Thrones were set
up and the Ancient of Days took his throne. His clothing was white as snow, the hair on
his head like pure wool; His throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning
fire. A river of fire surged forth, flowing
from where he sat; thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and
myriads upon myriads stood before him. The
court was convened, and the books were opened. I watched, then, from the first
of the arrogant words which the horn spoke, until the beast was slain and its body
destroyed and thrown into the burning fire. As for the other beasts, their
dominion was taken away, but they were granted a prolongation of life for a
time and a season. As the visions during the night continued, I saw coming with
the clouds of heaven One like a son of man. When he reached the Ancient of Days and was
presented before him, He received dominion, splendor, and kingship; all
nations, peoples and tongues will serve him.[1]
Celsus, a Greek philosopher during
the era of Church father, Origen, says: “And I make no new statement, but say
what has been long settled. God is good,
and beautiful, and blessed, and that in the best and most beautiful degree.
But, if he come down among men, he
must undergo a change, and a change from good to evil, from virtue to vice,
from happiness to misery, and from best to worst. Who, then, would make choice of such a change?
It is the nature of a mortal, indeed, to
undergo change and remolding, but of an immortal to remain the same and
unaltered. God, then, could not admit of such a change.”[2] This may seem logical to the human mind. We have Origen’s reply in rebuttal: “Now, it
appears to me that the fitting answer has been returned to these objections
when I have related what is called in Scripture the ‘condescension’ of God to
human affairs; for which purpose He did not need to undergo a transformation, as
Celsus thinks we assert, nor a change from good to evil, nor from virtue to
vice, nor from happiness to misery, nor from best to worst. For, continuing unchangeable in His essence,
He condescends to human affairs by the economy of His providence.”[3] In this, we see the Incarnation, the Son of
God clothing
We further learn from Origen: “The
divine word says that our God is ‘a consuming fire’ (cf. Deu 4:24, 9:3) and
that ‘He draws rivers of fire before Him’ (cf. Dan 7:10); nay, that He even
enters in as ‘a refiner’s fire, and as a fuller’s herb’ (cf. Mal. 3:2), to
purify His own people.” … The wicked man
… is said to build up on the previously-laid foundation of reason, ‘wood, and
hay, and stubble.’ Therefore, our God is
a “consuming fire’ in the sense in which we have taken the word; and, thus, He
enters in as a ‘refiner’s fire,’ to refine the rational nature which has been
filled with the lead of wickedness and to free it from the other impure
materials, which adulterate the natural gold or silver, so to speak, of the
soul. And, in like manner, ‘rivers
of fire’ are said to be before God, who will thoroughly cleanse away the evil
which is intermingled throughout the whole soul.”[4] This is what we must go through also. Where the Head goes, the Body must
follow. All that is sinful in us must be
“burned” away.
When our Lord has shown us this and
we acknowledge and desire this, we bow
low toward your holy temple.[5] Because of what he is doing in us and for us—especially
through the Sacraments--we praise your
name for your mercy and faithfulness.[6] When we walk in obedience to him because of
what he is doing in and through us, he has exalted
over all [his] name and [his] promise.[7] All the
kings of earth will praise you, Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth. They will sing of the ways of the Lord: “How
great is the glory of the Lord!” [8] The prideful are kings in their own
eyes. It is about their happiness, what
they want—as if it is the duty of everyone to please them. When bow down towards our Lord’s holy temple
and walk in obedience, some of these “kings” will also be changed. In the end, it will be “all” because those
who do not will be sent to the eternal fire.
The Church has seen fit to include
the following passage from the Gospel of John with our passage from Daniel and
Psalm 138: Jesus saw Nathanael coming
toward him and said of him, “Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in
him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you
know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you
under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God;
you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe
because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater
things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see
the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of
Man.”[9]
There are varying views on what the
last sentence is referring to. “When did
this vision take place? Some say, at His Passion and Resurrection—His Baptism
was now past—others, at His Ascension; others, understand it of the
ministration of Angels in the Church to be founded by Him, of which the stone,
whereon Jacob lay, was a mere figure; others, of the Day of Judgment. A. Lapide
holds, it had reference to some particular vision calculated to increase the
faith of His hearers. Some say, this particular and wonderful manifestation,
like many other acts of our Lord, was left unrecorded by the Evangelist.”[10] What I try to do is: How do I make this
relevant in my life today?
Because of this, I like what St.
Augustine writes: “What we have heard said
by the Lord Jesus Christ to Nathanael, if we understand it aright, does not
concern him only, for our Lord Jesus saw the whole human race under the
fig-tree. For, in this place, it is
understood that by the fig-tree He signified sin. Not that it always signifies this, but as I
have said in this place, in that fitness of significancy, in which you know
that the first man, when he sinned, covered himself with fig leaves. For, with these leaves, they covered their
nakedness when they blushed for their sin (cf. Ge 3:7); and, what God had made
them for members, they made for themselves occasions of shame. For they had no need to blush for the work of
God, but the cause of sin preceded shame. If iniquity had not gone before, nakedness
would never have been put to the blush.
