Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
St. John described in chapter xxi the circuit, wall, streets, foundations, and gates of the heavenly Jerusalem; here he describes its river and, on either side of the river, the trees of life. Secondly, in verse 8, when he wished to adore the Angel who announced these things, he is forbidden by him saying: I am thy fellow-servant, etc. Thirdly, in verse 12, he exhorts all to long for this city, and that they may enter it by fleeing from sins and by a holy life. Fourthly, in verse 18, he threatens grave punishments upon him who adds or takes away anything from this prophecy. Finally, sighing for Heaven and Christ: Come, he says, Lord Jesus.
Vulgate Text: Apocalypse 22:1-21
1 And he shewed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street thereof, and on both sides of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no curse any more; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 And they shall see His face: and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 And night shall be no more: and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and they shall reign for ever and ever. 6 And He said to me: These words are most faithful and true. And the Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angel to shew His servants the things which must be done shortly. 7 And behold I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book. 8 And I, John, who have heard and seen these things. And after I had heard and seen, I fell down to adore before the feet of the angel, who shewed me these things. 9 And He said to me: See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them that keep the words of the prophecy of this book. Adore God. 10 And He saith to me: Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. 11 He that hurteth, let him hurt still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is just, let him be justified still: and he that is holy, let him be sanctified still. 12 Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to his works. 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. 14 Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb: that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. 15 Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and unchaste, and murderers, and servers of idols, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie. 16 I Jesus have sent My angel, to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and stock of David, the bright and morning star. 17 And the spirit and the bride say: Come. And he that heareth, let him say: Come. And he that thirsteth, let him come: and he that will, let him take the water of life, freely. 18 For I testify to every one that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book. 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book. 20 He that giveth testimony of these things, saith, Surely I come quickly: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Verse 1: The River of the Water of Life
1. AND HE SHOWED ME A RIVER OF WATER OF LIFE (Syriac: of living waters), CLEAR AS CRYSTAL, PROCEEDING FROM THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB. — The Arabic renders: And he showed me a river of water of life proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of its streets; and a sea on this side and on that (on either side), and a tree of life bearing twelve fruits according to the number of the months. He calls this heavenly river a sea, because it was vast and broad like a sea. For understanding this vision and symbol, note that St. John saw the throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of the city, set in a high place, and that from this throne proceeded a river which runs through each of the city's streets, both for the delight and for the utility of the citizens — and that twofold utility, namely: first, that it might give drink to the thirsty, as is said in verse 17; secondly, that for those eating it might give food. For He has and nourishes on both sides most beautiful trees, bearing apples and most excellent fruits, like a divine paradise: wherefore both the river, and the trees, and the apples, and all other things here are divine. This river is called the river of life, that is, vital, giving living and ever-bubbling waters, by which He confers perpetual and blessed life on those who thirst and drink.
You will ask: What is this river of life? First, Richard and Joachim answer that it is the grace of the Holy Spirit. Second, Rupert says it is the Holy Spirit Himself, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, as this river is said to flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb; for the Holy Spirit is the most abundant fount both of grace and of glory, of felicity and delight, who continually supplies to the elect and Blessed all things suitable for delight, that through every month and day of eternity they may be fed with the sweetest fruits. So too S. Ambrose, book III On the Holy Spirit, chapter xxi: "This, he says, is indeed the river proceeding from the seat of God; this is the Holy Spirit whom he drinks who believes in Christ, as He Himself says: He that thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He that believes in Me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But He spoke this of the Spirit. Therefore the river is the Spirit. Here therefore is in the seat of God." Third, Haymo and Ansbert say this river is the preaching of the Gospel, which like a river spread to all nations. But S. John here treats of the Blessed and of beatitude, not of the conversion of the gentiles.
And so I say with him that here he alludes to the earthly paradise, and to its fount and tree of life, of which Genesis chapter ii. This river therefore signifies the exuberance of gifts and delights poured out by God and Christ upon the Blessed. It is called "the river of the water of life," or, as others read, "of living [water]," which namely always pours forth water from itself, as from a vital heart or liver, or which always flows, and never dries up or fails: which, if it permeates a city, brings it great pleasantness and utility. Whence it is said in Psalm xlv, 5: "The stream of the river makes glad the city of God." Such a river therefore in Heaven is the beatific vision of God, through which God communicates Himself and all His goods to the Saints, and pours His joys upon them so abundantly that of them it is said in Psalm xxxv, 9: "They shall be inebriated with the abundance of Thy house, and Thou shalt give them drink of the torrent of Thy delight." And Isaiah lxvi, 12: "I will incline upon her as a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent of glory." Wherefore piously and truly S. Bernard, sermon 1 On Various Things, comparing the labors and pains of this life with this river of heavenly delights: "Drop by drop, he says, pain is drunk, taken slowly, passing through small bits; but in reward there is a torrent of delight, and the rush of a river, an overflowing torrent making glad, a river of glory, and a river of peace. It is plainly a river, but one that flows in upon, not one that flows away or out. It is called a river, not because it passes by or passes through, but because it abounds."
This river is anagogically prefigured by that river of the temple of Ezekiel chapter xlvii, verses 1 and 5, says S. Jerome. For that one of Ezekiel is of the militant Church, but this one of John is of the triumphant: for to the river of doctrine and wisdom of the militant Church, there corresponds the river of heavenly wisdom and of the beatific vision. Wherefore of this wisdom it is said in Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 40: "I, wisdom, have poured out rivers: I am as a river-dioryx (that is, an aqueduct; whence explaining he adds), and like an aqueduct I came forth from Paradise. I will water my garden of plantings, and I will inebriate the fruit of my meadow."
You will say: The beatific vision is the sun of this city, namely the clarity of God illuminating the city, as was said in chapter xxi, verse 23. Therefore the same cannot be the river of the city. I answer: I deny the consequence. For in symbolic and enigmatic visions, the same thing is represented through diverse symbols and enigmas, especially when the thing itself has various endowments which through one symbol cannot be adequately figured and expressed. Thus here the vision of God is compared to the sun of the heavenly Jerusalem, because it illuminates and glorifies it. The same vision is compared to the river of the city, because it fills and satisfies all thirst and every desire of the Blessed, and floods them with ineffable delight and inebriates them. Wherefore Alcazar compares it to the river which Mordecai in dreams saw turned into the sun, Esther x, 6: "A little fount, he says, grew into a river, and was turned into light and the sun, and overflowed into many waters." Furthermore, this fount represented "Esther, whom the King received as wife, and willed her to be queen." So likewise mystically wisdom, which by a spiritual marriage all the Blessed unite to themselves, is shadowed forth through the sun and through the river. Hence its water is called "of life," as the Italians call distilled wine the water of life, because it is as it were the vital spirit of the wine, which spirit instills and supplies animal spirits and life to the drinker; or life here signifies felicity, because life in Scripture is often the same as beatitude. Therefore the river of the water of life will be the same as a blessed, or rather a beatifying, river. In a similar sense it is called the wood or tree of life. So Alcazar.
