Revelation 21:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The beginning and the end is Christ, first according to His Divinity and last according to His humanity. He embraces all things by His providence, from the first bodiless creature to mankind. He promises to give the grace of the Holy Spirit to the one who thirsts for righteousness, the grace He promised to send down upon those who believe in Him. Freely may mean either that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in the saints (Rom 8:18), or that this grace cannot be acquired by possessions. It is acquired only through good works, according to the love for mankind of the Giver.

The promise of the Most High to the saints has been fulfilled, so that they are renewed in all things and illumined with every splendor. Thus the Apostle says that the dead also will rise incorruptible (1 Cor 15:52) and will be changed into glory. He declares that this must take place with such swiftness that it should be thought of as already accomplished. Therefore it is promised that those who overcome will possess all these things, so that the one who has overcome is called a son of God (cf. Rev 21:7).

To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life. That is, to the one thirsting for the remission of sins through the fountain of baptism.

If heaven, earth, and sea have become new, and still more if men have become new, then what constitutes their joy and glory has also been renewed. It is not interrupted by tears, sorrows, or dishonors. Truly, therefore, all things have become new.

It is as though the text says: Do not think, John, that what has been spoken and shown to you contains some fantasy or falsehood because of its exceeding greatness. All is true and faithful; therefore write it.

“It is done!” says the book. What is done? Precisely what was being spoken of, and none of it is false. “It is done” is written in place of “it must be done.”

These words should be received by faith, not interpreted, especially because he speaks thus of the past: it is done, so that no one may dare to doubt the future. From this fountain God now refreshes believers on the way. To those who overcome He gives full satisfaction of thirst in the homeland, so that pilgrims in the wilderness, watered by rain, may not lack water, and those who have become citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem may be continually inebriated by the stream of divine delights.

As at the beginning of the book He bears witness concerning Himself, who He is (cf. Rev 1:8), so here this should be repeated a third time, so that no one may believe that any other was God before Him, as Isaiah says, or will be after Him (cf. Isa 43:10). Indeed, since the end of the world is being discussed, He who will bring time to an end can only be the same person as He who gave it its beginning. This is also said in Rev 22:13.

Those who thirst are people who seek the grace of the Holy Spirit with faith.

And He said to me: It is done, meaning that everything promised has been fulfilled. That is, all this will come with the same certainty as though it had already happened in reality (cf. Rev 16:17 above). I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. That is, I am eternal, and therefore everything I promise is already fulfilled. Before My eyes the future and the present form one and the same indivisible moment.