Book 7 Chapter 2 – Mystical City Of God

Book 7 CHAPTER II.

SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST, IN CHAPTER THE TWENTYFIRST OF THE APOCALYPSE, GIVES A LITERAL DESCRIPTION OF HIS VISION OF THE MOST HOLY MARY OUR LADY AS SHE DESCENDED FROM HEAVEN.

10. It befitted the exalted dignity of saint John as being appointed the son of most holy Mary by Jesus on the Cross, that he should be the secretary of the ineffable sacraments and mysteries of the great Queen, which were kept concealed from other persons. For this reason many of her mysteries were revealed to him before her excursion into heaven, and he was made an eye-witness of the hidden mysteries on the day of the Ascension, when this sacred Eagle saw the divine Sun, Christ (Isaias 30, 26), ascend in seven-fold light, as Isaias said, and with it, the moon Mary shining as the sun, on account of her likeness to Christ. The most fortunate Evangelist saw Her ascend and seated at the right hand of her Son; he saw Her also descend, as I have said, with renewed astonishment; because he recognized the change and renovation at her return to the earth after having experienced the influences of the divine glory and godlike attributes. As is said in the second part, our Savior Jesus had already promised the Apostles, that before going to heaven He would arrange for the stay of his most blessed Mother for the consolation and direction of his holy Church. But the Apostle saint John, during his first joy and wonder at seeing the great Queen seated at the right hand of Christ our Savior, forgot this promise and, absorbed in the consideration of this unthought of event, he began to fear or get anxious, lest the heavenly Mother should remain in the glory which She enjoyed. Agitated by this uncertainty, saint John, amid the jubilee of his soul, felt also the afflicting pangs of love at the loss ; and these lasted until he again remembered the promises of his Master and Savior and saw his most holy Mother descending to the earth.

11. The mysteries of this vision remained impressed upon the memory of saint John, so that neither these, nor all the others revealed to him by the Queen of the angels, ever escaped his mind ; and the sacred Evangelist sought to spread the knowledge of them in the holy Church. But the humility of the most prudent Mary our Lady deterred him as long as She lived and persuaded him to keep them hidden within his bosom until the Most High should command otherwise; for it was not opportune to manifest them to the world beforehand. The Apostle obeyed the wishes of the heavenly Mother. Before his death, at the time when God commissioned him to enrich the Church with the hidden treasures of these sacraments, he was instructed by the Holy Ghost to reveal them in deeply metaphorical and enigmatic language, which, as the Church itself confesses, is difficult to understand. It was proper that they should not be open to all, but shut up as the pearl is in nacre or in its shell, or as the gold is hidden in the minerals of the earth. The holy Church, gradually more enlightened and studying them diligently, could draw upon these treasures as necessity required; and in the meanwhile preserve them in deposit within the obscurity, which the holy doctors have met with and ac knowledge in the holy Scriptures, and especially in the Apocalypse.

12. In the course of this history I have already spoken of the providence of the Most High in concealing the greatness of his most holy Mother in the primitive Church, (Part II, 413) and I will offer no excuse for pointing it out anew, because of the admiration it will cause in those, who now come to know of it. In order to moderate our doubts (if any should be entertained), we need only consider what the various saints and doctors have said anent the providential concealment of the body and the burial of Moses (Deut. 34, 6). This was ordained they say, in order that the people of the Jews, so given to idolatry, might not be led astray into giving adoration to the body of the Prophet, whom they esteemed so highly, or that they might not begin to venerate him by some superstitious and vain cult. For the same reason they say, that Moses, writing of the creation of the world and of all creatures, although the angels were the most noble of all, did not expressly mention their creation, but only indicated it by the words : “God created light ;” because these words can be understood as well of the material light of this visible world, as also, by a hidden metaphor, of those substantial and spiritual lights, the holy angels, of whom a more open mention was at that time not opportune.