Similar to this vital river is the fountain of the Virgin which makes balsam grow. For Burchard, who three hundred years ago surveyed the holy land, in his Description chapter penult., and from him Thomas Bozius, On the Signs of the Church, book II, chapter vii, relates that he saw in Egypt a garden of balsam, which of itself did not give fruit unless it was irrigated by a nearby fountain, in which the Blessed Virgin often washed the child Jesus; and that the Saracens, having tried it, testify that in vain it is irrigated with other waters: wherefore they had brought into that fountain water from elsewhere, so that drawing divine virtue from there, it would abundantly suffice for irrigation. So tropologically, all our thoughts and deeds wither like sterile plants, unless they be irrigated with that water of life. O sole mother among virgins, and Virgin among mothers; sole mother and daughter of thy Son, to thee and to thy Jesus this motto belongs: "Whatever Thou waterest grows." So Nicholas Causinus, book I Parab. Hist. lxv.
Add that this river is like the sun, because it is transparent like crystal: by which is signified the purity and sanctity of the delight which the Blessed draw from spiritual wisdom and the beatific vision, since of carnal wisdom and carnal delights Jeremiah ii, 18 says: "What desirest thou in the way of Egypt, that thou mayest drink turbid water?" Furthermore, light and spiritual life are inseparable companions and associates, and joined together they yield the most abundant fruits of the most illustrious virtues. Wherefore Scripture is wont to associate them, as Psalm xxxv, 10: "With Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light we shall see light." And John i, 4: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Some think this river is here compared to crystal, because water is the matter of crystal, and ice long preserved in the coldest mountains is at length converted into crystal. But Anselm Boetius refutes this, book II On Gems, chapter lxxiii: "Never, he says, can water be changed into crystal; yet without water it is not generated: for the very thinnest portion of earth must be dissolved by water, or commingled with [water] sent from elsewhere, which when the water recedes then first concretes into crystal. If crystal consisted of frozen water, it would be melted by fire (for those things which concrete by cold are melted by heat), and the watery parts would be melted by fire, which does not happen by experience. For burned by fire, it shows lime, that is earth, and salt, by whose spirit it was coagulated." The true reason therefore why this river is compared to crystal is the one I gave, namely that it was limpid and shining like crystal. Whence it says: "Brilliant as crystal." Thus sings the Poet:
There was a clear fountain, silvery with shining waves.
Thus the Roman Gentiles thought the souls of their own after death were transferred into Heaven to the milky circle (or galaxy), which seems to be as it were a river of water, indeed of glistening and splendid milk: for there they thought the souls of heroes dwelt because of the similar candor of life, namely innocence, purity, sanctity, as Cicero relates in the Dream of Scipio. Whence Manilius, book I, assigning the cause why the milky circle shines with thick light, sings thus:
Or do brave souls, and names worthy of Heaven,
Released from their bodies, and dismissed from the earth,
Migrate hither from the world, and dwelling in their own Heaven,
Live ethereal years, and enjoy the universe?
And here we venerate the Æacidæ, here too the Atridæ.
To this Virgil alluded, Eclogue 5, where celebrating the apotheosis of Julius Cæsar whom he calls Daphnis (because he was wont to bind his head with a laurel crown in place of a diadem: for Daphne in Greek is laurel), he thus sings:
Daphnis, gleaming white, marvels at the unaccustomed threshold of Olympus,
And sees beneath his feet the clouds and the stars.
Verse 2: The Tree of Life Bearing Twelve Fruits
2. IN THE MIDST OF ITS STREET, AND ON EITHER SIDE OF THE RIVER, THE TREE OF LIFE, BEARING TWELVE FRUITS, YIELDING ITS FRUIT THROUGH THE SINGLE MONTHS, AND THE LEAVES OF THE TREE FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS.
"Wood," that is woods, that is, vital trees: for one and the same tree cannot be on both banks of the river. He alludes both to the tree of life, which was in the earthly paradise, of which I spoke at Genesis ii, 8 and 9: and to Ezekiel xlvii, 7: "Behold on the bank of the torrent very many trees," And verse 12: "On both banks every fruit-bearing tree: its leaf shall not fall, and its fruit shall not fail; through every month it shall bring forth first-fruits." Where note: In the earthly paradise there were various species of trees, of which one was called the tree of life; but in the heavenly paradise all species of trees are of life, that is, bringing life and joyful and blessed immortality, as if to say: Plainly the Blessed are immortal, as are their joys and felicity, because wherever they turn, along all vital ways these trees, arranged in double row, meet them, whose fruits they continually feed upon and enjoy. Hence similar to the tree of life is the palm, "which at every rising of the moon also produces single branches, so that with the production of twelve branches the year is fulfilled. Wherefore the Egyptians indicating the year painted a palm," says Horus Apollo in Hieroglyphica chapter ii. So in the Life of S. Onuphrius we read, when fleeing into the desert he sat by a fountain and a palm, which every month brought forth fruit, namely dates, for him: "Every month, he says, it brings me one cluster of dates, which suffices me for thirty days, and after this another ripens." So Lives of the Fathers, book VI, booklet III, no. 11. In Italy too we see two-bearing figs, that is, giving fruit twice in the year, namely in June and September; again trees of melangoli, or golden apples, citrons, etc., which are green the whole year and bear fruits, some ripe and saffron-colored or golden, others green and ripening. Homer and the Poets celebrate the gardens of Alcinous, that they are two-bearing, and ever endowed with green leaves, which S. Justin Admonition to the Gentiles teaches that Homer took from Moses (for Homer was much later than Moses; but earlier and more ancient than Ezekiel, to whom John here alludes), and that the gardens of Alcinous are no other than the earthly paradise. But these trees of S. John bring forth new and vital fruits through every month; and they bear leaves always green and conferring health. Hear S. Justin reciting Homer's verses: "Homer described the image of paradise in the gardens of Alcinous, which he says are always green, full of continuous fruits." For thus he sings in Odyssey VII:
There great trees grew, tall
Pears, and pomegranates, and apples fruitful,
And sweet figs, and tall olives:
Whose fruit never perishes, nor ceases
In winter, nor in summer, lasting through; nay, always the breeze
Of the West-wind blowing brings forth some, ripens others,
Pear after pear grows old, and apple after apple,
And grape after grape, and fig after fig.
Aelian relates, book III, chapter xviii, a history, or rather a fable (certainly an apologue concerning infernal Styx and this heavenly river): that in the borders of the Meropes there is a place called Anostum, irremeable; that in it two rivers flow, one of delight, the other of sadness, and that on each side trees are situated, of the size of a plane-tree. Those which are by the river of sadness produce such fruits that, if anyone eats of them, he weeps continually and abundantly throughout his whole life, and dissolves into weeping and mourning, and so ends his life. But the others, which are recognized as belonging to the river of delight, produce the contrary fruit. For he who tastes it is led away from all his former desires, and if he loved any one, he forgets her, and gradually becomes younger, and retraces and resumes his past age, so that from old age he returns to the vigor and flower of life. Such indeed is this river of the heavenly paradise, such are its trees and fruits, nay far more excellent.
Wherefore Beza wrongly translates "platea" as "forum" (marketplace), as if these tree and fruits were only in the forum. For these trees were on both banks of the river; this river however watered not only the forum but the whole city; it gladdened, nourished, by its fruits, so that the citizens might have them at hand and in sight continually. Thus the streets of Venice are almost all irrigated by streams. Finally, the Greek πλατεία signifies "platea" (street), not "forum": a street, I say, distinguished, long and broad, which befits so great a city. Whence the Syriac and Arabic translate "platea."
