VISIO DECIMA, cap. XX
The Sweetness of a Renewed Earth
The earth will be restored to fruitfulness as people turn to righteousness, and rulers will ban weapons, keeping only tools for cultivation, with death for transgressors.
So in the days I have just described, the sweetest cloud will touch the earth with the sweetest air, making it pour out that green richness of fruitfulness, because at that time people will be preparing for every kind of righteousness—just as in the time I mentioned earlier, the fruitfulness of the earth failed when it was weak as a woman, since the elements, violated by human sins, were stripped of their power to do what they were made for in every sphere. The rulers, along with the rest of the people, will rightly order the justice of God, and they will ban all the weapons that had been prepared for killing, keeping only the tools for cultivating the earth and those that serve the necessary needs of human life; and if anyone transgresses these, he will be put to death by his own sword and thrown into a desolate place.
The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit will pour out grace, prophecy, wisdom, and holiness, transforming people into a new manner of good living.
And just as the clouds will then send down sweet and straight rain for the fruit of a righteous shoot, so also the Holy Spirit will pour out the dew of his grace, together with prophecy, wisdom, and holiness, upon the people, so that he will then appear as if changed into a different manner of good living.
From Shadow to Summer: The Fulfillment of the Law
The old law was a shadow until the Incarnation, when it yielded the fruit of eternal life in the Gospel, and in the coming days all orders of the faithful will stand upright in true summer, detached from wealth.
For the old law was a shadow of the spiritual life, because it was entirely signed through creation, just as in winter every fruit lies hidden in the earth and is not perceived at all, because it had not yet come into being; nor did that law have summer, because the Son of God had not yet become incarnate and appeared; but when he came, that whole law, changed into a spiritual meaning, revealed the fruit of eternal life in the commandments of the Gospel, just as summer also produces flowers and fruit. For in those days there will be a true summer through the power of God, because then everything will stand firm in truth: priests and monks, virgins and the continent, and the rest of the orders will stand upright in their rectitude, living justly and well, casting off every form of grandeur and superabundance of wealth, because just as the necessary usefulness of fruit is then produced through the temperate state of the clouds and the air, so the seed of the spiritual life will then be laid open through the grace of God.
Prophecy Unveiled and Angels Drawing Near
Prophecy and wisdom will be revealed, the faithful will examine themselves, and angels will draw near to people because of their holy way of life.
Prophecy, as I said before, will then be laid open, and wisdom will be joyful and strong, and all the faithful will examine themselves in these as in a mirror, and then the true angels will also draw near to people familiarly, seeing the new and holy way of life in them, whereas now they often turn away from them on account of their stinking sins.
The Righteous Press On, the Unrighteous Rejoice in Vain
The righteous will rejoice yet remain sober as they await the coming judgment like travelers, while Jews and heretics will boast that their glory is near.
But even then the righteous will rejoice as they press toward the land of promise and await the hope of an eternal reward; and yet they will not be fully glad, because they will see that the coming judgment is near; and they will do this in the likeness of travelers who are making their way toward their homeland and do not have full joy while they are still on their journey. The Jews and the heretics, however, will then rejoice greatly, saying, 'Our glory is near at hand, and those who harassed us and drove us out will be trampled down.'
Pagans Converted and the Last Day Announced
Many pagans will join the Christians, preach Christ, and warn Jews and heretics of eternal death, while those days of peace will stand firm like armed soldiers announcing the last day.
Nevertheless, very many pagans will then join themselves to the Christians, seeing the abundance of honor and riches that are theirs; and once baptized, they will preach Christ alongside them, just as happened in the time of the apostles; and they will say to the Jews and the heretics: 'What you call your glory will be eternal death, and the one you name as your leader—you will see his end with the greatest horror and peril, and then you will turn to us, looking to that day which the offspring of the dawn, namely the star of the sea of Mary, shows to us.' Those days will surely be strong and praiseworthy in peace and stability, and they will be like armed soldiers lying in wait on a rock against their own enemies, whom they pursue to destruction, and they will announce the coming of the last day, because whatever the prophets of good or of grace had foretold will be fulfilled in them.
The Necessity of Prophetic Witness
Wisdom, devotion, and holiness will be confirmed because the Son of God was foretold by the prophets, preventing Him from falling into oblivion.
Wisdom too, and religious devotion and holiness, will be confirmed in them, because if the Son of God had not been foretold by the prophets, and had come in the blink of an eye, he would quickly have been handed over to oblivion—just as a lost man, coming as if in secret, is destroyed most quickly.
