3rd Nov. Trinity
Revelation 14, 1-20
And I looked, and there was the picture of the Lamb,
standing atop Mt. Zion and with him one hundred forty four thousand having his
name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
And I listened and heard a voice from the heavens,
a voice like a mighty rush of waters, and like a mighty thunderclap—the voice I
heard was like the voices of harpists playing on their harps.
And they
all sing a new song, there in front of the throne and in front of the four creatures
and the elders, and no one could learn the song but the one hundred forty-four
thousand ransomed from the earth. These are the ones who did not defile
themselves by the straying, through which the spiritual in man is betrayed;
they have remained virginal [pure] in their inmost being and follow the Lamb
wherever he goes. They were ransomed as the seed of a new humanity which
belongs to the Father God and to the Lamb. Deceit and lies are not found in
their mouths; pure and unblemished are they in their innermost being.
And I looked and saw another angel flying in
mid-heaven, bringing the good news which is good news forever to those live on
earth—to every race and nation and every tongue and folk. And the angel cried
out with a great voice, saying:
“Stand in awe of God and turn to honor him. For we
have come to the hour of his divine decision. Raise yourself in prayer to him
who in truth created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all the springs
of water.”
And a second angel followed, who said, “Fallen,
fallen is the great city of Babylon, who made all nations drink of the wine of
her sacrilege, in order to draw the holy into misuse.”
And a third angel followed them, who cried out with
a powerful voice: “Whoever adores the beast and its likeness, and accepts its
stamp on forehead or hand, he will drink of the wine of God’s anger, thick and
strong and undiluted, from the cup of his wrath. And in the presence of the
holy angels and in front of the Lamb shall anger be transformed into pain like
the pain of fire and sulphur.
Their suffering rises and darkens the encirling air
like smoke through the cycles of time. And day and night those who made the
beast into their god, who honored its picture as the highest, who took its
being into their innermost being, find no peace. In this place however there
works the power of the steadfast endurance of those who have taken the healing
power of the Spirit into themselves, who have fulfilled the goals of the
Spirit, and who have worked trusting in Jesus’ healing deed.
And I heard a voice out of the worlds of Spirit
which said, “Write this down: People of heaven are the dead who die in the Lord
from now on. Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their efforts and
labours, since their good deeds, the fruits of their lives, are not lost along
their paths of soul, but have preceeded them here.
And I looked, and suddenly I saw in the spirit a
white cloud, and seated upon the cloud the figure of a son of humanity, with a
golden crown upon his head and a sharpened sickle.
“Let your sickle go forth and harvest, for the hour
of harvest has come; ripe and dry and firm are the crops of the earth.”
And the one seated on the cloud threw his sickle
down upon the events on earth, and the earth’s crop was harvested.
And again another angel came out of the temple in
the heavens; and he too held a sharpened sickle. And a further angel came out
who tended the fire at the altar. He cried out with a mighty voice to him who
held the sharpened sickle and said, “Let your sickle go forth and harvest the
grapevines of the earth, for their grapes have reached their prime.”
So the angel threw his sickle down to the events on
earth; and he harvested the earth’s vineyard, and threw the grapes into the
great winepress of God’s anger. And they took the winepress outside the city
and trampled the grapes. Blood flowed from the winepress that reached to the
muzzles of the horses for sixteen hundred miles around.
3rd November Trinity
Revelation 14: 1-20
From myth we know the centaur.
From the waist up, it is a human being. The lower half is a horse. The most famous
of these creatures was a great healer, for its animal instincts contained great
wisdom. But its animal nature also harbored great aggression and
destructiveness.
The centaur is a picture for the
composition of the human being. Our physical nature is like the horse, with all
its instinctual wisdom as well as its aggression. Our eternal spirit, our true
humanness, is wedded on earth to our animal nature. Our self-awareness rises
above our animal nature. Our truly human self is meant to guide and direct our
animal nature, and ultimately to transform it.
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| Arild Rosenkrantz |
It is humanity’s task gradually, over
lifetimes, to make ourselves fully human, to transform the beast in us into
something more akin to an angel.
Today’s gospel reading from the
middle of the revelation to John shows a future division of humanity into those
who have achieved this transformation, and those who have not. There is the
great crowd in white, standing before God’s throne. They have remained true to developing
their pure human core. They have taken the image and activity of the Son of Man
into themselves, the activity of the Divine Human Being. What is inside them
shines out of their countenance. Therefore they have the name of the Lamb and
of the Father written on their foreheads. They have become the seed of a new
phase of human existence. They sing a new song. What they have achieved, the
development of their true humanity, will carry over into a new spiritualized
world.
What is ripe is harvested. What
is no longer of use is destroyed. One day, humanity’s inner ripeness will be
tested. Those who have transformed their animal nature into something higher,
who have matured their true humanity, will enter the company of the angels.
Those who have failed to master their beastly nature, who wear the mark of the
beast on their foreheads, will have to suffer the purifying fire. For the beast
in us must be overcome.
Through Christ, the Light of the
world, we can achieve this transformation. He is our bridge to our true
humanity. Connecting with Him, conversing with Him, is the Way. A medieval mystic says:
No one can be saved
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| Arild Rosenkrantz |
without divine light.
Divine light causes us
to begin and thereafter
enables our progress
as it leads us
to the summit of perfection.
Therefore, if you desire
to begin
and would receive
this divine light, pray.
If you have begun to make
some little progress
and would see this light
intensified within you, pray.
And if you have reached
the summit of perfection,
and desire to be super-illumined
so as to remain in that state, pray.[1]
[1]
Blessed Angela of Foligno (1248 – 1309), “Divine Light”, in Love’s Immensity,
Mystics on the Endless Life, Scott Cairns, p. 87