You will ask: What are these trees of life? First, Ticonius here, homily 18, thinks they are the cross: "The wood," he says, "beside the river is the cross, which through the whole world not only every month, but also every day in those who are baptized, brings forth fruit to God. There is no wood which fructifies at all times, except the cross of Christ which the faithful bear, who are watered by the water of the Ecclesiastical river, and yield perpetual fruit at all times."
But here the trees were seen by John in the heavenly paradise: but the cross is on earth and in the militant Church. Therefore these trees are not the cross, unless someone says that the cross of Christ and of the Saints will also be in Heaven, as a trophy and eternal triumph: because the cross which here they suffered will bring forth for them perennial joy and glory; whence either it itself, or its image and symbol, will remain in the Blessed. For as Christ in Heaven retains the scars of His wounds, but now glorious and shining with marvelous glory: so it seems that the Martyrs and other Saints will retain similar marks. Indeed even outwardly in Heaven the cross of Christ will appear, as a trophy of victory. For this is what Christ says, Matthew xxiv, 30: "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven." Whence also the Church sings: "This sign of the cross shall be in Heaven, when the Lord shall come to judge." And the Sibyl, book VI of Carmina:
O happy wood, on which God Himself hung!
The earth shall not contain Thee, but Thou shalt see the roofs of Heaven,
When the renewed face of God shall flash with fire.
Second, some, like Viegas, judge they are the Saints and Blessed themselves: for these are compared to a tree in Psalm i, 3: "And he shall be, he says, as a tree which is planted beside the courses of waters, which shall yield its fruit in its time, and its leaf shall not fall, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper." But these trees of life are the food of the Blessed, which confers on them immortal life; therefore they are not the Blessed themselves, whence in chapter ii, verse 7, he said: "To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of My God."
Third, Bede, Rupert, Ansbert, Ribera and others, by the tree of life understand Christ the Lord, who by His vision and enjoyment gives the Blessed immortal life, as the tree of life gave it to Adam in paradise. This tree bears twelve fruits through the twelve months, that is, perpetually furnishing to the Blessed His fruit for food and fresh delight, without any tedium, indeed always with new eagerness. The leaves of the tree are the words of Christ, with which He will soothe and console the Blessed of all nations. Whence Peter said to Him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."
Fourth, more aptly and genuinely Alcazar judges that divine wisdom, or the beatific vision, is here represented through two symbols, namely through the river of the water of life, and through the tree of life. For it is itself called the river of the water of life, because it satisfies all the thirst and prayers of the Saints, and inebriates them with supreme delight. The same is called the tree of life, because in its likeness it confers immortality on the Blessed. For supreme delight necessarily follows the beatific vision (which is the most perfect act of wisdom), as well as immortality. Now these two are most aptly figured through the drink of life and the food of life, because of drink and food, drink seems more apt to indicate delight; but food, to sustain life. For in drink there is greater delight, in food a more robust nourishment is found. Furthermore, that these trees produce new fruits each month signifies that in the Blessed there is a continual renewal of immortality and beatitude, and that it is always new, complete and perfect: so that every month, day and hour the vision and fruition of God is so new, savory and joyful to them as it was on the first day they began to enjoy it; for never, even after a thousand million years, will any trace of oldness, weariness or satiety creep over them. Third, "its leaves are for the healing of the nations," not to restore and cure: for this cannot be done, since there are no diseases there, no failure of strength; but to preserve and prolong them through all ages. Add that these leaves heal all the diseases and infirmities of body and soul, with which the Saints labored in this life; therefore they heal them as soon as one enters Heaven, and afterward keep them healed for all ages. Furthermore, these leaves signify the accidental endowments of the beatific vision, which adorn it, as the leaves do the tree; such are in the soul the supreme delight, fruition, comprehension of the highest good: in the body full health, vigor, strength; likewise agility, clarity, subtlety, impassibility. Alcazar adds that these leaves are the holy ceremonies and pious words, also the Sacraments, with which the Catholic Church is adorned; for in these the Blessed even now rejoice and delight, especially when they see that through them they have arrived at beatitude. For these are the leaves of the tree of Ezekiel xlvii, 7, to which S. John here anagogically alludes; for Ezekiel's river and tree of life is of the militant Church, but John's river here and tree of life is of the triumphant Church. In sum, these leaves symbolically signify that in the celestial glory and beatific vision there is nothing, however small, which does not wonderfully recreate, vivify, refresh and bless the Blessed. This fount of life with its trees and gems S. Augustine thus depicts, book of Meditations, chapter xxv, tome IX:
To the fount of perennial life the dry mind has thirsted,
The enclosed soul seeks at hand to break the bars of the flesh,
Where with living pearls buildings rise up,
With gold the lofty roofs gleam, the dining-halls shine.
With pure gold as with glass the way of the city is paved,
There is no mire, no dung, no plague is seen.
Horrid winter, scorching summer never rage there.
And again:
Perpetual flower of roses keeps a perpetual spring,
Lilies grow white, the crocus reddens, the balsam sweats,
Meadows are green, the sown fields bloom, streams of honey flow in.
The scent of pigments breathes forth, and the liquor of aromatics,
Apples hang from the flowering groves not destined to fall,
The gazing always eat, and the eating always gaze.
By which words he signifies that there will be flowering things, fragrant, pleasant, which feed sight, smell and the other senses, and flood them with marvelous delight. The same teaches S. Anselm, book On Similitudes, chapter lvii: "The eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, hands, throat, liver, lung, bones, marrow, etc., of the Blessed are filled with a marvelous sense of delight and sweetness." The same affirms Blessed Lawrence Justinian, On the Discipline of monastic conversion, chapter xxiii. The same is clear from the vision which S. Gregory recounts, book IV Dialogues, chapter xxxvi. For the Blessed will be in the empyrean Heaven, as in the most sweet and most blessed ether, which therefore can be cleft and divided like our air (lest the Blessed be compacted in it as in a wall), as D. Thomas teaches, in II, dist. II, Quæst. II, art. 2, Richard in IV, dist. xlix, Quæst. III, art. 4, indeed S. Basil, Ambrose, Damascene, whom I cited at Genesis i, 6, and Sebastian Barradius, tom. III, book X, chapter III, and others. Finally, that all the senses of the Blessed will have their own and marvelous delights, and their pleasures which neither eye has seen nor ear heard, in Heaven, teach D. Thomas, Scotus, D. Soto, Henry, Major and others whom Suarez cites and follows, III part, tom. II, disp. xlvii, last section, and John Salas, III, Quæst. V, art. 5, tract. 2, disp. 14, sect. 14. This is what the Psalmist sighed for: "I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." Wherefore this river, the trees and apples can be taken literally, as they sound. For what stands in the way? for if Adam enjoyed these in the earthly paradise, much more shall the Blessed enjoy the same in the heavenly paradise; for the earthly was a specimen and image of this. Wherefore that there are true and natural waters above the heavens, I taught from Moses and from the common opinion of the Fathers at Genesis i, 6. But through these things mystically and symbolically the beatific endowments already mentioned, and the abundance of goods and joys, is signified and represented.
