VISIO QUARTA, cap. LXXXVII
The Bride Descending from Heaven
The vision of Jerusalem as a bride is interpreted as the holy soul joined to Christ through his blood, recalling the Incarnation.
I saw Jerusalem coming down from heaven, adorned like a bride for her husband.✦ This is plain to understand: the bride represents that holy and adorned soul which is joined to Christ as his dowry through the blood of his own self, and looks to him as a bride looks to a bridegroom, because the Son of God himself descended from heaven into the Virgin's womb, in which he built the new and holy city, Jerusalem.✦✦
Angels Building the Heavenly City
Angels adorn the saints' works with heavenly ornaments and build new tabernacles as they ascend, resounding with praise.
For the angels, who always behold the face of God, shine in the works of the saints with countless ornaments that reflect the face of God, and as they ascend to the heavenly Jerusalem they are always building new tabernacles, and before them they shine like golden scripture, and the angels marvel.✦ So with the sound of psaltery, harp, and the voice of all praises they resound.✦
Humanity's Exalted Vocation
God created humanity to perform works that shine in heaven, crowned with glory and honor, and to see him in faith rather than sight.
God, then, created man to perform bright works that would shine in heaven, so that the angels might marvel at the works of this same man, and even at the face of God. So it is also written: "You made him a little less than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of your hands."✦ This is plain to understand: God is always present to the angels, who are his praise, and so he is seen and known by them when a man who is God's handiwork in his soul sees him in faith and not in divinity; God glorifies, honors, and greatly adorns him, because he created him for obedience to his commandments, and placed him over all the works he had made.✦✦✦
The Hard and the Soft: Earth and Soul
A comparison of earth's hardness and softness under heat and cold is linked to the struggle between flesh and soul.
Likewise, regarding the contrast between the hard and the soft — whether through heat or cold — of the uninhabitable earth: both the sources from which earthquakes arise, and the fact that this same earth, if it were not beneath the surface like iron or steel, would be shattered by the rising sun's excessive heat and by the setting sun's excessive cold; and also regarding the many-sided struggle of flesh and soul, in keeping with what has been set forth above.
Read the original Latin
« Vidi Jerusalem descendentem de coelo, ornatam tanquam sponsam viro suo . » Quod sic intellectui patet: Sponsa ista sanctam et ornatam animam, quae Christo in dote sanguinis sui adjuncta est, et ad eum quemadmodum sponsa ad sponsum respicit, designat, quia ipse Filius Dei in alvum Virginis descendit de coelo, in qua novam et sanctam civitatem Jerusalem aedificavit. Angeli namque, qui faciem Dei semper inspiciunt, in operibus sanctorum, quae cum innumerabilibus ornamentis ad faciem Dei lucent, et ad coelestem Jerusalem ascendendo nova tabernacula semper aedificant, et etiam coram eis ut aurea scriptura fulgent, mirantur. Unde in sono psalterii, citharae, et vocis omnium laudum sonant. Deus vero hominem ideo creavit, ut lucida opera quae in coelo fulgerent operaretur, quatenus angeli in operibus ejusdem hominis, ut etiam in facie Dei, mirarentur. Unde etiam scriptum est: « Minuisti eum paulo minus ab angelis; gloria et honore coronasti eum, et constituisti eum super opera manuum tuarum . » Quod sic intellectui patet: Deus angelis, qui laus ejus sunt, praesens semper est, ideo ab eis videtur et cognoscitur, cum homo, qui opus [ejus] cum anima est, eum in fide et non in divinitate videat; quem Deus glorificat, honorat et multum ornat, quoniam eum ad obedientiam praeceptorum suorum creavit, et super omnia opera quae fecerat eum constituit.
Item de comparatione durae et mollis vel calore vel algore inhabitabilis terrae, et unde terraemotus contingant, et quod eadem terra si subtus quasi ferrea chalybinea non esset, ab ascensu solis nimio aestu, et ab occasu ejus nimio frigore disrumperetur, et de multifaria concertatione carnis et animae secundum supraposita.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rev.21.2 — And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
- ↩Rev.21.2 — And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
- ↩John.1.14 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- ↩Rev.21.3;Heb.12.22 — And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them [as their God].' Heb.12.22 — But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
- ↩Ps.150.3-Ps.150.4 — Praise him with the blast of the ram's horn; praise him with the harp and lyre. Ps.150.4 — Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe.
- ↩Ps.8.5-Ps.8.6 — What is man that you remember him, and the son of Adam that you visit him? Ps.8.6 — You have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor.
- ↩Eph.2.10 — For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them.
- ↩Ps.8.5-Ps.8.6 — What is man that you remember him, and the son of Adam that you visit him? Ps.8.6 — You have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor.
- ↩Heb.12.22-Heb.12.24 — But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, Heb.12.23 — to the assembly and festival gathering of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, Heb.12.24 — and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than Abel's
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