For ‘they were naked, and were not ashamed’ (cf. Ge 2:25), for they had
committed nothing to be ashamed for. But
why have I said all this? That we may understand
that, by the fig-tree, sin is signified. What then is, “When you were under the
fig-tree, I saw you’? When you were
under sin, I saw you. And Nathanael,
looking back upon what had occurred, remembered that he had been under a fig-tree
where Christ was not. He was not there--that
is, by His Bodily Presence—but, by His knowledge in the Spirit, where is He
not? And, because he knew that he was
under the fig-tree alone where the Lord Christ was not, when He said to him, ‘When
thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee,’ [Nathaniel] both acknowledged the
Divinity in Him, and cried out, “Thou art the King of Israel.”[11]
God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man is clearly a reference to the
vision of “Jacob’s Ladder.” St.
Augustine says: “A man’s dream would not have been recorded had not some great
mystery been figured in it, had not some great prophecy been to be understood
in that vision. Accordingly, Jacob
himself, because he understood what he had seen, placed a stone there and
anointed it with oil. Now, you recognize
the anointing; recognize the Anointed also, for He is ‘the Stone which the
builders rejected; He was made the Head of the corner’ (cf. Ps. 118:22). He is the Stone of which Himself said, ‘Whosoever
shall stumble against this Stone shall be shaken; but, on whomsoever that Stone
shall fall, it will crush him’ (cf. Mt. 21:44). It is stumbled against as It lies on the
earth; but It will fall on him when He shall come from on high to judge the
quick and dead.”[12] We also read from the saint: “He
would not say, ‘ascending unto the Son of Man’ unless He were above; He would
not say, ‘descending unto the Son of Man’ unless He were also below. He is at once above and below: above in
Himself, below in His; above with the Father, below in us. [From what place] also was that Voice to Saul,
‘Saul, Saul, why [do you] persecute Me (cf. Acts 9:4)?’ He would not say ‘Saul, Saul’ unless that He
was above. But Saul was not persecuting
Him above. He then who was above would
not have said, ‘Why [do you] persecute me’ unless He was below also. Fear Christ above; recognize Him below. Have Christ above bestowing His bounty; recognize
Him here in need. Here, He is poor;
there, He is rich. That Christ is poor here,
He tells us Himself …, ‘I was hungered; I was thirsty; I was naked; I was a
stranger; I was in prison’ (cf. Mt. 25:35). And to some He said, ‘You have ministered unto
Me,’ and to some He said, ‘You have not ministered unto Me’.”[13]
On the same verse, our saint teaches
elsewhere: “If they ascend to Him because He is above, how do they descend to
Him but because He is also here? Therefor
says the Church: ‘I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?’ She says so even in the case of those who,
purified from all dross, can say: ‘I desire to depart and to be with Christ;
nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you’ (cf. Eph. 3:17). She says it in those who preach Christ, and
open to Him the door that He may dwell by faith in the hearts of men.”[14]
These
make the passage from John 1 relevant to the rest of our passages. It is for these that we are being purified;
it is for these that God is praised, exalted.
It is for these that we will be judged.
They also teach us the importance of the Church and how Christ is in the
Church.
Jesus
saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true Israelite.
There is no duplicity in him.” “Who
are true Christians, save those of whom the same Lord said, ‘He that has my
commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me’ (cf. Jn 14:21)? But what is it to keep His commandments except
to abide in love? From that source, also,
He says, ‘A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another;’ and
again, ‘By this shall all men know that you are my disciples: if you have love
one to another’ (Jn 13:34–35). But who
can doubt that this was spoken not only to those who heard His words with their
fleshly ears when He was present with them but also to those who learn His
words through the gospel, when He is sitting on His throne in heaven? For He came not to destroy the law, but to
fulfill (cf. Mt 5:17). But the
fulfilling of the law is love (cf. Ro 13:10).”[15] The thrones were set up to purify and
judge. This purification is painful, as
attested to by our Lord and the martyrs.
However, God has died for us, to make us pure; and our judgment will be
awards.
[1] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Da 7:9–14.
[2]
Origen, Fathers of the Third Century:
Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and
Second, 1885, 4, 502.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Ps 138:2.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.,
Ps 138:4–5.
[9] Ibid.,
Jn 1:47–51.
[10]
John MacEvilly, An Exposition of
the Gospel of St. John, (Dublin; New York: M. H. Gill & Son;
Benziger Brothers, 1902), 32.
[11]
Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin:
Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels, 1888,
6, 470.
[12] Ibid.,
470–471.
[13] Ibid.,
473–474.
[14]
Augustine of Hippo, St. Augustin:
Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John,
Soliloquies, 1888, 7, 304.
[15]
Augustine of Hippo, St. Augustin: The
Writings against the Manichaeans and against the Donatists, 1887, 4,
444–445.
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