innocence having washed our robe in his blood. We have been given the first whiteness with a new luster, as in Isaiah he had promised, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). Love is now incomparably more abundant. According to the thinking of the church, the apostles in receiving the Holy Spirit were confirmed in grace. This is not the same as Adam’s innocent state since he was sinning. Jesus Christ invites everyone to love and innocence.
He adds that he will put a salve for our eyes so we see clearly. This salve is no other than the Spirit of faith, which will infallibly deliver us from the blindness of our own reasoning and self-concern. We know then that we are poor when we had thought we were rich. We know then that we are nude when we thought we were clothed.
“I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. 20 Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” (Rev 3:19–20)
The greatest sign of God’s love for us is that God warns us of our faults. God reproves and disciplines us. As for those whom God does not love, he keeps their punishment for the day of his wrath. But for those whom he loves, he notes their slightest mistakes and reproves them. This is the advantage of prayer. An interior person has within herself a director who relates incessantly, a Master who reproves and chastises continually. It seems that God has no other point in situations than to correct the soul. This is the greatest sign of his love. We must then be earnest toward ourselves, to let God punish us with his strength. We remain with him while he punishes us.
“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” (Rev 3:20)
So if we hear him approach the door of our heart, we open to him and give ourselves to him without reserve. We consecrate ourselves to him. Jesus Christ enters us. But what is the way to hear his voice if we do not listen to him? O Love, you speak to the heart and you hear us because you are attentive to the voice of your creatures. Yet creatures are not attentive to you and do not discern your voice. They do not listen to you. But if creatures energetically remain attentive and listen to your voice, they will hear infallibly. The creature will hear that you will come to her which will surprise her because she did not expect such a singular grace.
But what do you say? Jesus Christ is not satisfied with only this. He admits those who listen to his banquet. He shares his feast and his caresses with her. She will be nourished and taste a food forever delicious. O Christians, who are born for such a great good, it is up to you to have this. Will you not be rigorously punished with justice, if you deprive yourself of this by your fault? We falsely believe that this is a grace reserved for very few people and that is it almost impossible to obtain. Yet eternal truth assures us that nothing is easier. What could be easier than to open to a person who stands incessantly at your door and knocks continually? To hear and listen to the One who always speaks? There is nothing easier. He asks nothing of us except to open and listen to him, so that he come in us, to be forever present and admit us to his feast, to eat with us, that is to say, to share our sorrows. We also eat with him that is to say, he shares his divine will with us. O the blindness of creatures is immense, that we may have such a great good and yet we refuse and use as an excuse that this is difficult! O, all we must do is reach out our hand! The blindness is great today. What has been the joy, praise, and glory of past centuries and will be in the future, is the shame, confusion, and ignominy of this century.
“To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” (Revelation 3:21–22)
The throne of Jesus Christ is the heart of his Father, who has already given him the Word and will give this to him throughout eternity. Through Jesus Christ’s death and victory over hell and nature, humanity has been given the privilege of his Divinity. Whoever conquers over nature and demons through Jesus Christ will be received into God and will share his throne. Whoever has ears, listen to these things, and understand the goodness and mercy of God for his poor creatures and yet the ingratitude of his creatures who do not want to participate in his goodness and take the trouble to do this.
After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” (Rev 4:1)
After Jesus showed us the door of our heart, he opened at the same time the door to heaven, to show that he will open heaven to those who open their heart. This will come at a time in the future, where the person’s heart will be opened and God’s voice will be heard. O God, as much as you are misunderstood in this century, so much will you be esteemed and followed in future centuries!
At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! 3 And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. (Rev 4:2–3)
Jesus Christ shows John the throne of God and the light of God’s majesty so to show the glory he prepares for his elect and to give us a sense of God’s holy grandeur. God is seated on this throne because his repose is never interrupted. This is One, but we cannot say more but because God has no form or figure and looks like the color of jasper and carnelian, which shows his immobility and immutability, the firmness and duration of his glory. The rainbow that looks like emerald signifies peace and reconciliation only found in Jesus Christ, as the rainbow signifies. These saved will have the advantage of this reconciliation through hope in the Divine Savior. This rainbow surrounds God as the mark of the humanity of Jesus Christ which covers his Divinity.
Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God. (Rev 4:4–5)
The twenty-four elders are the holy patriarchs and prophets, the most faithful and cherished by God. From antiquity they are the foundation of the other saints. God showed them to John to let him know the magnificence and the glory that he reserves for those admitted to his feast. The prophet-king David knew something similar when in his transport he exclaimed, O how great is the multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hidden for them that fear thee! (Psalm 30:20). On these magnificent thrones the Son of Man will seat those who have conquered in him and through him. These thrones are reserved for those who leave everything to follow him, as Jesus promised to his apostles when he said, Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt 19:28). These elders also dressed in white robes show that they had been preserved or restored in their innocence by the future grace of Jesus Christ, whose fullness and fulfillment that had not had until after the death of the same Jesus Christ. They had crowns of perfect love. O God, what is a human, that you honor him with so many graces and so much glory! Eternal and immortal glory! But, O foolish human, who loses the divine and eternal will for a moment of pleasure which does not even merit the name of pleasure! O ambitious ones who want to be kings in this world, why do you not want to be kings in heaven? O great saints, you are the closest to God, because you look like to no other but the Son of God. You have been the most annihilated. This is why you surround the throne of the one who was annihilated himself, taking the form of a servant and slave. The measure of annihilation is the measure of glory. O David, you occupy one of the highest thrones. We must not doubt it, since it is said of Jesus, that he will possess the throne of David his father (Luke 1:32). Jesus Christ did not possess your temporal throne, though he came from your lineage. As David had been on earth the faithful imitation of Jesus Christ, David also imitates him more in glory than any other. The reign Jesus Christ has in David and that David possesses