Thirsting for these waters and delights of the heavenly paradise, S. Dorothea virgin and martyr, when she was being grievously tortured on the rack, said to the tyrant with great constancy and serenity: "Why dost thou delay? exercise on me all thy torments: do at once what thou thinkest to do, that through them I may come to my Spouse, for whose love I do not fear thee, indeed I desire thy torments. For my Spouse invites me: for we go through these brief and slight pains to the paradise of delights, where there are apples of marvelous beauty, roses, lilies and innumerable flowers, which never wither, where there are fountains of living water, which never dry up, which the souls of the Saints enjoy and exult in Christ." And when Theophilus, assessor of the Governor, mocking (for it was winter, namely February 6), said: "Send me apples from the paradise of thy Spouse, when thou hast arrived there. I will do so," she said; and she performed it. For she sent to him an Angel in the form of a most elegant boy, with apples and most beautiful roses. By which miracle Theophilus, converted, confessing Christ, equally obtained the laurel of martyrdom. Truly therefore was Dorothea δῶρον Θεοῦ, that is, the gift of God, as in name, so in reality.
Tropologically the tree of life is holy perfection, planted in the hearts of the just beside the streams of grace. The root is the fear of God, Ecclesiasticus i, 16. The branches are all the virtues which proceed from the fear and love of God, of which Ecclesiasticus i, 25: "Its branches are long-lived." The leaves are the divine precepts, because they protect and adorn this tree, by which the nations are freed from the diseases of sins, and obtain the salvation of justice. The twelve fruits are: first, purity of minds; second, contempt of temporal things; third, quiet of appetites; fourth, circumspection of words; fifth, cleanness of thoughts; sixth, impatience for heavenly desires; seventh, solicitude for virtues; eighth, beauty of works; ninth, endurance of adversities; tenth, collection of inner powers; eleventh, concord of wills; twelfth, transformation into God, which our James Alvarez de Paz recounts and at length pursues, book III On the Nature of perfection, part II, chapter xiii and following.
Verse 3: No More Curse
3. AND EVERY CURSE SHALL BE NO MORE. — That is to say, nothing worthy of a curse, namely no sin, shall be any more; for this is what κατάθεμα signifies. Again metonymically, "no curse," that is, no effect or punishment of a curse or sin, namely no disease, no pain, no misery shall be anywhere. Therefore in Heaven every curse shall be taken away, that is, sin with its progeny, namely every fault and punishment: and in their place shall succeed every blessing, that is, every grace and glory, every good, every felicity; among which the first will be that they shall have continually before them the throne of God and of the Lamb, and with both shall act familiarly, both shall they see, in both shall they delight, by both shall they be cherished, refreshed and made blessed; whence he adds: "The thrones of God and of the Lamb shall be in it," and they as "His servants shall serve Him." For to serve God, especially in Heaven, is to reign. "And they shall see His face."
Verse 4: His Name on Their Foreheads
4. AND HIS NAME ON THEIR FOREHEADS, — that is to say, openly they shall profess and glory that they are servants of God, as if they bore His name openly inscribed on their foreheads. For it is a metalepsis. Yet this servitude shall not be so much a servitude as a regal rule: for all the Blessed shall be kings and princes; whence he adds in verse 5: "And they shall reign for ever and ever."
He alludes to the lamina of the pontiff, on which was inscribed "holy to the Lord," Exodus xxviii, 36: for as this inscription of the lamina signified him to be the minister and pontiff of the holy God, so in the heavens all shall recognize from the forehead and countenance of the Blessed that they are servants and priests of the blessed God, and therefore (Alcazar adds) that they are advocates of those who dwell in this mortal life, and in this matter more powerful than Aaron. This last is true, but not to the point; for after the resurrection and day of judgment and glory of the Blessed, of which it is here treated, there will be no men on earth for whom the Blessed in Heaven might intercede with God.
Verse 5: Night Shall Be No More
5. AND NIGHT SHALL BE NO MORE. — He repeats and inculcates what he said in chapter xxi, verse 23.
Here ends the hypotyposis and description of the celestial Jerusalem, which S. John began in chapter xxi, 1, and continued up to this point. A similar description, almost taken from this place, S. Vigilantius has in the Life of S. Astion, which is extant in Father Heribert's Lives of the Fathers. For when Astion had been crowned with martyrdom, he appeared in dreams to Vigilantius, asking him to go to his parents, and convert them, who were still pagans, to Christ, and dexterously announce to them his death and martyrdom. Vigilantius obeyed, and to soften the parents' grief over their son's death, at first he dissembled the matter and said Astion was still alive. To the mother who asked in what region and city, by what means and manner he lived, he answered: "It is a region of robust or strong men. Many (...) and very noble men dwell there, whose possession is called paradise, whose tents are constructed of light, whose life is God, and whose conversation is immortal; whose garments are sprinkled with blood, and on whose head are crowns made of the purest gold with various gems. Their King is most powerful, whose name is God of gods, and Lord of lords; whose messengers are called Angels of justice, whose vesture is one for all, and whose touch is likened to burning fire. The Senate of this Emperor is held to be very illustrious: half of it is named the Prophets, the others are called Apostles. The city is very illustrious, and its name to its Christ-worshippers (as if Christum colens, unless it should be read Christipolis, as if 'city of Christ'), whose wall is of the purest gold, having twelve gates, and on each single pearls hang, and on each one of the Senators sits. The first gate is called Peter's, the second Paul's, the third Andrew's, the fourth John's, the fifth James's, the sixth Philip's, the seventh Bartholomew's, the eighth Thomas's, the ninth Matthew's, the tenth Thaddeus's, the eleventh Simon's, the twelfth Matthias's." He goes on to describe its temple. "But there is also a wondrous temple in it, having a Holy of Holies, and a golden altar, before whose sight a certain wondrous man stands, holding a psaltery of ten strings, and continually exhorts those dwelling there to the praise of that king, saying: Praise the Lord in the heavens; praise Him, all His Angels; praise Him, all His powers. His name therefore is named David, son of Jesse. But also the streets of this city are paved with the purest gold: whose river flows out into eternal life, whose fruit-trees through every month give their fruits, and whose leaves go forth for the medicine of souls; whose light is unspeakable; and the gates are never shut, because there shall never be night there, nor any darkness; but always joy and perpetual gladness dwell there."
