VISIO DECIMA, cap. XIX
The Green Wood and the Dry
Christ, the green wood full of virtues, was rejected by unbelievers, while the Antichrist, the dry wood, withers all justice and will be brought to nothing.
Therefore he himself also said to those who mourned, 'If they do these things in the green wood, what will happen in the dry?'✦ The meaning of this saying is to be understood in this way: he himself was the green wood, because he brought forth all the greenness of virtues, but nevertheless he was cast off by unbelievers; the Antichrist, however, is the dry wood, because, trampling all the greenness of justice, he makes dry those things that are green in uprightness, and so he will be led down to nothing.1
The Last Days and the Son of Perdition
The green wood signifies the hopeful days before judgment, while the dry wood points to the tribulation before the son of perdition, when heaven and earth will be shaken as foreshadowed by the darkening of the firmament and the prophets' words.
The green wood also refers to those days in which people held the expectation of having all their sorrows restored, and in which they feared no judgment of the last time to come; the dry wood, indeed, refers to the departure of which Paul, my chosen vessel, speaks, before the son of perdition appears, where every sorrow coming upon heaven and earth will shake them.✦✦2 Heaven and earth, then, will be moved in the future judgment, just as it was foreshadowed in the green wood, when the wheel of the firmament, which has very many signs within it, withdrew the splendor of light as that one set, just as it is also shown in the words of the prophets spoken before.✦✦3
Joy and Arrogance at the End of Days
In the final days, the Church will overflow with restored justice and spiritual blessings, even as Jews and heretics exult destructively over the near approach of the Antichrist.
With what great and varied joys will they be filled in the Church on account of the restored state of justice, the abundance of temporal goods, and the overflow of spiritual blessings, in those final days for some stretch of time — while the party of the Jews and the heretics who have persisted in evil exult with destructive arrogance over the near approach of the coming of the Antichrist.
Read the original Latin
Quapropter ipse etiam lamentantibus se dicebat: « Si in viridi ligno haec faciunt, in arido quid fiet? » Hujus sententiae intellectus hoc modo accipiendus est: Ipse viride lignum fuit, quia omnem viriditatem virtutum protulit, sed tamen ab incredulis abjectus est; Antichristus autem aridum lignum est, quia omnem viriditatem justitiae conculcans ea quae in rectitudine viridia sunt arida facit, unde etiam ad nihilum deducetur. Viride quoque lignum illi dies fuerunt, in quibus homines respectum reparationis omnium dolorum habebant, et in quibus nullum timorem futuri judicii novissimi temporis metuebant; aridum vero lignum cum discessio, de qua Paulus electum vas meum loquitur, ante filium perditionis apparebit, ubi etiam omnis dolor superveniens coelum et terram commovebit. Coelum quippe et terra in futuro judicio movebuntur, quemadmodum in viridi ligno praesignatum est, cum rota firmamenti, quae plurima signa in se habet, illo occumbente splendorem lucis subtraxit, sicut etiam in praedictis verbis prophetarum ostenditur.
Quanti diversis gaudiis in Ecclesia propter recuperatum justitiae statum, et temporalium rerum copia et spiritualium bonorum abundantia in diebus penultimus per aliquantum temporis perfruentur, ea Judaeorum et haereticorum parte qui in malo perstiterunt de proximo Antichristi adventu perniciosa praesumptione exsultante.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.23.31 — For if they do these things in the green wood, what will happen in the dry?
- ↩2Thess.2.3 — Let no one deceive you in any way, because the rebellion must come first, and the man of lawlessness must be revealed—the son of destruction.
- ↩Acts.9.15 — But the Lord said to him, "Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.
- ↩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.
- ↩Ezek.1.15-Ezek.1.21 — As I looked at the living creatures, behold, one wheel was on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of their four faces. Ezek.1.16 — The appearance of the wheels and their construction was like the gleam of beryl, and the likeness of them was one for all four, and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel. Ezek.1.17 — Upon their four sides, when they went, they went; they did not turn when they went. Ezek.1.18 — And their rims were tall and terrifying, and their rims were full of eyes all around the four of them. Ezek.1.19 — And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Ezek.1.20 — Wherever the spirit would be present, there they would go — the spirit directed their going — and the wheels rose alongside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. Ezek.1.21 — When they went, they went; and when they stood, they stood; and when they were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up with them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
Notes
- 1 ↩The 'greenness' (viriditas) of virtues and of justice functions as a figure for spiritual life and flourishing; the contrast with the dry wood of Antichrist maps spiritual barrenness against Christ's vitality.
- 2 ↩The 'departure' (discessio) echoes 2 Thessalonians 2:7 (the 'mystery of lawlessness' and the restraining figure's removal); the 'son of perdition' is drawn from 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and John 17:12. The identification of Paul as 'my chosen vessel' reflects Acts 9:15.
- 3 ↩The 'wheel of the firmament' (rota firmamenti) with its many signs draws on apocalyptic imagery, likely echoing Ezekiel 1 (the wheels within wheels) and eschatological prophecy about cosmic signs at the end of the age.
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