VISIO NONA, cap. III
The Unfathomable Radiance
The wondrous image in the north signifies God's invincible majesty, whose radiant divinity cannot be fully grasped even by the angels.
But as if in the middle of that same northern region, you see another image, standing upright with a wondrous form, which, against the strength and unjust presumption of the ancient serpent, signifies almighty God—invincible in his majesty and wondrous in his powers—because no one can fully grasp the depth of his mysteries.✦ At its summit, where its head should be, such a brightness of radiance shines out that the same radiance strikes your sight, because no one weighed down by a mortal body can see the excellence of the divinity, which illuminates everything, since not even the angels, who always attend to his presence, can fully grasp him, constantly longing to gaze upon him, because God is that brightness, which neither began to exist nor will come to an end.✦✦
Eternal Plan for Humanity
The human head on the image's belly reveals God's eternal plan for human salvation, the dignity of the imago Dei, and the ruin brought by prideful ambition.
But in the middle of its belly appears the head of a man, with white hair and a beard, signifying that in the perfection of God's works there was an ancient plan for human salvation, showing in itself a great dignity of uprightness, which no one can count or comprehend, just as the beginning and end of a wheel that has an equal circle cannot be distinguished by a person.✦ For no human can put a limit on what the angels cannot comprehend, because eternity existed before them equally in willing and in accomplishing, and it lacked nothing because it was always full. And so that same head has the form of a human head, because God made man in his image and likeness, and gave him the power to act so that he might do what is good, and praise his Creator, and not forget him.✦ For no one is like God, nor can anyone be; but the one who wanted to be like him was destroyed, because this was not right.✦✦
The Incarnate Word
God demonstrated his strength through the Incarnation, as the Holy Spirit gently formed the Son in the Virgin's womb to endure for humanity's sake.
But when God wanted to powerfully show his strength, he looked into the Virgin's womb, and just as on the seventh day he rested from all his work and then established man to work, so too he made his Son rest in the Virgin's womb, and to him he entrusted all his work.✦ For the Holy Spirit touched the Virgin's flesh with his gentle warmth, without any burning of a man's carnal desire, just as dew falls gently on the grass, so that the flower—that is, the Son of God—might take on the form of a man in the flesh of that same Virgin; he who also endured much with great patience because of man's crimes.✦✦
Redemption and Judgment
Christ's life, passion, and ascension redeem humanity, while the lion's feet signify God's hiddenness in mortality and his fierce reckoning at the final judgment.
For in his own circumcision he designated humankind to be cleansed through baptism, and in his own passion and death, that humankind to be redeemed from its criminal sins, and in his own ascension, that the same humankind be joined to the heavenly kingdom — and by these means he will bring the number of the blessed to its fullness, right up to the dreadful time of judgment.✦ And the feet of the aforementioned image bear the likeness of a lion's feet, signifying that God hides his divinity from people for as long as they are mortal — yet to them he shows very many good things through his lawful precepts and through other creatures.✦ When at last all these things, through his own Son, he draws to himself like the feet of lions, and examines — so that the whole earth is shaken, and the firmament is overthrown, and mortal man, thus reaching his end, renders an account of his works — there he will also see the immortal Son of God.✦✦✦
The Six Wings
The vision introduces the image's six wings and their symbolic meaning.
How the same image appeared clothed with six wings, and what those wings represent.
