He came to save all--For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life--Christ came to gather a people unto and into himself.  As St. Paul says in Galatians: For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We also read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 810:

• Hence the universal Church is seen to be 'a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Because Christ, in his salvific mission, created a community, then Christ, in his salvific mission must have created a place for this community to assemble and worship--to be.

THAT PLACE IS THE NEW JERUSALEM.