Revelation tell of the faithfulness of God towards us and the faithfulness that he requires from us. We see the contrast between the purity of God and the impurity of the creature. The pastors can see the greatness of their obligations to their ministry. God will ask an accounting of their virtues, such as love toward their flock and their pastoral zeal. The faithfulness of God is admirable in how he gives his servants knowledge of the defects of souls and his exactitude in accounting all the good that they do. But also, what faithfulness does he require in the soul, what purity does he ask, since his divine light would find obscurity and impurity even in the Sun?
For finally, there is nothing, it seems, more virtuous than this pastor and church, according to the description that the Savior himself makes. However, he reproaches him that he has abandoned the love he had at first. O Love, it seems to me, there are no followers to whom you should not make this reproach! Where are those who have conserved their first ardor? Alas! Where do you find them? They are very rare! In the beginning, it is only service and love; after that, it is only money and misery. We need to have ardor at the beginning, so we can love and serve, yet frequently this is imperfect. We must never tire of doing the will of God or leave God’s way because of pains, dangers, fears, uncertainties, and persecutions.
Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. (Rev 2:5–6)
Remember the state from which you have fallen. Who of us has the pure faith of our early belief? We need to repent and gain the faith we have lost.
Jesus Christ loves those who do not do actions of heresy, yet do not hate the people involved. Indeed, the more we experience trouble because of their false faith and deregulated morals, and yet have love for their person, we have zeal to pull them out of their mistakes by gentleness more than disputes.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God. (Rev 2:7)
O God, you are the victorious victor and only through you can we conquer. You are, O Jesus, the Lamb victorious over the demon and nature. No one can conquer except in you and through you. But whoever will be victorious through the loss of herself will eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God. But what is the fruit from the tree of life? O Jesus, you give yourself to eat in communion, and the annihilated soul eats in her interior. She receives you as life. To the measure that we are lost in you, you become our life, food, and support. You are the tree of life in the paradise of my God, because you have life within you and all the saints live only in your life. You make all the blessed alive in your life and they live only the life that you communicate as you live only the life that your Father communicates. But it is for those who have an ear to listen and to hear God.
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life. 9 I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev 2:8–10)
God says many times that he is the first and the last, so that we understand that he is our animating principle and end. The same faith which tells us that he created us tells us that we desire to return to him. We use our strength to return to him as our end and the consummation of all perfection through unity. However, in this century, all who place on God all their hopes and desires, are called heretics and fools. O God, your judgments are different than those of people, as your ways are different from ours!
Jesus Christ is the first and the last, God and man, who being the first in the bosom of the Father is the last for humanity, as it says in the prophets, But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people (Psalm 22:6). He was dead, but now he is alive. We who share in his death, have hope to share in his life. O humans, who are in desolation and in death, think that he died for you and you live in him.
Is there anything more comforting for a poor afflicted soul? I know, says God, your affliction. I know you. Isn’t this the greatest consolation for you? I know your poverty, even though you are rich. What does that mean? It means that the greatest of riches is found in the greatest of poverty. A human who is deprived of all good, desires nothing and finds in her deprivation contentment, even though abandoned from all help and support. She consecrates herself all the more to God even with the estrangement that she feels and because of this possesses a treasure and immense wealth. Because the rich can desire something, they are neither contented or satisfied. But the poor of this type are perfectly content and full and have no care about anything. Without cares, they are perfectly rich.
But these people so peaceful and happy are not known to others because God hides them in his sanctuary from the eyes of others. Their holiness will only be known in eternity. They are slandered and condemned by all the world. They pass for the most miserable in the earth. But who persecutes and slanders them? Those who say that they are Jews and are not, that is to say, those who pass for devoted but place all their devotion in certain exterior ceremonies and persecute the humble and spiritual. But, O dear abandoned ones, O interior souls, O children of Abraham and the faith, do not fear what you are about to suffer. It will be for you an advantage. You will be persecuted like saints, who rendered to God a great service by their suffering with faith the slander against them. They fear nothing because they know that Satan knows well that his empire is never more destroyed than when souls work to let God reign inside them and to assist others to do the same. Satan arouses the strangest persecutions against them and will throw some of the God’s dearest children and most faithful servants into prison. Satan blinds the judges and the ministers of justice. He has the guilty pass as the most innocent. He makes those most attached to the church appear as enemies of the church, but we must fear nothing, but all of this will only be a test.
For ten days you will have affliction. These ten days signify the years in which you endure persecution, which will be designed for different souls. O poor interior souls, what you will suffer! The time will come when it will be a shame and confusion to be with God. Your afflictions are extreme but have courage! Be faithful until death and support your faith unto death for the interests of God for you will suffer. Do not lose your faith and trust. Your death will give you the crown of life.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death. (Rev 2:11)
There are two deaths through which we pass, the mystical death and the natural death. The mystical death gives Jesus Christ a place to conquer in us and through us. Whoever is happy enough to conquer by the first death, will not know the sadness of being harmed by the second death. The second death for them is both a pleasure and refreshment. It does not say that those do not die but only that they will not be harmed by the second death because this death will be for them a passage from death to life. But it takes a particular intelligence to hear this.
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword: 13 I know where you are living, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding fast to my name, and you did not deny your faith in me even in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan lives. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication. 15 So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. (Rev 2:12–15)
Jesus Christ offers his name according to the state of the people to whom he speaks. To those who are in affliction and in death, he shows them that he has died