Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Seventh Sunday of Easter

Christ, the Tree of Life

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. (Rev 22:1-6)

The river flowing out from the Church in the present life hints at a baptism of regeneration being activated through the Spirit, those cleaned and washed, polished up, surpassing snow and crystal. The river of God, having been filled with waters running through the heavenly Jerusalem, is the Life-giving Spirit which proceeds from God the Father and through the Lamb, through the midst of the most supreme powers which are called throne of divinity, filling the wide streets of the holy city, that is, the multitude in her being “increased more than the grains of sand,” according to the Psalmist.… By the river, as has been said, the gifts of the Life-giving Spirit, those which through the throne of the Father and the Son, that is, the cherubic ranks upon whom God is enthroned, go out into the wide street of the city, that is, the thickly populated crowd of the saints, as out from the first into the second, being derived according to the harmonious arrangement of the heavenly hierarchies. by Tree of Life is meant Christ, whom we apprehend in the Holy Spirit and in relation to the Spirit. For the Spirit is in him, and he is worshiped in the Spirit and is the Bestower of the Spirit, and through him the twelve fruits of the apostolic choral assembly are granted to us, the unfailing fruit of the knowledge of God through whom the “acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense” are proclaimed to us, having been foretold by the prophet.

Leaves of the tree, that is, of Christ, are the most superficial understandings of the divine decrees, as his fruits are the more perfect knowledge being revealed in the future. These leaves will be for healing, that is, for the purging of ignorance of those pagans inferior in the activity of virtues, because “the glory of the sun is one thing, the glory of the moon is another, and the glory of the stars is something else,” and “there are many mansions in the Father’s house.” They will be worthy, the one of a lesser brightness and the other of greater, according to the correspondence of the deeds of each. And one must also understand this differently. The Tree of Life producing twelve fruits is the apostolic assembly according to their participation in the true Tree of Life, who, by his communion with the flesh, bestowed upon us participation in his divinity. Their fruits are those which have produced a “harvest one hundredfold.” The leaves are those bore harvest of “sixtyfold and thirtyfold,” those who will bring forth healing of the nations, those lesser, transmitting the radiance of the divine lights which they received through those who bore a fruit harvest one hundredfold. For whatever difference there is between the leaves and fruit, then such is the difference between those who were saved then, some being glorified less and some glorified more, as has been written.

Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.… The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Rev 21:9-14, 21-27)

Through these it is shown that not only the angels apply distressing wounds, but they are like doctors, on one occasion cutting and on another pouring on assuaging medicines. For the one, then bringing the wound upon the ones deserving it, now shows to the saint the great blessedness of the Church. Correctly it says the Bride of the Lamb is wife, for when Christ was sacrificed as a lamb, He gave Himself in marriage by His own blood. For just as the woman was formed out of the sleeping Adam, by removal from side, thus also, Christ having voluntarily slept by death on the cross, the Church, constituted by the pouring out of blood from His side, is given in marriage, having been united to the One suffering for us.

Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse

The Lord God Almighty is its temple. God established the temple so that the people gathered within the walls of the temple might call on him whom neither the world nor the temple can contain. In this way their minds might obtain through the work of faith what cannot be seen of God. However, where he openly manifests himself to the faithful there a temple is neither desired nor existent, for he who sanctifies the temple is known in the sight of all. What an image there is in these words, that the city, which has no need of a temple, has no need of the brightness of the heavenly luminaries! And what is the reason for this? Because the glory of God gives it light. The glory of God, that is, the presence of his majesty, about which it is said: “We shall see him as he is.” Therefore, why would those who shall see God have need of sun or moon?

By the light, the Lamb is clearly shown to be the city’s lamp, and the kings and the nations will walk in his light. The prophet knew this and said: “In Your light we shall see light.” The apostle also spoke concerning this light: “The night is far gone, the day is at hand.” The Evangelist also writes in a similar way: “The life was the light of people, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” This is to say, what the nature of our weakness had concealed and what the shadow of our humanity had rendered dark was made clear by the assumption of the Lord’s body. And while God, who is light, inhabits the lot of our flesh, He enlightens the whole by the greatness of his glory. For this reason the honor and the glory of the kings and the nations are given to Him, because all have been made glorious through Him, and the darkness of night shall not overcome His faithful, whom the presence of the Lamb and the Word of the ineffable, unbegotten Father illuminate.

