VISIO DECIMA, cap. XVIII
The Nativity and the Peace of Jacob
The Virgin Birth brings angelic peace and overflowing joy to the liberated children of Jacob.
On this day, when the angels sang out the peace given to humanity, my Son was born of a virgin, was glorified by those same angels, and was also glorified by the shepherds, who sought him with devout devotion — and the fruit of the earth to which peace was restored, and over which the air spread its sweetness, was overflowing, as was joy for those among the children of Jacob who had been set free from their past affliction of troubles, because they had been crushed beforehand by many tribulations under just judgment.
The Glory of Faith and Deliverance
True faith glorifies the Son, yielding the exalted fruit of good works and joyful deliverance into the family of God.
But also, when the light of true faith illuminates the hearts of the faithful, my Son will be glorified in them, because they will believe that he came forth from me, and they will glorify him, when they confess that he has returned to me in glory. And so for them the fruit of good works will also be exalted. Their joy too will increase, when, snatched from the devil's power and freed from the torments of the pit, they are counted among the children of God.
The Withered Vine and Jewish Blindness
The flowering vine of Sabaoth withered at the Cross due to Jewish blindness, leaving them dead in the winter of the Old Testament.
But the blossoming of the vine of Sabaoth — which came from the flower of Aaron's rod, which was not heated by the serpent's venom — withered when my Son suffered on the cross, because the eyes of the Jews were weighed down in the shadow of death: though they heard the words of prophecy, they cast them away with the true flower, whom all the earth knew, when he breathed his last on the cross. And so they have killed themselves as well, and have withered in both the Old and the New Testament, because the Old Testament is like winter, which hides all greenness within itself; the New, however, is like summer, which brings forth grass and flowers.
The Green Wood and the Dry
Christ's own words about the green and dry wood provide the key to understanding the preceding judgment.
Words of Christ the Lord himself, which he replied to those lamenting as he was being led to death, about the green wood and the dry wood, and how they are to be understood.✦
Read the original Latin
In die hac cum angeli pacem hominibus datam canerent, fuit Filius meus de virgine natus, ab eisdem angelis magnificatus, a pastoribus quoque, qui eum pia devotione quaerebant, glorificatus, et fructus terrae cui pax reddita erat, et cui aer suavitatem administrabat, superabundans, et gaudium illis qui de praeterita tribulatione malorum liberati erant in filiis Jacob, quia multis tribulationibus justo judicio prius conterebantur. Sed et cum lux verae fidei corda fidelium illustrabit, Filius meus in ipsis magnificabitur, quoniam illum de me exisse credent, atque glorificabunt, ubi eum ad me in gloria redisse confitebuntur. Quapropter et ipsis fructus bonorum operum sublimabitur. Exsultatio quoque in eis augebitur, cum de diabolica potestate erepti, et de tartareis poenis liberati inter filios Dei computabuntur. Floriditas autem vineae Sabaoth, quae de flore virgae Aaron processit, quae per spumam serpentis non incaluit quando Filius meus in cruce passus est exaruit, quia oculi Judaeorum in umbra mortis gravati fuerunt, ubi verba prophetiae audientes, ea cum vero flore abjecerunt, quem tota terra cognovit, cum in cruce exspiravit. Et ideo etiam seipsos occiderunt, ac sic tam in Veteri quam in Novo Testamento exaruerunt, quoniam Vetus Testamentum est sicut hiems, quae omnem viriditatem in se abscondit; Novum vero quasi aestas, quae gramina et flores producit.
Verba ejusdem Christi Domini, quae, dum ad mortem duceretur, de viridi et arido ligno lamentantibus se respondit, et quomodo intelligi debeant.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.23.31 — For if they do these things in the green wood, what will happen in the dry?
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