VISIO QUINTA, cap. XXXIII
The Earth Brings Forth Green Life
God commands the earth to sprout vegetation and fruit-bearing trees, and it is done.
"And God saw that it was good, and he said: Let the earth sprout green vegetation that yields seed, and fruit-bearing trees that produce fruit of every kind, with their seed in them, resting upon the ground.✦ And so it was done.✦
The Church as the Living Earth
The sprouting earth signifies the Church, which yields the fruit of justice and good works through the apostolic seed of faith.
"The living earth is the Church, bringing forth the fruit of justice with the teaching of the apostles. Just as they preached to their children at the beginning, so that they might be like green plants in the vigor of right faith — the faith they had received in the seed of God's words — and so that they might also become fruitful trees according to God's law, so that in their offspring no acts of sexual immorality or adultery would be committed, but that in an upright birth they might bring forth children upon the earth.✦ "And so it was done," because in the voice of the apostles the Church received the faith, and every community of peoples is subject to the right law.✦ "And the earth brought forth green vegetation, carrying seed of every kind, and trees bearing fruit, each with its seed according to its own form.✦ "The Church, which is the land of the living, brought forth the fruit of good works in the vigor of faith, and carries the seed of the Word of God, and fruit as well, so that its children — whether rich or poor, whether older or younger — practice right union according to their own forms.✦
God Sees That It Is Good
God beholds the fruitfulness of the earth and declares it good.
"And God saw that it was good.✦ "And it was good before God.✦
Evening and Morning of the Third Day
The scattering and suffering of Christians form the evening that declines into the morning of steadfast faith and the appointed law.
"And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day." Then the scattering of the Christian people—which was brought about by the battles of unbelievers and by the sufferings they inflicted on them for the sake of the right faith—began, as it were, through that evening to decline toward the morning of that day, that is, of the steadfast faith in which Christians received the appointed law, through which they might know what was to be done for them under that same law of God. And this was done as if it were the third day, with the third light of right faith.✦
Another Tropological Reading
A second tropological approach is introduced, seeking the ecclesial practices of the third day confirmed by Gospel testimony.
And again in another way: "Then God said — Likewise, how the events of this same third day are recounted in the narrative, and are reflected in the practices of the Church's children according to the tropological sense — once the appropriate testimony of the Gospel has been added for this purpose — and in what sense it ought to be received.
Read the original Latin
« Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum, et ait: Germinet terra herbam virentem et facientem semen, et lignum pomiferum faciens fructum juxta genus suum, cujus semen in semetipso sit super terram. Et factum est ita . » Vivens terra Ecclesia est, fructum justitiae cum doctrina apostolorum pariens, sicut ipsi filiis suis in initio praedicaverunt, ut quasi herba in viriditate rectae fidei essent, quam in semine verborum Dei percepissent, et ut etiam fructiferae arbores secundum legem Dei fierent, ita ut in semine eorum fornicationes et adulteria non perpetrarentur, sed in recta nativitate filios super terram parerent. « Et factum est ita, » quia in sono apostolorum fidem suscepit Ecclesia, et unaquaeque constitutio populorum rectae legi subjecta est. « Et protulit terra herbam virentem, et afferentem semen juxta genus suum, lignumque faciens fructum, et habens unumquodque sementem secundum speciem suam. » Ecclesia, quae est terra viventium fructum bonorum operum in viriditate fidei protulit, et afferentem semen Verbi Dei, et fructum ita ut etiam filii ejus, sive divites sive pauperes, sive majores natu sive minores, rectum conjugium secundum formas suas exercent. « Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum. » Et illud ante Deum bonum erat.
« Factumque est vespere et mane dies tertius, » Tunc divisio sparsionis Christiani populi, quae ex praeliis infidelium et doloribus quos ei propter rectam fidem inferebant facta est, quasi per vesperum se declinare coepit ad mane illius diei, scilicet stabilis fidei in qua Christiani constitutam legem acceperunt, per quam scirent quid eis in eadem lege Dei faciendum esset; et hoc factum quasi dies tertius cum tertia luce rectae fidei est. Et iterum alio modo: « Dixit vero Deus:
Item quomodo ea quae eodem tertio die facta narrantur, per historiam in moribus filiorum Ecclesiae inveniantur juxta tropologiam, adjuncto ad hoc competenti testimonio Evangelii, et quo sensu accipi debeat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.1.11-Gen.1.12 — And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation—plants yielding seed, fruit trees bearing fruit according to their kinds, whose seed is in them, upon the earth." And it was so. Gen.1.12 — And the earth brought forth vegetation—plants yielding seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.1.12 — And the earth brought forth vegetation—plants yielding seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.1.12 — And the earth brought forth vegetation—plants yielding seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.1.12 — And the earth brought forth vegetation—plants yielding seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.1.12 — And the earth brought forth vegetation—plants yielding seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.1.12 — And the earth brought forth vegetation—plants yielding seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.1.13 — And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
- ↩Gen.1.13 — And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
- ↩Gen.1.13 — And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
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