Excellently also S. Anselm in the Proslogion, chapter xxv, paints the heavenly felicity thus: "He who shall enjoy this good, what shall he have, and what shall he not have? Certainly whatever he wills shall be; and what he does not will, shall not be. For there shall be the goods of body and soul, such as eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. Why therefore dost thou wander through many things, little man, seeking the goods of thy soul and of thy body? Love one good, in which are all goods, and it suffices. Desire the simple good, which is every good, and it is enough. For what dost thou love, my flesh? what dost thou desire, my soul? There it is, there is whatever ye love, whatever ye desire. If beauty delights, the just shall shine as the sun. If speed, or strength, or liberty of body which nothing can resist, they shall be like the Angels of God: because the animal body is sown, and the spiritual body shall rise, by power indeed, not by nature. If long and healthful life, there is sound eternity, and eternal soundness: because the just shall live for ever, and the salvation of the just is from the Lord. If satiety, they shall be satisfied when the glory of God shall appear. If inebriation, they shall be inebriated with the abundance of the house of God. If melody, there the choirs of Angels sing together without end to God. If any pleasure, not unclean but clean, God shall give them to drink of the torrent of His delight. If wisdom, the very wisdom of God shall show itself to them. If friendship, they shall love God more than themselves, and one another as themselves, and God them more than they themselves, because they Him, and themselves, and one another through Him, and He Himself, and them through Himself. If concord, for them all there will be one will, because they will have no will except the sole will of God. As to power, they will be omnipotent in their own will, as God is in His. For just as God will be able to do what He wills, by Himself, so they will be able to do what they will, through Him; because just as they will will nothing other than what He wills, so He will will whatever they will, and what He wills cannot fail to be. As to honor and riches, God will set His good and faithful servants over many things, indeed they will be called sons of God and gods; and where the Son will be, there they too will be, heirs indeed of God, but co-heirs with Christ. As to true security, they will be as certain that this — or rather this good — will never and in no way fail them, as they will be certain that they will not lose it of their own accord, nor will God who loves them take it away from His beloved against their will, nor will anything more powerful than God separate God and them against their will. But what kind of joy, or how great, is there where there is such or so great a good? Human heart, needy heart, heart that has tasted hardships, indeed overwhelmed by hardships, how much would you rejoice if you abounded in all these things!"
St. Gregory at the end of the seventh Penitential Psalm: "There, he says, is light without failing, joy without groaning, desire without pain, love without sadness, fullness without satiety, soundness without defect, life without death, health without weakness. There are the holy and humble of heart, there the spirits and souls of the just, there all the citizens of the heavenly fatherland, and the orders of blessed spirits seeing the King in His beauty, and exulting in the glory of His power. Perfect charity flourishes in all, one joy of all, one delight. Good Jesus, Word of the Father, splendor of the paternal glory, into whom the Angels desire to look, teach me to do Thy will, that, led by Thy good Spirit, I may attain that blessed city, where there is eternal day, and one spirit of all: where there is sure security, and secure eternity, eternal tranquility, and tranquil happiness, happy sweetness, and sweet delight: where Thou, O God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, livest and reignest forever and ever. Amen."
Verse 6: These Words Are Most Faithful
6. AND HE SAID TO ME: THESE WORDS ARE MOST FAITHFUL. — "He said," supply: the Angel, who in chapter xxi, verse 1, showed John the heavenly Jerusalem, and up to this point has explained to him its goods and joys. Moreover Alcazar holds that this Angel was St. Paul, who showed John the glory which the Roman Church — that is, the Pontiffs, Martyrs and other Roman faithful — were soon after death to attain in heaven; and therefore he says: "These words are most faithful and true," as if to say: They will shortly be faithfully and truly fulfilled. But above I have said that this Angel was a true and properly so-called Angel, who concludes the whole Apocalypse with the last times, namely the revelation of judgment, of the resurrection, and of the glory of the Blessed.
AND THE LORD GOD OF THE SPIRITS OF THE PROPHETS (as if to say: the Lord God, who gave to the Prophets, and consequently to me also, the prophetic spirit) HAS SENT HIS ANGEL TO SHOW HIS SERVANTS (to me John, and through me to other servants and faithful of Christ) THE THINGS WHICH MUST QUICKLY COME TO PASS, — because in respect of eternity all temporal things flow in as quickly as they flow out. Add that some things of this Apocalypse came to pass quickly after John, such as those which in the first chapters he predicted to the seven Bishops of Asia.
Verse 7: Behold, I Come Quickly
7. AND BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY. — These are the words, not of the Angel, but of the Lord God of the spirits of the Prophets, of whom the Angel was speaking in the preceding verse, as if to say: Come, Christians, be steadfast, stand in My faith against Domitian, Trajan, Decius and others; for I, God and your Lord, will come shortly, and will reward you with the eternal happiness which I have described through the Angel; but your tyrants and persecutors I will condemn to eternal punishments; whence He also adds: "Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."
Verse 8: I, John, Heard and Saw These Things
8. AND I JOHN (namely, am, or I attest myself to be the one) WHO HEARD AND SAW THESE THINGS. — This is, as it were, the subscription by which John, as scribe and notary, subscribes to this book and to the prophecy of the Apocalypse, and confirms it and attests that it is true, so that all may know this Apocalypse to be that of St. John the Apostle, which he himself received from God by revelation, especially with the added testimony of the Church, which teaches this to be the true and certain, not spurious, subscription of St. John, without which testimony this subscription would not have full authority and credibility. For many writings, indeed even Gospels, are inscribed with the name of the Apostles, which are known to be apocryphal.
Verse 10: Seal Not the Words of the Prophecy
10. AND HE SAID TO ME: SEAL NOT THE WORDS OF THE PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK; FOR THE TIME IS NEAR, — as if to say: Do not seal, do not close, do not hide these oracles, but rather write them and set them out for all to read, because they are to profit all. God is wont, as appears in Daniel viii, 26, and xii, 4, to command the Prophets to seal their prophecies when they look to remote times, as though they were not yet to be read, or were to be read with little understanding and profit. But when they are about times near at hand, He commands that they not be sealed, as is done here. For many things, especially those which look to the persecutions of tyrants and heretics, touched the times of St. John. And this is what He says: "The time (in which this prophecy is to be fulfilled) is near;" and chapter 1, verse 1: "The Apocalypse, He says, of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to make manifest to His servants the things which must shortly come to pass." Add: all these things looked to the faithful then to be encouraged in persecution, especially those that are said about God's providence toward His own, and His vengeance upon enemies, about the damnation of the wicked, the glory and felicity of the godly and steadfast, which He has described in these chapters and again and again inculcated; whence in verse 2 He says: "Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to his works." For Scripture sometimes commands prophecies to be sealed, when they, although not so remote, yet at the present time bear little fruit, but in the future, when they are fulfilled, will bear it. But it forbids the sealing of those which, although they will come to pass after a long time, yet from now on bring great utility to the faithful, because they encourage them to constancy in faith and the worship of God. Such is this one, and therefore He forbids it to be sealed. So says Alcazar.
Verse 11: He That Is Just, Let Him Be Justified Still
11. HE WHO HARMS, LET HIM HARM STILL (Arabic: he who oppresses or slanders, let him oppress also); AND HE WHO IS IN FILTH, LET HIM GROW FILTHIER STILL; AND HE WHO IS JUST, LET HIM BE JUSTIFIED STILL (Syriac: let him still do justice); AND THE HOLY, LET HIM BE SANCTIFIED STILL. — St. John signifies that there is still space and time remaining before all these things are accomplished, and especially before the general judgment, and that during that time God permits each person to his own freedom, to act well or ill. Therefore the prior words are those of one permitting, as if to say: I now permit the harmful man to harm, the filthy to grow filthier, but in due time I will punish that same man. Hence there is a tacit irony, just as in Ecclesiastes xi, 9, where it is said: "Rejoice, then, O young man, in thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, etc., and know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." But the words that follow: "He that is just, let him be justified still," etc., are those of one seriously warning and exhorting: so Viegas and Ribera. Hence it is plain, against the heretics, that justice and injustice in all are not equal, nor consist in the indivisible, but can grow and be increased by good and evil works. For those who grow filthier certainly grow filthier through evil works and new sins; therefore also those who are more justified are more justified through new good works.
