After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” (Rev 4:1)
After Jesus showed us the door of our heart, he opened at the same time the door to heaven, to show that he will open heaven to those who open their heart. This will come at a time in the future, where the person’s heart will be opened and God’s voice will be heard. O God, as much as you are misunderstood in this century, so much will you be esteemed and followed in future centuries!
At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! 3 And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. (Rev 4:2–3)
Jesus Christ shows John the throne of God and the light of God’s majesty so to show the glory he prepares for his elect and to give us a sense of God’s holy grandeur. God is seated on this throne because his repose is never interrupted. This is One, but we cannot say more but because God has no form or figure and looks like the color of jasper and carnelian, which shows his immobility and immutability, the firmness and duration of his glory. The rainbow that looks like emerald signifies peace and reconciliation only found in Jesus Christ, as the rainbow signifies. These saved will have the advantage of this reconciliation through hope in the Divine Savior. This rainbow surrounds God as the mark of the humanity of Jesus Christ which covers his Divinity.
Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God. (Rev 4:4–5)
The twenty-four elders are the holy patriarchs and prophets, the most faithful and cherished by God. From antiquity they are the foundation of the other saints. God showed them to John to let him know the magnificence and the glory that he reserves for those admitted to his feast. The prophet-king David knew something similar when in his transport he exclaimed, O how great is the multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hidden for them that fear thee! (Psalm 30:20). On these magnificent thrones the Son of Man will seat those who have conquered in him and through him. These thrones are reserved for those who leave everything to follow him, as Jesus promised to his apostles when he said, Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt 19:28). These elders also dressed in white robes show that they had been preserved or restored in their innocence by the future grace of Jesus Christ, whose fullness and fulfillment that had not had until after the death of the same Jesus Christ. They had crowns of perfect love. O God, what is a human, that you honor him with so many graces and so much glory! Eternal and immortal glory! But, O foolish human, who loses the divine and eternal will for a moment of pleasure which does not even merit the name of pleasure! O ambitious ones who want to be kings in this world, why do you not want to be kings in heaven? O great saints, you are the closest to God, because you look like to no other but the Son of God. You have been the most annihilated. This is why you surround the throne of the one who was annihilated himself, taking the form of a servant and slave. The measure of annihilation is the measure of glory. O David, you occupy one of the highest thrones. We must not doubt it, since it is said of Jesus, that he will possess the throne of David his father (Luke 1:32). Jesus Christ did not possess your temporal throne, though he came from your lineage. As David had been on earth the faithful imitation of Jesus Christ, David also imitates him more in glory than any other. The reign Jesus Christ has in David and that David possesses in him will have no end. We cannot comprehend the high degree of glory to which David has been raised through his profound abasement to which he was reduced. Those who are happy enough to participate in the annihilation of these great saints will share in their glory.
There are heretics who recognize many saints in the old law but do not want to recognize them in the new. Yet some believe there were no great saints in the ancient law, because Jesus Christ had not died and resurrected yet. Yet there were saints equally in the ancient law and in the new, all sanctified by the sight of Jesus Christ and the blood that he spread. Others say that we are no longer in the time of the saints, as if the hand of God were shortened. They condemn in the current saints what they admire in those who preceded them under the pretext that we are not in the century of saints. This is a horrible abuse. Let them learn that, although in this century malice is at its height, yet it will be the century where there will be the greatest saints which will continue into future centuries. God takes pleasure in making a multitude of innumerable saints in all times and places of the world. If there were no more saints, the world would perish because God only suffers the unjust because of the righteous. They support God in his works, even when they seem close to ruin. We will see this in heaven.
There are seven angels, superior to all the others, who are all light and flames, and are incessantly before the throne of God as lamps always burning to give homage to the sovereign grandeur. These Spirits are the closest to God who has coming out of the throne voices, light, and thunders. This marks the supreme majesty of God, his grandeur and his magnificence. O God, as Moses said who had seen the majesty of God, you are admirable, terrible, merciful, and compassionate (Exodus 34:6).
And in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal. Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. (Rev 4:6–7)
This sea in front of the throne signifies the extreme purity needed to reach the throne and unite with the saints and the church. Just like a few drops of water composes part of the sea, all are mixed, joined, and united into one. We no longer distinguish them individually, unless we separate them out drop by drop. This shows the unity of souls who arrive in God. They are all consummated in their unity, although each has its only small droplet. It is necessary that the soul be annihilated in God to reach his throne. The crystal sea shows the unity and purity of their souls.
The four living creatures, full of eyes are not only the four Evangelists, who have been filled with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, what he has said and done, so that they can announce it to all. They also signify the four states of the church and of his saints. The first, the lion is the state of saints who defended the church and the reign of Jesus Christ with force and vigor and with an invincible courage. These had been elevated and nourished by the lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ, who gave them an invincible strength. It was the time of the martyrs. The second creature is like an ox. This is the Spirit of the time of the confessing saints who made their voices heard to defend the church. The third represented a man. This is the time when the saints were employed only to imitate the exterior of Jesus Christ. These were the lives of solitary and anchorite saints who worked in exterior exercises of piety. And the fourth is the one to come which is that of the eagle, that flies over all the others. This is those to whom the interior spirit of Jesus Christ, is communicated. Everything will become interior. It is not that the martyrs did not have the interior, and all the four advantages, noted here. The confessors, the anchorites, and the interiors also participate in the strength and virtues of the interior. But it is because, although these qualities are peculiar to all, they have each excelled in the quality which is particular to them. They are full of eyes because they are full of light and knowledge. They have surrounded the throne of God.
Each creature symbolizes one of these well-known living creatures. We give John the eagle because he is flying higher than anyone else (Ezekiel 17:3). The eagle was in the bosom of divinity and drew marrow from Jesus by discovering through Christ’s humanity the benefits of divinity. The eagle has the overview of everything and takes the highest branch to plant it in fertile ground with