Read the original Latin
Sed quasi in medio ejusdem septentrionalis plagae vides aliam imaginem, erectam stantem, formamque mirabilem habentem, quae contra fortitudinem injustamque aestimationem antiqui serpentis, omnipotentem Deum designat, in majestate sua invincibilem et in virtutibus suis mirabilem, quoniam profunditatem mysteriorum ejus nullus ad finem perducere potest. In cujus summitate, ubi locus capitis ejus esse deberet, tanta claritas fulgoris radiat, ut idem fulgor visum tuum repercutiat, quia excellentiam divinitatis, quae omnia illuminat, nullus dum mortali corpore gravatur videre potest, cum nec angeli aspectui ejus semper assistentes ipsum ad finem perducere valeant, eum inspicere assidue desiderantes, quoniam Deus claritas illa est, quae nec esse incoepit nec finietur. In medio autem ventris ipsius caput hominis capillos canos barbamque habens apparet, significans quod in perfectione operum Dei antiquum consilium ad salvationem hominis fuit, magnam dignitatem rectitudinis in se ostendens, quam nemo dinumerare nec comprehendere potest, quemadmodum initium et finis rotae quae aequalem circulum habet, ab homine discerni non praevalet. Nullus enim homo illud finire potest, quod angeli comprehendere nequeunt, quia aeternitas ante ipsos aequaliter volendo et perficiendo fuit, nec illius rei eguit quoniam semper plena fuit. Unde et idem caput formam humani capitis habet, quia Deus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem suam fecit, et potestatem operandi illi dedit quatenus quod bonum est operaretur, Creatoremque suum laudaret, nec illius oblivisceretur. Deo etenim nullus similis est, nec esse potest; sed qui illi assimilari voluit deletus est, quia hoc esse non debuit. Cum autem Deus virtutem suam potenter ostendere voluit, in alvum Virginis respexit, et sicut in die septimo ab omni opere suo requievit, hominemque deinde operari instituit, ita et Filium suum in utero Virginis requiescere fecit cui et omne opus suum commisit. Nam Spiritus sanctus leni calore suo carnem Virginis absque omni incendio motus carnalis viri tetigit, quemadmodum ros super gramen leniter cadit, ita ut flos scilicet Filius Dei in carne ejusdem Virginis formam hominis assumeret, qui etiam multa tolerantia propter hominem crimina ejus sustinuit.
Nam in circumcisione sua per baptismum hominem purgandum designavit, et in passione ac in morte sua illum de criminalibus peccatis redimendum, ac in ascensione sua ipsum coelesti regno associandum demonstravit, atque his modis numerum beatorum usque ad tremendum tempus judicii complebit. Et pedes praedictae imaginis similitudinem pedum leonis imitantur designantes quod Deus divinitatem suam hominibus quandiu mortales sunt abscondit, quibus tamen in legalibus praeceptis, et in aliis creaturis plurima bona ostendit. Quae tandem omnia per Filium suum velut cum pedibus leonum ad se trahet, et examinabit, ita ut tota terra concutiatur, et firmamentum evertatur, et mortalis homo sic finem habens, rationem de operibus suis reddat, ubi et Filium Dei immortalem videbit.
Quomodo sex alis eadem imago circumamicta apparuerit, et quid figurent eaedem alae.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.3.1 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
- ↩1Tim.6.16 — He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one among human beings has seen or is able to see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
- ↩1John.1.5 — And this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
- ↩Dan.7.9 — I kept watching until thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was flames of fire, its wheels a burning fire.
- ↩Gen.1.26 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
- ↩Isa.14.14 — I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'" Close the quotation here so the transition to v.15 lands clearly.
- ↩Gen.3.5 — for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
- ↩Gen.2.2-Gen.2.3 — And God finished on the seventh day His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. Gen.2.3 — And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God created to do.
- ↩Luke.1.35 — And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the one to be born will be called Son of God."
- ↩Isa.45.8;Song.2.1-Song.2.2 — Drop down, O heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout; I, the LORD, have created it. Song.2.1 — I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys. Song.2.2 — As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters.
- ↩Col.2.11-Col.2.12 — In him you were also circumcised—not with a circumcision performed by human hands, but with the circumcision of Christ, having been stripped of the body of the flesh. Col.2.12 — having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
- ↩Isa.45.15 — Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
- ↩2Pet.3.10;Matt.24.29 — But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing roar, and the elements, being burned up, will be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will be found. Matt.24.29 — But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
- ↩Rom.14.12;2Cor.5.10;Matt.16.27 — So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. 2Cor.5.10 — For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what has been done through the body, whether good or evil. Matt.16.27 — For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will repay each one according to his deeds.
- ↩1John.3.2 — Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
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