Audiuit sponsa Christi in spiritu, quid significant septem tonitrua et quare Iohanni preceptum fuit, vt tantum ea signaret et non scriberet et quod multis viuentibus, qui tunc erant, tonitrua venirent in Ecclesiam, vt multi optarent mori.
The Mystery of the Seven Thunders
Christ explains to the Bride that the seven thunders are symbolic warnings of future Church trials, kept hidden to prevent unnecessary despair.
A certain master asked the Lady what the seven thunders signify. Then the Lady, caught up in spirit, heard from Christ: "Don't think, my daughter, that any worldly things are to be imagined in my Godhead, nor that thunder, wind, or unfeeling creatures have human voices." But John, through my inspiration, saw the future dangers of the Church through physical symbols. If he had written them down for specific times, everyone who heard them would have been terrified and, in their fearful anticipation, would have fallen apart. That’s why he was instructed to note what he saw, but not to write it out. For wherever something is noted, it’s a sign of a future event that strikes fear.
The Hidden Kernel of Prophecy
The Lord clarifies that the obscurity of prophetic signs serves to prepare the soul for future tribulations, which will be so severe that many will desire death.
It's the same with the voices of the thunder, the lightning, and the winds. They signaled the threats of tyrants who were disturbing my Church—threats so intense that John saw in the Spirit they were better left marked than written down. Just as someone who writes or speaks a short parable that signifies great things so that the listeners have reason to fear what is coming, so I have shown what is to come but have not explained it, so that people might fear—and also because it was not yet time for the shell to be broken and the kernel extracted. This is why I showed you the future in such an obscure way: the vessel must be prepared before the drink is poured in. Know also that such thunder and lightning will come upon my Church while many who are now living are still alive, that many will long for death, and death will flee from them.
Read the original Latin
Quidam magister interrogauit a domina, quid significant septem tonitrua. Tunc domina rapta in spiritu audiuit a Christo:
"Non credas, filia, quod in deitate mea aliqua temporalia cogitanda sunt, nec quod tonitrua vel venti vel creature insensibiles habent voces humanas.
Sed Iohannes ex inspiracione mea vidit futura Ecclesie pericula sub speciebus corporalibus. Que si scripsisset ad certa tempora, auditores omnes horruissent et expectando pre timore dissoluti fuissent.
Propterea preceptum fuit sibi, quod signaret, que vidit, sed non scriberet. Nam vbi aliquid signatur, signum est alicuius rei future incucientis timorem.
Sic est et in vocibus tonitruorum, fulgurum et ventorum. Nam significabantur comminaciones tyrannorum conturbancium Ecclesiam meam, quas ita vehementes Iohannes videbat in spiritu, quod pocius erant signande quam scribende.
Sicut enim ille, qui scribit vel dicit vnam paruam parabolam grandia denotantem, vt audientes habeant occasionem timendi futura, sic ego ostendi futura sed non exposui, vt homines timeant et quia non erat tempus, vt frangeretur testa et eliceretur nucleus.
Ideo ostendi futura sub obscuritate, quia prius debet parari vas, quam infunditur potus. Scito eciam, quod tanta tonitrua et fulgura venient in Ecclesiam meam multis viuentibus, qui nunc viuunt, quod multi optabunt mortem, et mors fugiet ab eis."
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