13. If the Hebrews were subject to the danger of idolatry because of the intercourse and vicinity of heathenism and because of their blind inclination to attribute Divinity to men or to whatever seemed great, powerful or in any way superior; then, if, in the first preaching of the Gospel and the faith of Christ our Savior, the great excellences of his most holy Mother had been propounded to them, the gentiles would have been in still greater danger of this error. In corroboration of this we have the saying of Dionysius the Areopagite, who, though he was such a great philosopher that he had found out the existence of the true God even by his natural acumen of mind, openly maintained, after he had become a Catholic, that, when he had seen and conversed with the most holy Mary, he would certainly have esteemed and adored Her as a God, if faith had not taught him otherwise. In this danger then would have fallen, much more easily, the ignorant, and they would certainly have confounded the Divinity of Christ the Redeemer, which they were obliged to believe together with the greatness of his most pure Mother, thinking that, since they were propounded at the same time and showed such similarity in holiness, She was a God just as her Son. But this danger vanished after the faith and practice of the Church had taken such deep roots and after it had been so clearly established by the teachings of the holy doctors and by so many miracles wrought by God in testimony of the Redeemer. Enlightened by these testimonies we know that He alone is God and true man, full of truth and grace; and that his Mother is a mere creature, full of grace without possessing the Divinity and next to God above all the rest of creation. In our times then, so enlightened by the divine truths, the Lord knows when and how it is proper to spread the glory of his most holy Mother by opening up the enigmas and secrets of the holy Scriptures wherein He holds them enshrined.

14. The mystery of which I am about to speak, with many others concerning our great Queen, was recorded by the Evangelist in the metaphors of the twenty-first chapter of the Apocalypse ; especially introducing the most holy Mary under the type of the holy Jerusalem and de scribing Her under cover of all the circumstances mentioned in that chapter. Although in the first part I have explained it at length in three chapters, applying it, as it was then given me to understand, to the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin Mother; yet it is necessary now to interpret it in relation to the mystery of the descent of the Queen of angels after the Ascension of the Lord. Let it not be objected that there is a contradiction or repugnance in these different applications; for both of them are legitimately founded on the literal text of the Scriptures, and there can be no doubt, that the divine Wisdom can comprehend in the same and identical words many mysteries and sacraments. As David said : In one word we can include more than one thing, and God certainly included a double meaning in the same words without equivocation or contradiction (Ps. 61, 12). This is one of the sources of the difficulties found in holy Scripture, and one that was necessary in order to make it more pregnant and precious in its meaning and in order that the faithful may study it with greater humility and reverence. That it should be so full of enigmas and metaphors is necessary, since in that style and wording, the sacred mysteries, which would be strained by the more proper terms, can be expressed much more fully.

15. This will be better understood in the mysteries now under consideration, for saint John says that “he saw the holy city of the new Jerusalem, prepared and adorned as a bride, descending from heaven,” etc. There is no doubt that this metaphor of a city refers truly to the most holy Mary, and points out her descent after having ascended with her most blessed Son. At the same time it also refers to her descent in the divine mind by her Immaculate Conception, in which She was formed as the new earth and the new heaven, as explained on in the first part. The Evangelist included both these sacraments, when he speaks of this event in the twenty-first chapter. Therefore it will be necessary to explain it in this new sense, though this will imply a repetition of the sacred text; but I will explain it more briefly on account of what I have already said in the first part. I will now speak in the name of the Evangelist, for the sake of greater brevity.

16. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth was gone, and the sea is now no more” (Apoc. 21, 1). He calls the most sacred humanity of the incarnate Word and that of his heavenly Mother, a new heaven and a new earth : a heaven, on account of the inhabitation of the Divinity in humanity, and a new one, on account of the renovation of mankind. In Christ Jesus our Savior lives the Divinity (Col. 2, 9), in a oneness of personality following from the indissoluble substantial union ; while in Mary another kind of union is effected, an extraordinary union of graces. These heavens are now new; the passible humanity, which the Evangelist had seen wounded and dead in the sepulchre, he now saw elevated and placed at the right hand of the eternal Father, crowned with glory and with the gifts merited by his life and death. He saw also the Mother, who had given to Christ this passible nature and had co-operated in the Redemption of the human race, seated at the right hand of her Son (Ps. 44, 10) and absorbed in the ocean of the inaccessible light of the Divinity, participating in the glory of her Son as his Mother and meriting it in justice and on account of her ineffable works of charity. He called also the earth of the living a new heaven and a new earth, as it was renewed by the lamp of the Lamb (Apoc. 21, 23), replenished with the spoils of his triumph and newly illumined by the presence of his Mother; renewed also because as Sovereigns They had taken possession of their reign through all the eternities. They renewed it also by having afforded its inhabitants the opportunity to see Them with their own eyes and to partake of their benefits, by having populated this earth with the new children of Adam as its citizens and their allies and by having turned it over to them without any danger of loss. On account of these different kinds of renewal he said that the first heaven and the first earth had gone; not only because the sacred humanity of Christ and that of most holy Mary, in which He had lived as in the first heaven, had betaken Themselves to the eternal habitations, bearing with them also the earth of their human essence ; but also because men themselves from the ancient heaven and earth of their passible being, had passed to the state of impassibility. Gone were the rigors of justice, and blessed rest was attained. The winter of troubles had fled (Cant. 2, 11) and the eternal springtime of joy and delight had come. The first earth and heaven of all the mortals had also vanished; for the celestial Jerusalem had been barred and locked during five thousand two hundred years, so that none could enter and all the mortals would have been confined to the old sin-stained earth, if through the entrance of Christ and his most blessed Mother these bars and locks had not been shattered and the divine justice had not been satisfied.

17. In an especial sense the most blessed Mary was a new heaven and earth and new earth by ascending with her Son, the Savior Jesus, and by taking possession at his right hand in the glory of body and soul without having passed through the death common to all the sons of men. Although even in her human condition upon earth She was a heaven, whence She saw the Divinity; but this condition of the great Lady passed away, to take the place of another condition, making Her, by an admirable disposition of the divine Providence, a new heaven, in which God might dwell among all creatures in the highest glory. In this new order of things, in this new heaven, there was no sea; for through Her the bitterness and sorrows of labor had come to an end, if She would have consented to remain from that time on in that most happy state. In regard to the other saints, who in body and soul, or only in the soul, remained in glory, all storms and dangers of the first earth in mortal life now really had an end.

18. The Evangelist proceeds: “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.” I, an unworthy Apostle of Jesus Christ, am the one to whom this hidden sacrament was revealed in order that it might become known to the world : and I saw the Mother of the Incarnate Word, the true mystical city of Jerusalem, the vision of peace, descending from the throne of God himself to the earth, and I saw Her clothed as it were with the Divinity and adorned with a new participation in God s attributes, his wisdom, power, holiness, immutability, and amiability, and resembling his Son in her actions and behavior. She came as an instrument of his Omnipotence and taking the place of God by a new participation. Although She came to the earth in order to labor upon it for the benefit of the faithful and for this purpose deprived Herself voluntarily of the vision of eternal glory, nevertheless the Most High re solved to send Her adorned and furnished with the power of his own arm and to compensate Her for the beatific vision She relinquished. Instead of it She was favored with another sort of vision and participation in his in comprehensible Divinity, suited to her present state of pilgrimage, but yet so divine and exalted, that it exceeds all the thoughts of angels and men. He adorned Her with gifts limited only by Herself and has prepared Her as a Bride for her Spouse, the incarnate Word, enriching Her so that no grace or excellence was wanting in Her. Nor should her absence from his right hand deprive Her of the presence and intercourse of her Man, who was to remain in Her, as in his proper heaven and throne. Just as the sponge receives and soaks up the fluids into its hollow spaces, so, according to our mode of understanding, this great Lady was filled with influences and communications of the Divinity.

