you? Jesus spoke of being there from the beginning (John 8:25). He is the principle of all things because all was made by him. When he is our interior principle, we will be moved, led, and animated by him.
Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He describes three historical eras in this scripture. In the first age of the church, Jesus Christ is the Way with believers following in his footsteps. This was the century of the martyrs, as Jesus said to Peter, the first apostle of the church, Follow me! (John 21:22). Peter died on the cross, like his good master. They followed Jesus Christ as the Way.
The second age of the church is the one with Jesus Christ as the Truth. This is the age of confessors when they supported the truth with all their might through their writing and publishing.
The third age will come and is coming soon with Jesus Christ as the Life. He comes to enliven and make people interior. This age must last until the end of the world, until the time of the Antichrist. Jesus Christ desires to be present and to be the beginning and end of all his creatures. The universe, the church, and the soul will be consummated in heaven in the bosom of Divinity. This is the Lord who is and who will be always, and who lives within us in a very special manner. He is the Almighty because all power is given to him on heaven and on earth. He will show his power and his conduct will be elevated beyond human comprehension.
I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Rev 1:9)
Writing this apocalypse to all the faithful and all the church, John is our brother, since he is the first to be entrusted by our shared Father with his ineffable secrets. In his profound interior John has more access than any other to Jesus. He experienced in his interior what is then manifested to others. He participated with pain in the afflictions of Jesus Christ by accompanying him with faith to Calvary and then participated in Jesus Christ’s reign. John also participated in his patience by suffering all the persecutions from sinners with love and kindness. This great apostle was full of charity, because he had drunk in deeply the heart of his Master. Charity opened John’s heart (and not the spear of human beings). O heart of Jesus Christ opened before the eyes of John, what fires and flames did you throw into the heart of this great saint! John was persecuted, according to his own testimony, because of the word of God and for have confessed Jesus. He was not surprised that the same thing happened to him, and, to the contrary, he held this as blessedness.
I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” 12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands. (Rev 1:10–12)
The Spirit transported John, so he could be attentive to the great things that it pleased God to show him for the usefulness of the church. John describes all the circumstances. It was, he said, on the Lord’s Day, a day destined for repose and tranquility, of calm and peace. I heard behind me a great voice like a trumpet, so strong and loud that I could not ignore it. This strong voice was the voice of the Son of God who would be heard to the ends of the earth.
John must write what he sees to tell future generations as an infallible sign what must happen in the coming centuries, and in all the ages of the church, and within the individual soul. Asia is one of the largest parts of the world, a place of conquest for Jesus Christ, where the book must be taken into the seven cities of this part of the world.
Then I turned to see whose voice spoke to me, which shows that this vision was representative and outside of him. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. These seven golden candlesticks are the seven spirits of heaven and the seven gifts of the Spirit for the church.
And in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. (Rev 1:13)
Jesus Christ is always in the midst of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and where he lives, the seven gifts are found. The long robe represents his purity and innocence and the golden sash signifies his love.
His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire. (Rev 1:14 )
His head represents his superior part; therefore, the whiteness signifies his integrity. His hair was also very white, to signify his simplicity and purity of thought, as well as his antiquity. He is as eternal as God, although he came into time as a man incarnate by taking on a mortal body. His eyes were like a flame of fire because the Word is the knowledge of the Father. He is the eye and strong as the Word. But love made him change his figure and take a human soul and body with eyes and organs like ours, whose knowledge has rapport with ours, although it is under his hypostatic union. As his love made him take this form, his eyes appear like fire, for us to understand that he is light and heat. He does not only enlighten us but warms us with his love. His eyes also represent Divinity. The mutual and reciprocal gaze of the Father and the Son produces a love as great and infinite as this gaze. God gazes upon us with love.
His feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. (Rev 1:15)
The Son of Man’s feet of polished bronze represent his humanity. When hit, the sound of bronze is the cry of all the sins of the world. On him fall the blows of our sins. The furnace of his Divinity composed of fire and flames made his feet of fire as he walks to us out of love to save us. His voice is like the sounds of many waters, strong and full, because by his Word strong and profound graces are given to us. He is like a river that sprinkles and floods the whole soul, making it fertile.
In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force. (Rev 1:16)
The seven stars are the gifts of the Holy Spirit that he distributes with grace to humans. He gives us knowledge about himself according to the different capacity of souls. In his hand he holds all the graces that save humanity. The sword of his Word has two sides to cut off sin and everything that is opposed to his work. The sword cuts away all that is in us of Adam that has insinuated itself into the soul. His face represents the glory of his beautiful soul in his hypostatic union.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last.” (Rev 1:17)
As soon as you appear to us, O my divine Savior, humans fall as though dead because all that is within us of Adam dies. We need to die so that we give place to the new Adam and let the new Adam do his work. But we are not to be afraid because he places his right hand on us and supports our soul. When it seems that all is going to die and end in disaster, we find a greater salvation, a stronger life, and more assured support. Do not be afraid, he says to the soul, because I am the first and the last. “It is I,” he says, “that you find when you enter into the Way. You also find in me the last consummation. I said that it was good that I go away, and that is the beginning (John 16:7). The soul must lose sight of my first coming and that she must lose the light and feeling of me for a long time. So this new revelation appears entirely extraordinary and frightens her all the more, because she has lost the sight of me for a long time and also because my second advent is very different from the first, because now she has rapport with me. I am therefore the beginning and the end of all things. Whoever is the first among the saints is also the last, because all their holiness is found contained in me. Everything is reunited.”
And the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. (Rev 1:18)
O Word of God! You are the One who is.