Secondly, more pressingly and vigorously, Alcazar holds these words to be comparative, as if to say: Just as he who harms continues to harm, so let him who is holy continue to be sanctified. For sometimes the imperative is not of one commanding, but of one comparing. The sense therefore is: when the adversary and persecutor bears himself worse and more savagely, then let the just man strive to grow and rise still more in holiness. For in this way both the punishment of persecutors, and the reward of the just, will at length reach its full measure. For so in Proverbs, in single hemistichs the copula 'and' is often a comparing one, and not only joins, but compares the latter hemistich with the former; as in Proverbs xxv, 23: "The north wind disperses rains, and (that is, so also) a sad face a slandering tongue." For here he compares and opposes two grades of the wicked to two grades of the godly. The first is: "He who harms" and is injurious to his neighbor, let him harm still; to which is opposed: "He who is just, let him be justified still." The latter is: "He who," though injurious to no one, is yet intemperate to himself, and in "filth" of the throat, of lust, etc., "let him grow filthier still;" to which is opposed: "Let the holy be sanctified still," by greater abstinence, continence, prayer, etc., day by day.
Truly St. Augustine, epistle 137 to the people of Hippo: "As, he says, I have hardly experienced any better than those who have made progress in the monastery, so I have not experienced any worse than those who have failed in the monastery, so that I judge that on this account it is written in Apoc. chapter xxii: Let the just become more just, and the filthy grow filthier still." This may rightly be said of the primitive Church, of which St. John is here especially speaking. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Let every godly person accumulate merits, just as, and where, the impious accumulate demerits.
Excellently Faustus, Bishop of Riez, in his Instruction to Monks, which is found in the appendix of the Library of the Holy Fathers: "Let him, he says, set himself no end of making progress, let him fix no limit of acquiring, since he hears it said to him: Prepare thy works in thy departure; and again: Fear not to be justified even unto death; and again: Wisdom is sung at the going out. Therefore the more we advance, the more let us be humbled, because the more we have been humbled, the more abundantly we advance. Let no one appear to Him (to God and his Superior) as an old man and untaught, so as to think that obedience does not befit him, which befitted God. For humility and obedience, in the younger still a necessity, in the older are already a dignity. He advances well, he consummates well, who daily so acts as though he were always beginning. Wherefore Scripture proclaims that the increases of merit are incentives of the perfect." And after some passages: "Let us therefore be unfailing in the work of God for the sake of eternal reward, and daily strive toward better things. For the very eagerness of grasping, the very habit of advancing, ever calls us to greater things; and when God sees the devotion of the soul, He will instill a more ardent affection; and the more we burn in zeal, the more He will add help; the more we apply ourselves to diligence, the more He will add to glory. To him who has, it shall be given, and he shall abound. And in another place He says: I have laid help upon one that is mighty. Grace therefore is born of grace, and progress serves progress, gains make way for gains, and merits for merits, so that the more anyone has begun to acquire, the more he strives to acquire; and the more eagerly he has drunk of the goods of wisdom, the more he desires to drink; just as wisdom herself speaks of herself: They that eat me shall yet hunger. Let us press on our course, that our life may grow in its last days. Let us seek even unto the end, that we may merit to rejoice without end. But even if we cannot exercise bodily labors, let us turn ourselves to the desire of spiritual goods, to the increase of compunction and charity. If we daily dispose ascents in our hearts, no weakness, no age can weary minds, so that by certain spiritual steps we may merit to ascend to the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Excellently St. Bernard, in epistle 253 to Guarinus, urges each one to progress in the way of God: "For, he says, to be unwilling to advance is to fail; not to progress is to regress." See him.
Verse 12: Behold, I Come Quickly; My Reward Is With Me
12. BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY, AND MY REWARD IS WITH ME, — that is, it is at hand and as it were in My hands, that I may at once render it to each according to his merits; and He proves this from what He adds: "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end," as if to say: Therefore it is Mine to assign to each his end and reward, either blessed or wretched, according to merits. Again, as if to say: Therefore it is Mine to give to the Church and to the just an end of labors and persecutions, as I gave to the same a beginning. Stand then, O My faithful, in tribulations; God will give to these also an end, and a swift end, with eternal reward and crown: see what was said in chapter 1, verse 8. So St. Fursey heard the Angels singing together: "No labor should seem hard, no time long, by which the glory of eternity is acquired," as the Venerable Bede reports, in book III of the History of England, chapter xix.
Symbolically, Tertullian, in his book On Monogamy, chapter v: "So also, he says, the Lord put on Himself the two letters of Greek, the highest and the last, figures of beginning and end meeting in Himself, that just as α is rolled forward to ω, and again ω is folded back to α, so He might show that in Himself there is both the running of the beginning to the end, and the running back of the end to the beginning, so that every disposition, ending in Him through whom it was begun — namely through the Word of God, who was made flesh — accordingly ends just as it began. And so far are all things in Christ recalled to the beginning, that even faith has been turned back from circumcision to the integrity of His flesh, as it was from the beginning; and freedom of foods, and abstinence only from blood, as it was from the beginning; and the indivisibility of marriage, as it was from the beginning; and the prohibition of repudiation, which was not from the beginning; and lastly the whole man is recalled to paradise, where he was from the beginning." But then Tertullian extends this sentiment too far, and from it strives to prove that second marriages are unlawful for a Christian, because they did not exist in paradise, which is his error, which he tries to persuade in this book.
Verse 14: Blessed Are They That Wash Their Robes
14. BLESSED ARE THEY WHO WASH THEIR ROBES IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. — Some manuscripts lack this sentence: hence the Louvain editors thought it had been transferred here from chapter vii, verse 14. But the Roman and many other Bibles read it, and "blessed" is not found in chapter vii, verse 14. Again, in place of πλύνοντες τὰς στολὰς αὐτῶν, that is, those who wash their robes, the Greek manuscripts, which St. Cyprian and Aretas follow, read ποιοῦντες τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ, that is, those who do His commandments. But the former reading is the more common and truer, whose sense here is this: The robe, or white garment of the soul, is the purity, innocence and holiness of the soul; this is sometimes stained by venial spots: it must therefore be washed by penitence in the blood of the Lamb, if we wish to be blessed. Note here: The blood of the Lamb is like a soap, by which the stains of sins are washed from the soul: for by the merits of Christ's passion, and by faith, by which through the same merits we believe, hope and pray that we shall obtain pardon of sins and grace from God, God grants us this pardon and grace.
THAT THERE MAY BE POWER (ἐξουσία, that is right, faculty) OF THEM IN THE TREE OF LIFE, — that they may enjoy the fruit of the tree of life, namely the beatific vision of God, as I said in verse 2. Note: It is first to have a right to the tree of life, before in act passing through the gates into the city, as follows.
AND THEY MAY ENTER THROUGH THE GATES INTO THE CITY — the heavenly city. Hence it is clear that Angels, just as guards, were set by God and kept watch at the earthly paradise, lest Adam, or any of the men after Adam's sin, should enter there, Gen. iii, 24: so likewise the same, by the command of God, guard the gates of the heavenly paradise, lest anyone enter there, unless he have his robe and garment fully washed and white. The same is clearly evident from the preceding chapter, verse 12: "And at the gates twelve angels."