19. The text further states: “And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them. And they shall be his people; and God himself with them shall be their God.” This voice proceeding from the throne, filled all my mind with sweetness and joy. I understood how the great Lady, before her death, attained possession of the great reward merited as a singular favor and the prerogative due only to Her among all the mortals. None of these, after attaining possession of their glory, had permission or authority to return to life; yet this privilege was conceded to this only Bride for the increase of her glory. She, in full possession of eternal beatitudes and proclaimed by all the courtiers of heaven as their legitimate Queen and Lady, wished of her own free will to descend and become the Servant of her vassals, educating and governing them as her children. On account of this charity She deserved, to have all the mortals as her subjects, and to be put in possession of the militant Church, where She was to dwell, over which She was to preside and draw the blessing, the mercy and forgiveness of God; for in her bosom the Lord was sacramentally present during the whole time in which She lived in the primitive Church after her descent from heaven. If there had been no other reason, her Son would have instituted the most holy Sacrament in the world in order thus to dwell in Her; and through her merits and petitions He remained among men with new graces and benefits ; wherefore the Evangelist adds :

20. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying.” This great Lady came as the Mother of grace, of mercy, of joy, and of life. She it is, that fills the world with joy, that dries away the tears brought on by the sin of our mother Eve. She turned mourning into rejoicing, tears into new jubilee, clamors into praise and glory, the death of sin into life for all who seek it. Now the death of sin is at an end, and all the clamors and the pains of the wicked are at an end, if only, before their damnation, they will flee to this sanctuary and there find pardon, mercy and consolation. The first ages, which were not blessed with the presence of Mary, the Queen of the angels, have fled and passed with all the sorrows and sighs of those that sought Her and could not see Her ; for now the world possesses Her for a refuge and help, and for a shield of mercy against the divine justice that hangs over the sinner’s head.

21. “And He that sat upon the throne, said: Behold I make all things new.” This was the voice of the eternal Father, who gave me to understand, how He would make all things new : a new Church, a new Law, new Sacraments. Having conferred upon men such new blessings as to give them his Onlybegotten Son, He added to this blessing by sending them the most holy Mary thus renewed, endowed with such wonderful gifts and power as to enable Her to distribute the treasures of the Redemption, and by placing them altogether into her hands to be scattered broadcast according to her most prudent will. For this purpose did He send Her from the royal throne, a faithful reproduction of his Son, and, like a faithful copy of the Original, sealed Her, in as far as is possible in a mere creature, with the attributes of the Divinity. Her holiness was also to be copied by the new evangelical Church.

22. “And He said to me : Write, for these words are most faithful and true. And He said to me : It is done. I am Alpha and Omega ; the beginning and the end. To him that thirsteth, I will give of the fountain of waters, freely. He that overcometh shall possess these things, and I will be his God; and he shall be my son.” The Lord from his throne (says saint John), commanded me to write down this mystery, in order to give witness to the fidelity and truth of his words and of the works of the most holy Mary, into whose hands He has pawned his Omnipotence. And because these sacraments are so exalted and hidden, I announce them in figures and riddles, leaving it to the Lord to manifest them in the world at his own time, and letting all understand, that whatever is possible has been done for the restoration and welfare of mortals. In saying “it is done,” God reminds men of their obligations toward Him for sending his Onlybegotten to suffer and die for them and to teach them his doc trine; and for sending his Mother to assist and succor the Church ; and for sending the Holy Ghost to promote and enlighten, to strengthen and comfort it with the gifts He had promised. And since the eternal Father had nothing more to give us, He says: “It is done.” As if he had said: “All that is possible to my Omnipotence and proper to my equity and bounty, I have given, and the One who is the beginning and end of all that has being. As the beginning, I give it by the omnipotence of my will ; and as the end of all, I receive all things, providing in my wisdom the means by which they attain their last end. These means are all under the control of my most divine Son and his Mother, my chosen and beloved One among the children of Adam. In Her are the pure and living waters of grace, from which all the mortals, who thirst after their eternal salvation, may draw it as from its fount and source (John 7, 37). For them these waters are distributed gratis; since they could not merit them, yet with his own life, my incarnate Son has merited them, and his blessed Mother gains and merits them for those that apply to Her. And whoever shall overcome the hindrances to these waters of grace, that is: Whoever overcomes himself, the world and the demon, shall find Me a liberal, loving and mighty God; he shall possess all my goods and whatever through my Son and his Mother I have prepared for him; for I shall adopt him as my child and as an inheritor of my eternal glory.

23. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, they shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” To all the sons of Adam I give my Onlybegotten as a Master, Redeemer, and Brother and his Mother as a Protectress, Mediatrix and Advocate powerful before Me; and as such I send Her again into the world, that all may understand how much I wish them to avail themselves of her protection. But those that do not overcome the repugnance of their flesh to suffering, or do not believe my testimonies and wonders wrought in their behalf, or those witnessed by my holy Scriptures; and those who, having believed, have entangled themselves in the base impurities of carnal delights, the sorcerers, idolaters, who forsake my true power and Divinity, following the demon; all those that work deceit and malice, shall have no other inheritance than what they thus choose for themselves. This will be the dreadful fire of hell, which is a pool of burning sulphur, full of darkness and stench, where for each of the damned there shall be different pains and torments according to the abominations committed by each one; but all of them shall be eternal and connected with the loss of the divine and beatific vision enjoyed by the saints. This shall be the second death, from which there shall be no salvation; because those overtaken by it have not availed themselves of the Redemption from the first death of sin through the Redeemer and his blessed Mother in grace. Still de scribing his vision the Evangelist proceeds :

24. “And there came one of the seven angels, who had the vials full of the seven last plagues, and spoke with me, saying : Come and I will show thee the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb.” I saw that this angel and the others were of the highest and closest to the throne of the blessed Trinity; and that they were endowed with special powers to chastise the presumption of men who should commit the above-mentioned sins, after the mystery of the Redemption, the life, teaching and death of the Savior had been proclaimed, and the excellence and power of his most blessed Mother in assisting the sinners had become known. And as, in the course of time, these sacraments, with their miracles and enlightenment, with the example of the saints, and especially that of the apostolic men, of the founders of religious communities, and of the great number of martyrs and confessors, have become more and more manifest: therefore the sins of men in the last ages are more heinous and detestable, their ingratitude toward such blessings is more abominable and worthy of greater punishments. Consequently they rouse so much the greater indignation and wrath of the divine justice. Thus in the future times (which are the present ones for us), God shall punish men with greater rigor, sending upon them the plagues reserved for the rapidly approaching days of the final judgment. Let the reader refer to paragraph 266 in the first part.

25. “And he took me up in spirit to a great and high mountain ; and he showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.” I was raised by the power of God to a high mountain of exalted intelligence and enlightenment concerning the hidden sacraments, and in this state I saw the Bride of the Lamb, his Woman, like the city of Jerusalem; the Bride of the Lamb, on account of her likeness in reciprocal love to Him, who took away the sins of the world (John 1, 29) ; his Woman, because She accompanied Him inseparably through all his works and wonders, and because for Her He came forth from the bosom of his eternal Father to have his delight with the children of men, who were the brethren of this Bride and, through Her, also his own brethren. I saw Her also as the city of Jerusalem, who enclosed Him within herself and afforded Him a spacious habitation, though He cannot be encompassed by heaven or earth ; and because He placed in that City the temple and the propitiatory, where He wished to be sought and propitiated by mankind. And although on earth She humiliated and prostrated Herself beneath the feet of all, as if She had been the least of creatures, I saw Her raised on high to the throne and the right hand of her Onlybegotten, whence She again descended, prosperous and bountiful, to enrich the faithful children of the Church.