Secondly, through his angels God sends demonstrated knowledge regarding his kingdom and church in distinct and exterior actions for all of the centuries. This manifestation reveals exterior matters of the actions and reign of Jesus Christ and the destruction of the devil’s empire.
These two forms of revelation, God gives to souls of high degree, as he also gave to the patriarch Joseph in his dreams with power to interpret exterior events. Many people have mediated revelations, without having unmediated revelation. Unmediated revelation with the direct communication of God to the soul are much more perfect. Some have both types of revelation and this is the consummation of all revelations.
Who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. (Rev 1:2)
John speaks of himself in this scripture and gives testimony both to the Word and actions of Jesus Christ. We also must give testimony in believing, confessing, and obeying the Word as we imitate the actions of Jesus Christ.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near. (Rev 1:3)
Those who read and hear these words of Jesus Christ are very blessed. They read in Jesus Christ his virtues. Having this benefit, they keep them his words in their heart and practice them in their actions. For the time for fulfillment of these words is very near, both in the church in general and in the very soul which has the happiness and blessing of this.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. (Rev 1:4)
John sends these messages both to the churches and to all the faithful. He wishes us the grace, peace, and tranquility of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, who was at the beginning and who is in the present. He is to come without end and without interruption in eternity.
The seven premier angels stand in the glorious presence of the Lord, ready to serve him with the grandeur and elevation of God. As soon as Jesus Christ reigns absolutely in the soul and establishes his throne there, the soul also has the blessing of seven spiritual gifts. The seven spiritual gifts include the Spirit of the Lord, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:1–2).
You, Jesus Christ, are the first who found birth in the bosom of death and found immortality in the tomb. The sepulcher has become a cradle for eternal life. You communicate this new birth with life and immortality to all who are happy enough to follow you! You, the first of the predestined and first to rise from the dead, alone can justify. You are the King of kings, the Prince of the kings of the earth. All power is contained in you and only through you can we reign. You are the One who loves us, O Jesus, with an excessive love, and with this love you surrendered yourself to death in order to raise the dead and deliver us from a second death. As the spiritually dead were full of the filth and corruption of their sins, you have washed them with your blood. And not only to wash them, but to cleanse their sins but those of a thousand worlds.
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Rev 1:5–6)
To all these infinite graces, you have added new ones: you have been made our King and we are part of your kingdom. You exercise on us your sweet kingdom and we are subject to it. You make us reign as kings ourselves and of all other creatures. It is in reigning, O Love, we are perfectly subject to you.
You made us priests and we sacrifice ourselves and all creatures to your supreme power. You have made us priests in the most transcendent way, giving us the power to sacrifice to you incessantly, and to benefit from your immolation. These priests are priests of God the Father, since they offer the same sacrifice of his Son, that his Son himself offered, who as the great Priest of the order of Melchizedek, has sanctified all sacrifices.
To him be glory and dominion in all things, because he is the author of all things, a sovereign kingdom over all people as well as other creatures! We voluntarily submit to your kingdom so that he reigns in us and over us, Amen!
Look! He is coming with the clouds;every eye will see him,even those who pierced him;and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen. (Rev 1:7)
O Love, you are always ready to come, and the scripture says well, Behold for his presence comes. He comes, O human, to knock on our heart but we do not receive him! But happy times, very fortunate century, century closer than one thinks, you come, and you will come, the Bridegroom of our souls comes. Yes, he comes, and nothing is more assured. And how do you come, O God? With clouds, in the sacred darkness of faith. Every eye, that is to say, all understanding will discover and see in the naked darkness which he chooses for his hiding place. The times are coming when all people will become interior and embrace the light of faith. All will convert and believe in him; all will adore in spirit and in truth. Those who pierced him are those sinners who have lost their baptismal grace and yet after the greatest crimes will convert. Every eye shall see. Yet Satan will stir up the Antichrist to destroy all living people on the earth, but the slain Lamb will be their defense. The time for vengeance on the demon will arrive and he will lose the power to harm people. Then all tribes of the earth, without any exception, shall shout from joy when the Lamb’s strength appears. He will be admired with joy and astonishment by all people who experience this happiness. There is nothing truer or more assured. O happy and blessed time, you are closer than we can imagine! But before this time, O God, be assured, that there will be persecutions and reversals. You know this, Lord Jesus. Amen!
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Rev 1:8)
The Word is the beginning and the end. When the people asked Jesus, Who are you? Jesus spoke of being there from the beginning (John 8:25). He is the principle of all things because all was made by him. When he is our interior principle, we will be moved, led, and animated by him.
Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He describes three historical eras in this scripture. In the first age of the church, Jesus Christ is the Way with believers following in his footsteps. This was the century of the martyrs, as Jesus said to Peter, the first apostle of the church, Follow me! (John 21:22). Peter died on the cross, like his good master. They followed Jesus Christ as the Way.
The second age of the church is the one with Jesus Christ as the Truth. This is the age of confessors when they supported the truth with all their might through their writing and publishing.
The third age will come and is coming soon with Jesus Christ as the Life. He comes to enliven and make people interior. This age must last until the end of the world, until the time of the Antichrist. Jesus Christ desires to be present and to be the beginning and end of all his creatures. The universe, the church, and the soul will be consummated in heaven in the bosom of Divinity. This is the Lord who is and who will be always, and who lives within us in a very special manner. He is the Almighty because all power is given to him on heaven and on earth. He will show his power and his conduct will be elevated beyond human comprehension.
I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Rev 1:9)
Writing this apocalypse to all the faithful and all the church, John is our brother, since he is the first to be entrusted by our shared Father with his ineffable secrets. In his profound interior John has more access than any other to Jesus. He experienced in his interior what is then manifested to others. He participated with pain in the afflictions of Jesus Christ by accompanying him with faith to Calvary and then participated in Jesus Christ’s reign.