Verse 15: Without Are the Dogs
15. WITHOUT (namely, outside the heavenly city, let them be driven and go into Gehenna) THE DOGS, — that is, the persecutors, who, like rabid dogs, tear apart the bodies of the Saints, or their fame and name, of whom there were many in the time of St. John, and there will be more in the time of Antichrist; whence Aretas understands by "dogs" the Jews, the heretics, and other infidels, enemies of the faithful. For Paul calls these "dogs," Philippians iii, 2.
SORCERERS (malefactors and magicians) AND EVERYONE WHO MAKES A LIE — a pernicious one, as I said in chapter xxi, verse 8, that is, every perjurer, deceiver, slanderer, false witness, etc. These crimes abounded in the time of St. John, and will abound more in the time of Antichrist, of whom St. John here speaks in many places especially.
Verse 16: I Jesus Have Sent My Angel; the Bright and Morning Star
16. I JESUS HAVE SENT MY ANGEL TO TESTIFY THESE THINGS TO YOU IN THE CHURCHES, — as if to say: I Christ, through the angel, have revealed this Apocalypse and its oracles, and especially these last things concerning the greatness of the city and glory of heaven, as also of the city and pain of hell, to John, that he might preach and write the same to the whole Church, that all the faithful might be aroused by them to care for their salvation, to constancy in faith, and to undergoing martyrdom for it, if need be.
I AM THE ROOT AND OFFSPRING OF DAVID. — I am risen from the stock, root and lineage of David; see what is said in chapter v, verse 5, as if to say: I am the Messiah, that is, the Christ promised to David, who declare, foretell and promise these things, and consequently shall fulfill them in deed. I am He who shall raise up David's glorious kingdom, almost extinguished, as a son and heir, and shall make it more glorious and spiritual, both in the Church militant and rather in the Church triumphant.
THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. — Arabic: A star that rises in the morning; Syriac: Like that bright star, that morning star, of which I spoke in chapter ii, verse 28, as if to say: I am the Lucifer, the herald of the impending sun, that is, of the blessed life and glory. Come then, endure, be steadfast in persecutions: for I declare to you that the sun of your glory and the day of eternity is coming. Whence St. Gregory, in book XXIX of the Morals, chapter xvii: "Christ, he says, appearing alive after death, became for us the morning star; because while He gave us in Himself an example of resurrection, He indicated what light is to follow."
Tropologically: The stars are the Apostles and Doctors, concerning whom hear St. Chrysostom, homily 1 On Pentecost, near the end of vol. III: "What, he says, are such stars as the Apostles? stars in heaven, but Apostles above the heavens. 'Mind the things that are above,' says the Apostle, 'where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of the Father.' The stars are of an insensible fire (according to the opinion of the Platonists, by whom the poet says: You eternal fires), the Apostles of an intelligible fire. Stars shine by night, are obscured by day: the Apostles by their rays, that is, their virtues, shine forth by day and by night. Stars are obscured at the rising of the sun: the Apostles, with the Sun of justice shining forth, gleam with their own brightness. Stars at the resurrection fall like leaves: the Apostles at the resurrection shall be caught up in the clouds into the air. And among those constellations, one is called Antifer, another Lucifer: but among the Apostles there is no Antifer; all are Luciferi (light-bearers); and therefore the Apostles are greater than the stars. And whoever calls them the lights of the world will not be wrong, not only while they were in the body, but even more now since they have departed from life." See what is said in Daniel xii, 3.
Verse 17: The Spirit and the Bride Say: Come
17. AND THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY: COME. — "The Spirit," namely the Holy Spirit; "and the bride," that is, the Church, "say," that is, they teach us to say, to desire and to pray for the coming of Christ, that we may say: "Come," namely Lord Jesus, to judgment, in which Thou mayst lead us with Thy bride, our mother, that is, the Church, into the heavenly bridal chamber. Wherefore the Arabic wrongly tears these apart, and so divides them: "I am the root and offspring of David, and the star that rises in the morning, and the spirit, and the bride; and it shall be said: Come."
AND HE WHO HEARS (in himself this voice, and this instinct of the Spirit, the same thing) LET HIM SAY, (namely) COME, — Lord Jesus.
AND HE WHO THIRSTS (for justice and eternal life), LET HIM COME; AND HE WHO (the same) WILLS, LET HIM TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE (Syriac: living water) FREELY, — concerning which I spoke in verse 1, as if to say: While we say to Christ: "Come," we in turn must by spiritual steps go forth to meet Him, and sharpen this thirst of His in us, so that, kindled by thirst and desire of the blessed life and glory, we may pant after it, and say: "As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for Thee, O God." For to him who thus thirsts and pants this water of life will be given: for God is so munificent that He requires no great labors, but only desires to be thirsted for, as Nazianzen says. Nothing therefore remains, but that we, thirsting, hasten to the water of life.
Wherefore piously and wisely St. Eugene, Archbishop of Toledo, predecessor of St. Ildephonsus, in the year of the Lord 636, used to pray thus:
King God of the immense, by whom the fabric of the world stands fast,
May my mind thirst for Thee, may my speech sing of Thee, may my action declare Thee.
Our Browerus recites his entire prayer expressed in verse, at the end of the poems of Venantius Fortunatus.
Verse 18: I Testify; If Any Man Shall Add
18. FOR I TESTIFY. — "For" (enim), that is, indeed, as if to say: For truly I testify: for γάρ, that is, "for," among the Greeks is often enclitic, and redundant. Alcazar nevertheless takes the "for" properly, as causal, and gives this sense. The things I have said about those who thirst, and about the water of life to be given to them, and indeed throughout this whole book, are most certain, and so true, that concerning them it may most truly be pronounced: Woe against him who shall dare either to add anything to His words, or to take anything away. This is, as it were, the seal of the book, by which with grave asseveration and threat John testifies that all these things and each are accepted by God, and are the oracles of God.
IF ANY MAN SHALL ADD TO THESE THINGS. — He signifies that there will be heretics, who shall adulterate the Apocalypse, and Holy Scripture, of which the Apocalypse is, as it were, the end and conclusion, either by adding or by diminishing, as Marcion did, whom therefore Tertullian, in his book On the Flesh of Christ, chapter iv, calls "the devourer; or the Pontic mouse" (for he was a native of Pontus). So say Ticonius, Bede and others. Therefore John does not here carp at human, Apostolic or Ecclesiastical laws, which are added to the divine, and to the Gospel itself: for they are not added as divine laws or Scriptures, but as human ones deduced from the divine. See what is said in Deuteronomy iv, 2.
Verse 20: Surely I Come Quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus
20. HE SAYS (not John, as Aretas and Ribera would have it, but Christ) WHO BEARS WITNESS OF THESE THINGS (to John, Christ, I say, "says," both that which preceded: "If any man shall add," etc., and that which follows): EVEN SO, I COME QUICKLY (the Arabic translates, and He comes, that is, He shall come, quickly). AMEN. As if to say: I Christ shall most certainly and most swiftly come, that I may reward those who are faithful and constant to Me; but the unfaithful, inconstant and failing I shall punish: observe therefore these My warnings and precepts.