Apringius of Beja, Explanation of the Revelation

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday of Easter

New Jerusalem, Bamberg Apocalypse Folio 55r

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. (Rev 21:1–7)

And from this is shown the expression of newness of transformation characteristic of greater joy, which the Jerusalem from above will reach, descending from the bodiless powers above onto human beings on account of both sides <human and angelic> having a common head, Christ our God. This city is to be held together by the saints—about whom it is written, “Holy stones are employed upon the earth”—having the cornerstone Christ. It is called, on the one hand, city as the dwelling place of the Royal Trinity—who dwells in her and walks about in her as it has been promised—and, on the other hand, bride since she is united to the Master being joined to the highest and inseparable union, adorned, as if within, according to the Psalmist, having glory and beauty in the varied abundance of virtues.

From heaven the saint is taught that this tabernacle is real, of which the type was shown to Moses, rather the prefiguration of the type, which happens <to be> the type of the Church today. In this “tabernacle not made by hands” there will be neither weeping nor tear. For the Provider of everlasting joy will give the unceasing delight to be seen by all the saints.

Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday of Easter

Albrecht Durer

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev 7:9-17)

They will no longer hunger or thirst, as the Lord says: “I am the bread of life. One who comes to Me will not hunger, and one who believes in Me will never thirst”; and again: “One who drinks from the water I shall give him will never thirst, but there will be in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life.” Neither will the sun or any heat beat down upon them. This is what God says through Isaiah about the church: “There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat, and protection from the storm and rain”; and again: “Throughout the day the sun will not smite you, nor will the moon throughout the night.” He says that the power of the sacraments is effectual in His own, and is in no way extinguished by the heat of temptation.

He had said that the Lamb took the book from the one sitting “on the throne.” Now he says the Lamb is sitting in the midst of the throne, that is, Christ in the midst of the church. This is His throne, with which He rose again on the throne. And he will lead them to the springs of the waters of life, that is, to the pasture of the spiritual sacraments, as the church herself says: “The Lord shepherds me and I shall have need of nothing. He has established me there in a place of pasture. He has led me beside water of refreshment”; again through Isaiah: “They will be fed on all roads, and their pastures will be on all pathways. They will neither hunger nor thirst nor will the heat or sun beat down upon them. But He shows mercy upon them and will encourage them and will lead them through springs of water, and will make every mountain into a level road and every pathway into a pasture for them.”

All these things happen spiritually to the church when, having our sins forgiven, we rise again, and, having disarmed the old man of our former life, we put on Christ and are filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. For in this way the Lord promises this life to His church: “Behold, I am making Jerusalem cheerful and my people a delight. And I will be joyful over Jerusalem, and I will be glad over my people. And neither will the voice of weeping nor the sound of crying be heard in her any longer. And in that place there will no longer be an infant and elderly person who does not fulfill his time. For a young person will be a hundred years old, and a sinner who dies at a hundred years old will be accursed. They will build houses, and they will live in them. And they will plant vineyards, and they and their descendants will eat their fruit.” All these things concern spiritual worshipers, not those of the world whose works frequently [are shown] in their courses [to have been performed] in vain. For a young person will be a hundred years old because although someone may be a hundred years old, nevertheless a young person is brought forth. For every gender and age, when baptized, rises again unto the age of Christ, as the Apostle says: “Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the full age of Christ.”

Tychonius, Exposition of the Apocalypse 7.16–17

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday of Easter

Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:8–10)

The preaching of the Old Testament joined with the New reveals the Christian people singing a new song, that is, the proclaiming of their public confession. It is new that the Son of God became man; it is new that He was given over into death by people; it is new that He rose again on the third day; it is new that He ascended in the body into heaven; it is new that He gives the forgiveness of sins to people; it is new that people are sealed with the Holy Spirit; it is new that they receive the priestly service of supplication and await a kingdom of such immense promises. The harps, whose strings are stretched on its frame, signify the body of Christ, that is, the flesh of Christ bound to his passion. The bowls represent the confession of faith and the extension of the new priesthood. The praise is “of many angels,” indeed, it is of all who bring the thanksgiving of all the elect to our Lord for the deliverance of the human race from the destruction of death.

Victorinus of Petovium, Commentary on the Apocalypse 5

The song sung to God incarnate is new, since it had never been invented before the incarnation. What was the song? You are worthy, he says, to effect this salvation for human beings, You who were slain for us, and with Your blood you took possession of many from among those under heaven. Very correctly he said from every tribe and tongue and people and nation: for He did not acquire possession of everyone (for many died in unbelief), but only those who were worthy of salvation. The prophet also said something similar, “Arise, O God, judge the earth, because You” will place “your inheritance among all the nations,” where he does not simply say “all the nations.” And he made them kings and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth. You can indeed understand this literally, for the kings and leaders of the churches are faithful people and servants of Christ. But you can also understand kings to be those who control their passions and are not controlled by them. And you can understand priests to be those who present their own persons “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” as Scripture says.

Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 5