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Chapter 184LDO.1.184

VISIO QUARTA, cap. CI

The Father Speaks to the Son

The Lord's eternal word to the incarnate Son, calling Him to sit at His right hand until every enemy is made a footstool.

The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.✦

Christ's Dominion Over the Sinner

The Father declares that the incarnate Son rules at His right hand, subduing all creatures and subjecting even the sinner through faith so that rebels abandon idols and turn to the true God.

This is so clear to the understanding that anyone may therefore say: He who is Lord and Father of all said to his incarnate Son—to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given by the Father, so that my Lord is the one who is a sinner that I am—'Rule, sitting at my right hand,' that is, rule over the person who is at my right hand, because I have subdued all creatures to him; and through faith subject him to you, so that he may abandon idols and turn to his Creator, namely the true God.✦✦1 You will do this as long as I place the rebels who are your enemies through unbelief as a footstool of your footsteps, because I will subdue them to you forever, and bring it about that they worship the footsteps of your feet.2 For when they have been converted from their unbelief, they will know you as the true God.

The Word Made Flesh at God's Right Hand

God created all things through His Word, and that same Word took flesh in the human being who sits at the right hand of God, for the fullness of divine power dwells in this.

So God produced all creatures through his Word, and the same Word took on flesh in a human being, who is at the right hand of God, because the fullness of his power consists in this.✦✦3

The Final Defeat of Satan

The Son rules over humanity until the last day, when the devil and all its followers will be trampled like a footstool and utterly scattered, revealing His true lordship.

The same Word also, who is the Son of the Father, sits ruling over humanity until the number of his brothers is filled, which will happen on the last day; and then the devilish crowd with its followers, like a footstool which is even after the final time of the world, will be subjected to him, and then it will be seen and known who and what kind of Lord he himself is, because Satan himself, like a footstool, will then be trampled and completely scattered.✦✦4

Humanity's Vocation in Creation

The human being, sealed with the signs of God's omnipotence through the five senses, is called to know and venerate the Trinity — one in essence, threefold in person — by whom he was created and restored after the fall, to be lord of the world and a tenth choir in heaven.

Because a human being, marked through the five senses with the signs of God's omnipotence, ought to know and venerate his Author — one in Trinity, threefold in unity — by whom he was created for this purpose and restored after the fall, so that he would be lord of the world and make a tenth choir in the heavens.

Read the original Latin

« Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum. » Quod sic intellectui patet: Dicat ergo homo: Dixit ille qui Dominus et Pater omnium est Filio suo incarnato, cui a Patre data est omnis potestas in coelo et in terra, ita ut Dominus meus sit, qui homo peccator sum: « Dominare sedens a dextris meis, » id est dominare homini, qui dextra mea est, quoniam omnes creaturas ei subjugavi; illumque per fidem tibi subjice, ita ut idola deserat, et ad Creatorem suum, videlicet verum Deum, se convertat. Hoc autem facies, quandiu ponam rebelles, qui inimici tui per incredulitatem sunt, scabellum vestigiorum tuorum, quia illos in perpetuum tibi subjugabo, faciamque ut adorent vestigia pedum tuorum. Nam cum ab infidelitate sua conversi fuerint, te verum Deum cognoscent. Sic Deus per Verbum suum omnes creaturas produxit, idemque Verbum carnem in homine induit, qui dextra Dei est, quoniam comprehensio potentiae ipsius existit. Idem quoque Verbum, quod Filius Patris est, dominando super hominem sedet, donec impleatur numerus fratrum suorum, quod in novissimo die erit, et tunc diabolica turba cum sequacibus suis velut scabellum quod etiam post ultimum tempus mundi est, ei subjicietur, et tunc videbitur et cognoscetur quis et qualis Dominus ipse est, quoniam ipse Satanas sicut scabellum tunc conculcabitur et omnino dissipabitur.

Quia homo signis omnipotentiae Dei per quinque sensus insignitus auctorem suum in trinitate unum, et in unitate trinum cognoscere et venerari debeat, a quo ad hoc et conditus et post lapsum reparatus est, ut et dominus mundi esset, et decimum in coelis chorum faceret.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.110.1;Ps.110.1 — The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." Ps.110.1 — The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."
  2. ↩Matt.28.18 — And Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.'
  3. ↩Ps.110.1 — The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."
  4. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
  5. ↩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.
  6. ↩1Cor.15.24-1Cor.15.25 — Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after he has abolished every rule and every authority and power. 1Cor.15.25 — For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
  7. ↩Ps.110.1 — The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The Latin 'qui homo peccator sum' is embedded within the reported speech in a compressed way; the sense is that the Son became human, sharing the condition of the sinner, so that 'my Lord' is the one who took on the humanity I bear. The rendering preserves this compressed force.
  2. 2 ↩The shift from 'scabellum pedum tuorum' (footstool of your feet) in the psalm to 'scabellum vestigiorum tuorum' (footstool of your footsteps) reflects the author's interpretive expansion, applying the image to the enemies' submission under Christ's path or example.
  3. 3 ↩The phrase 'comprehensio potentiae ipsius existit' is compressed; the sense is that the incarnation is the embodiment or summation of divine power, not merely one expression of it.
  4. 4 ↩The phrase 'quod etiam post ultimum tempus mundi est' is syntactically compressed; the sense appears to be that the devilish crowd serves as a footstool even in the final judgment, subjected under Christ at the last.

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