Furthermore, St. John, now an old man, thirsting for the heavenly water of life, and longing to enjoy Christ, replies to Christ: "Amen," that is, so be it; "come," or, as in the Greek, ναὶ ἔρχου, that is, even so come, "Lord Jesus;" I beseech Thee come, by all means come, my love, my joy, my desire; and tacitly by his example he warns us to say and desire the same thing: For this is what he expressed in verse 17: "Let him that hears say: Come." So Rupert, Ansbert, Haymo and Viegas. Whence the Arabic translates: Come, Lord Jesus Christ, to all the saints forever and ever. Amen. For he who is of pure conscience, and purely and intensely loves Jesus, desires to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. "For Jesus Himself, who is sweet in voice, sweet in face, sweet in name, sweet in work, will appear sweeter in the vision of His divinity," says St. Bernard (or whoever is the author), in the sermon On the Lord's Supper, page 391.
A certain learned man cited in Salmeron, Prolegomena 7, page 97: "'Amen,' he says, was a phrase familiar to John, which he used above all others in the Gospel, because he wrote it when already worn out with old age. For the letters Ἀμήν signify 99, as Gratian also relates, distinction 83, chapter Qualiter vero. Indeed alpha in Ἀμήν denotes 1, mu 40, eta 8, nu 50; which numbers added together make 99, the number of years St. John is said to have lived." But these are trifling and uncertain matters.
St. Gregory relates, in book I of the Dialogues, chapter viii, that St. Anastasius was called to death — nay rather to immortality — by a similar voice falling from heaven: "Come, Anastasius;" whereupon, soon rendering his soul to God, he flew away to it. Tropologically the same Gregory, in homily 14 on Ezekiel: "'Let him that hears,' he says, 'say: Come.' For he in whose heart the voice of God's calling is now made effective, must necessarily break forth in voice to his neighbor through the office of preaching; and therefore he calls others, because he himself has already been called." The same, in book IV of the Dialogues, chapter xiii, relates of St. Galla, that she was called into heaven by St. Peter. For when, seeing him, she exulted and asked: "What is it, my Lord, are my sins forgiven me?" she heard from him: "They are forgiven, come." The same, in the same place, chapter xii, relates that St. Probus, Bishop of Rieti, was called into heaven by Sts. Juvenal and Eleutherius the Martyrs. The same, in chapter xiv, relates that St. Servulus the paralytic, who "strove always to give thanks in pain, and to be free for hymns to God and praises by day and by night," was invited by the song of angels to eternal glory. And in chapter xv he reports that St. Romula, marvelously enduring in paralysis, was summoned by her two disciples with this voice: "Mother, come; mother, come," and led into heaven by two choirs of those who sang from the heavens, leaving behind a marvelous fragrance of sweet odor.
And in chapter xvi he relates that St. Tarsilla, his aunt, was summoned by St. Felix the Pontiff, her great-great-grandfather, when he showed her the dwelling of perpetual brightness, with this voice: "Come, for I shall receive thee in this dwelling of light." Therefore, seized with fever, looking upwards, she saw Jesus coming, and began to cry out, saying: "Withdraw, withdraw, Jesus is coming." And while she gazed intently on Him whom she saw, that holy soul departed from the body. But while her body was being washed, by the practice of long prayer the skin on her elbows and knees was found to have grown hard, in the manner of camels.
And in chapter xvii he relates that the girl Musa, having been invited by the Blessed Virgin to her company of virgins, soon changed her childish ways into mature ones, and on the thirtieth day afterward, when she was clearly being summoned by the Blessed Virgin, with eyes reverently lowered, she cried out with open voice: "Behold, Lady, I come; behold, Lady, I come." In this voice she gave up her spirit, and departed from her virginal body to dwell with the holy virgins.
Thus St. Mary of Oignies panted to pass over to Christ. For, as Cardinal de Vitry writes in her Life, book II, chapter x, as the last year of her life drew near, no longer able to contain herself, she panted, sighed, cried out from desire, as if impatient of delay, when, embracing "the Lord (Christ, with whom she conversed familiarly): I do not wish, Lord, that Thou shouldst depart without me: I do not desire to stay here any longer, I wish to go home." And shortly afterward, when he had related to her her revealed passage into heaven: "She could not, he says, then keep silent through the inebriation of the spirit, but crying out she said: I have heard from the Lord that I am to go into the Holy of Holies. O most sweet word! Tell me, my Clementia (for so her handmaid was called), what is the Holy of Holies? She wished to learn from her servant what those words signified, although neither knew it; but, as I said, drunken in spirit she did this." And shortly after: "She also heard the voice of the Lord calling and saying: Come, My friend, My bride, My dove; thou shalt now be crowned." But with death pressing, as the same Cardinal writes in chapter xi and following: "She began to sing with a clear and lofty voice, nor for the space of three days and nights did she cease to praise God," the angel Seraphim suggesting to her the verses of the hymn; and as the last hour came, she sang: "How beautiful art Thou, our King and Lord! Alleluia."
Thus the Saints have life in patience; death — nay, immortality — in desire, because they sigh for Christ their love. Whence St. Bernard in The Form of an Honest Life: "Let Jesus, he says, always be in thy heart; and never let the image of the Crucified depart from thy mind. Let Him be to thee food and drink, thy sweetness and consolation, thy honey and thy desire, thy sweetness and meditation, thy prayer and contemplation, thy life and death, and thy resurrection." Read the sighs of St. Augustine panting to heaven, in the book of Meditations and Soliloquies, volume IX; read and imitate the sighs of St. Bernard to Jesus in the Jubilus, where among other things he says:
O my most sweet Jesus,
The hope of the sighing soul.
Thee the pious tears seek.
Thee the cry of the inmost mind.
Jesus, sweetness of hearts,
Living fountain, light of minds.
Exceeding all joy,
And every desire.
When Thou dost visit our heart,
Then truth shines upon it,
The vanity of the world grows worthless,
And within charity glows.
My good Jesus, may I feel
The abundance of Thy love,
Grant me through Thy presence,
To behold Thy glory.
I desire Thee a thousand times:
My Jesus, when wilt Thou come?
When wilt Thou make me glad?
When wilt Thou sate me with Thyself?
Now I see what I sought.
What I desired I hold,
I languish with the love of Jesus,
And am wholly aflame in heart.
O blessed burning,
And ardent longing!
Taking away all weariness,
Honey, nectar, melody, sweet kiss.
Jesus, crown of Martyrs,
And perennial flower of virgins,
Thou the lily of the chaste heart,
Thou the prize of the contender.
Hear the prayers of suppliants,
Who seek nothing outside Thee.
O sweet refreshment,
To love the Son of God!
Thou art the delight of the mind,
The consummation of love.
Thou my glorying,
Jesus, salvation of the world.
Thou the true joy of heaven.
Jesus, the dance of the heart,
Verse 21: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ Be With You All
21. THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST BE WITH YOU ALL (Syriac: with all the saints). AMEN. — Apostolic letters are accustomed to begin and end with the invocation of the grace of Christ. So here St. John concludes the Apocalypse (which is in the manner of an epistle: hence at the beginning it contains seven epistles to the seven Bishops of Asia; and here at the end it ends in the manner of an epistle) with the same invocation.