Tribulations for the Sluggish
Those who attribute peace to themselves rather than God and grow sluggish in religious life will face unprecedented tribulations.
Because people who credit this same peace and calm and abundance of fruit to themselves rather than to God, and who start to grow sluggish about the religious life again, will be overtaken by tribulations as great as have never before raged in the world.
Read the original Latin
In diebus itaque supradictis suavissimae nubes cum suavissimo aere terram tangent, illamque viriditatem fructuositatis exsudare facient, quia homines ad omnem justitiam tunc praeparabunt, quemadmodum in praefato tempore femineae debilitatis fructuositas terrae defecit, quoniam elementa peccatis hominum violata, in omnibus officiis suis destituta tunc fuerunt. Principes quoque cum reliquo populo justitiam Dei recte ordinabunt, omniaque arma, quae ad necem hominum parata erant, interdicent, illa tantum ferramenta conservantes quibus terra colitur, et quae ad necessitatem usus hominum respiciunt; et si quis haec transgredietur, ferro proprio necabitur, atque in desertum locum abjicietur. Et ut nubes suavem et rectam pluviam ad fructum justi germinis tunc emittent, sic et Spiritus sanctus rorem gratiae suae cum prophetia, sapientia et sanctitate in populum fundet, ita ut ille tunc appareat quasi in alium modum bonae conversationis mutatus sit. Vetus namque lex umbra spiritalis vitae fuit, quoniam illa tota per creaturam signata erat, velut in hieme omnis fructus in terra absconditus nequaquam cernitur, quia nondum formatus est, nec eadem lex aestatem habebat, quoniam Filius Dei nondum incarnatus apparuerat; sed ipso veniente illa tota in spiritalem significationem mutata fructus aeternae vitae in praeceptis Evangelii ostendit, quemadmodum etiam aestas flores et fructus producit. In diebus etenim illis vera aestas per virtutem Dei erit, quia tunc omnia in veritate consistent, sacerdotes scilicet et monachi, virgines quoque et continentes et reliqui ordines in rectitudine sua stabunt, juste et bene viventes, omnemque sublimitatem et superfluitatem divitiarum abjicientes, quoniam sicut per temperiem nubium et aeris necessaria utilitas fructuum tunc producetur, ita et germen spiritalis vitae per gratiam Dei tunc propalabitur. Prophetia quippe, ut praefatum est, tunc aperta erit, sapientiaque jucunda et robusta, omnesque fideles in his velut in speculo considerabunt se, et tunc etiam veri angeli hominibus familiariter adhaerebunt, novam et sanctam conversationem in eis videntes, cum nunc propter fetentia peccata eorum ab ipsis saepius declinent. Sed et tunc justi gaudebunt ad terram repromissionis tendentes, ac spem aeterni praemii exspectantes; et tamen pleniter non laetabuntur, quia futurum judicium adesse videbunt; et hoc in similitudine peregrinorum facient, qui ad patriam tendunt, plenum gaudium non habentium cum adhuc in peregrinatione sunt. Judaei autem et haeretici tunc valde laetabuntur dicentes: « Gloria nostra in proximo est, illique conculcabuntur, qui nos fatigaverunt et expulerunt.
» Attamen quamplurimi paganorum Christianis se tunc adjungent copiam honoris et divitiarum eorum videntes; atque baptizati cum ipsis Christum praedicabunt, quemadmodum in tempore apostolorum factum est; Judaeisque et haereticis dicent: « Quod vos gloriam vestram dicitis, hoc mors aeterna erit, et quem vos principem vestrum nominatis, illius finem cum maximo horrore et periculo videbitis, atque tunc ad nos convertimini diem illum inspicientes, quem nobis stirps aurorae videlicet stellae maris Mariae ostendit. » Dies utique illi fortes et laudabiles in pace et stabilitate erunt, similesque armatis militibus qui in rupe jacentes hostibus suis insidiantur, et quos ad internecionem persequuntur, adventumque novissimi diei annuntiabunt, quia quidquid prophetae boni seu gratiae praedixerant, in ipsis complebitur. Sapientia quoque, religiositas et sanctitas in eis confirmabitur, quoniam si Filius Dei a prophetis praedictus non fuisset, et velut in ictu oculi venisset, cito oblivioni traderetur, sicut et perditus homo qui quasi latenter veniens, citissime destruetur.
Quod eamdem pacis quietem et fructuum redundantiam hominibus sibi et non Deo tribuentibus et circa religionem denuo torpore incipientibus iterum tantae subsequentur tribulationes quantae nunquam ante in mundo efferbuerunt.
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