VISIO QUINTA, cap. XLI
The Blessing of the Fifth Day
The Genesis blessing over creatures of sea and air is unfolded as a figure of virtues multiplying in the Church through apostolic teaching and the life of the spirit.
"And God saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply and fill the waters of the sea, and let the birds be multiplied over the earth."✦ "God saw that it was good that righteous people should renounce themselves and their own wills, and this with the inner blessing of the heart in his Son, who also gave this example, he blessed, saying: Let these virtues grow in God, and be multiplied in goodness, and fill the living and the rushing waters, that is, the apostles, who through their knowledge lead the streams of the Scripture of God through the Church, which is a glassy and fiery sea, so that the remembrance of the Incarnation of the Lord, with contempt of this age, may come to be in people."✦ And let the winged creatures of the spiritual peoples be multiplied over the earth of the Church, which is a figure of the heavenly Jerusalem, which will be filled when the Church—until the last day has passed—is complete.✦✦
The Fifth Day and the Rise of the Religious Life
The evening and morning of the fifth day are interpreted as the turning of Christian life from common secular existence toward abstinence, fasting, and contempt of the age.
"And there was evening and morning, the fifth day."✦ "That difficulty, namely, since the Christian people had nothing but a common life, living only in secular works, began, as if through evening, to turn itself toward the beginning of a strong day, in which the singular life sprouted forth in abstinence, in fasting, and in contempt of this age, which, confirmed in the fifth light of true faith through Christ, is for the building up of the Church with the blessing of God, as the fifth day is."✦
A New Witness from the Prophet
A fresh interpretation is introduced, drawing on Isaiah's image of those who fly like clouds and doves to show how the fifth day's work instructs mortals.
And again, in another way: How the things given through the work of the fifth day and God's blessing on that same work should be related to the instruction of mortals, with the testimony of the prophet Isaiah brought to bear, saying: "Who are these who fly like clouds, and like doves to their windows?" — and how this too should be understood.✦
Read the original Latin
« Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum, benedixitque eis dicens: Crescite et multiplicamini et replete aquas maris, avesque multiplicentur super terram . » Vidit Deus quod bonum erat ut justi populi sibimetipsis et propriis voluntatibus renuntiarent, et hoc cum interiori benedictione cordis in Filio suo, qui etiam hoc exemplum dedit, benedixit dicens: Istae virtutes in Deo crescant, et in bono multiplicentur, et repleant viventes et torrentes aquas, id est apostolos, qui rivulos Scripturae Dei per scientiam suam in Ecclesia, quae vitreum et igneum mare est, perducant, ut recordatio Incarnationis Domini cum contemptu hujus saeculi in hominibus fiat. Et volatilia spiritalium populorum super terram Ecclesiae, quae figura coelestis Jerusalem est, multiplicentur, quae replebitur cum Ecclesia, dum novissimus dies pertransierit. « Et factum est vespere et mane dies quintus . » Illa scilicet importunitas cum Christianus populus non haberet nisi communem vitam, in saecularibus operibus tantum vivens, quasi per vesperum declinare se coepit ad initium fortis diei, in qua singularis vita in abstinentia, in jejunio et in contemptu hujus saeculi pullulavit, quod in quinta luce verae fidei per Christum confirmatum, ad aedificationem Ecclesiae cum benedictione Dei ut dies quintus est. Et iterum alio modo:
Qualiter ea quae opere quinti diei et benedictione Dei super idem opus suum data ad instructionem mortalitatis referri debeant, adhibito testimonio Isaiae prophetae dicentis: « Qui sunt isti qui ut nubes volant, et quasi columbae ad fenestras suas, » et quomodo hoc quoque intelligendum sit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.1.22 — And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
- ↩Gen.1.22 — And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
- ↩Gen.1.22 — And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
- ↩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.
- ↩Gen.1.23 — And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day.
- ↩Gen.1.23 — And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day.
- ↩Isa.60.8 — Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows?
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