VISIO DECIMA, cap. XXI
A World Unsteady
Earthly conditions will shift restlessly, and times of peace will breed pride and forgetfulness of God.
Even so, in those days the justice and religious life I've spoken of will at times weaken and flag under the strain, and at times incline people toward themselves; but they'll quickly regain their strength. At times wickedness will rise up, only to fall again; at times too, wars, famine, plague, and deadly disease will rage, and then fade away. All these things won't hold a single, steady course for long, but will shift this way and that — now appearing, now slipping out of sight. But even in the very midst of all this, in those same days — just as the horse in the book of Scivias shows — insolent behavior, boastful spirits, and an abundance of pleasures and other vanities, all without reverence, will often break out among people, because those who are resting in the peace of a quiet life, overflowing with plenty of crops, are terrified by no assault of war and aren't pinched by any shortage of food. But while they credit themselves for these things, they won't give the honor due to God, from whom all good things come.
Unrelenting Tribulation
Unprecedented sorrows will follow peace, with suffering and wickedness piling up without relief.
And so such great dangers will follow the peace and abundance I've spoken of as were never seen before. For when people settle into that kind of quiet life, as I've said, fearing no dangers, then will come days full of all sorrows, in which the pitiful voice of the prophets and the voice of the Son of God will be fulfilled — people longing for death out of dread of constant suffering, and saying, 'Why were we born?' and wishing the mountains would fall on them. For earlier days of suffering and disaster sometimes had some relief and recovery in between; but these days, full of all suffering and wickedness, will not let up from evil. Suffering will pile upon suffering, wickedness upon wickedness, and in them murder and injustice will be counted as nothing. And just as animals are slaughtered to be eaten, so too people will be killed in the fury of others in those days.
The Assault on Christendom
Hostile nations will attack Christians, defile the Church, and foreshadow even greater corruption to come.
For when the pagan nations see Christians living at peace and wealthy in their resources, they'll say with cruel confidence in their own strength: 'Let's attack the Christians with our weapons, since they're unarmed and without strength — we can seize and slaughter them like sheep for the kill.' And so from distant lands they'll summon a most fierce and filthy nation, and they'll join themselves to it in sexual immorality, in filth, and in every kind of evil. They'll invade the Christian people everywhere with plunder and battle, and they'll destroy many regions and cities. They will also defile church teachings with countless vanities and corruptions, and in the same way they will contaminate everyone they can. And so those days will reveal other worst days yet to come, and they will lay bare the arrival of the lost one, because just as the corrupt person who always defiles themselves with corruption is never satisfied, so those same days will be full of corruptions and will never be sated with them.1
The Prophetic Voice
What David foresaw is now spoken aloud as Christ and the Church denounce the persecutions of the wicked.
What David foresaw, he spoke aloud: The words of David from Psalm 21, spoken in the person of Christ and the Church, denouncing the persecutions of the wicked, and how they are to be understood.
Read the original Latin
Attamen in eisdem diebus praefata justitia et religio ad fatigationem debilitatis in eisdem diebus interdum in hominibus inclinabuntur, sed vires suas cito resument; interdum etiam iniquitas surget et iterum cadet, interdum quoque bella, fames, pestilentia et mortalitas grassabuntur, et iterum evanescent, nec omnia ista in uno statu ac tenore diu tunc stabunt, sed hac et illac movebuntur, ita ut nunc appareant, nunc autem elabantur. Sed et in ipsis diebus inter omnia haec, quemadmodum equus in libro Scivias demonstrat, petulantia morum, atque jactantia animorum, necnon plenitudo voluptatum et aliarum vanitatum absque reverentia in hominibus multoties exsurgent, quia illi in quiete pacis quiescentes, et abundantia frugum redundantes, nullo incursu bellorum terrebuntur, nec penuria frugum constringentur. Sed haec sibimet tribuentes, Deo, a quo omnia bona procedunt, debitum honorem in his non exhibebunt. Quapropter et tanta pericula praefatam quietem et abundantiam subsequentur, quanta prius visa non sunt. Nam cum homines in hujusmodi quiete, ut praedictum est, residebunt, nulla pericula metuentes, alii dies omnium dolorum advenient, in quibus lamentabilis vox prophetarum, atque vox Filii Dei adimplebitur, hominibus prae timore continuarum afflictionum mortem desiderantibus et dicentibus: « Ut quid nati sumus, » et optantibus ut montes decidant super eos. Priores namque dies dolorum et calamitatum aliquam refocillationem et reparationem interdum habebant, isti autem omnium dolorum et iniquitatum pleni a malis non cessabunt, sed dolor dolori, iniquitas iniquitati in eis accumulabitur, omnique hora homicidium et injustitiam pro nihilo computabuntur, et quemadmodum animalia ad manducandum occiduntur, ita et homines in furore aliorum in eisdem diebus interficientur. Cum enim gentes paganorum Christianos in pace residere et in substantia locupletos esse viderint, crudelem fiduciam in fortitudine sua habentes dicent: « Christianos armis nostris invadamus, quoniam sine armis et sine robore sunt, eosque velut oves occisionis capere et occidere possumus. » Et sic de longinquis regionibus ferocissimam et immundissimam gentem convocabunt, cui et se in fornicatione et in immunditia atque in omni malo adjungent; populumque Christianum ubique rapinis et praeliis invadent, et plurimas regiones et civitates destruent.
Ecclesiasticas quoque disciplinas quamplurimis vanitatibus et immunditiis polluent, et omnes quos poterunt eodem modo contaminabunt. Unde et dies illi alios pessimos dies futuros manifestabunt, adventum quoque perditi hominis denudabunt, quoniam ut immundus, qui in immunditia se semper polluit, inde non saturatur, sic et idem dies immunditiarum pleni erunt, nec his saturari valebunt. Quod et David praevidens clara voce dixit:
Verba David ex psalmo XXI in persona Christi et Ecclesiae persecutiones iniquorum denuntiantis, et quomodo intelligenda sint.
Notes
- 1 ↩The phrase 'adventum perditi hominis' likely refers to the coming of the Antichrist or a figure of ultimate ruin; rendered as 'the lost one' to preserve the ambiguity of the Latin without resolving it here.
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