‘Commentary on the Apocalypse’ by Saint Victorinus - From the First Chapter – part 2 of 2 – points 15-16
[Saint Victorinus – III-IV Century AD; Roman Greece/Pettau, Roman Greece; Spiritual Writer; Martyr under Diocletian]“16. And out of His mouth was issuing a sharp two-edged sword. By the twice-sharpened sword going forth out of His mouth is shown, that it is He Himself who has both now declared the word of the Gospel, and previously by Moses declared the knowledge of the law to the whole world. But because from the same word, as well of the New as of the Old Testament, He will assert Himself upon the whole human race, therefore He is spoken of as two-edged. For the sword arms the soldier, the sword slays the enemy, the sword punishes the deserter. And that He might show to the apostles that He was announcing judgment, He says: I came not to send peace, but a sword. Matthew 10:34 And after He had completed His parables, He says to them: Have ye understood all these things? And they said, We have. And He added, Therefore is every scribe instructed in the kingdom of God like a man that is a father of a family, bringing forth from his treasure things new and old, Matthew 13:51-52 — the new, the evangelical words of the apostles; the old, the precepts of the law and the prophets: and He testified that these proceeded out of His mouth. Moreover, He also says to Peter: Go to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that shall first come up; and having opened its mouth, you shall find a stater (that is, two denarii), and you shall give it for me and for you. Matthew 17:27 And similarly David says by the Spirit: God spoke once, twice I have heard the same. Because God once decreed from the beginning what shall be even to the end. Finally, as He Himself is the Judge appointed by the Father, on account of His assumption of humanity, wishing to show that men shall be judged by the word that He had declared, He says: Do you think that I will judge you at the last day? Nay, but the word, says He, which I have spoken unto you, that shall judge you in the last day. John 12:48 And Paul, speaking of Antichrist to the Thessalonians, says: Whom the Lord Jesus will slay by the breath of His mouth. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 And Isaiah says: By the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Isaiah 11:4 This, therefore, is the two-edged sword issuing out of His mouth.
15. And His voice as it were the voice of many waters. The many waters are understood to be many peoples, or the gift of baptism that He sent forth by the apostles, saying: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:19
16. And He had in His right hand seven stars. He said that in His right hand He had seven stars, because the Holy Spirit of sevenfold agency was given into His power by the Father. As Peter exclaimed to the Jews: Being at the right hand of God exalted, He has shed forth this Spirit received from the Father, which you both see and hear. Acts 2:33 Moreover, John the Baptist had also anticipated this, by saying to his disciples: For God gives not the Spirit by measure unto Him . The Father, says he, loves the Son, and has given all things into His hands. Those seven stars are the seven churches, which he names in his addresses by name, and calls them to whom he wrote epistles. Not that they are themselves the only, or even the principal churches; but what he says to one, he says to all. For they are in no respect different, that on that ground any one should prefer them to the larger number of similar small ones. In the whole world Paul taught that all the churches are arranged by sevens, that they are called seven, and that the Catholic Church is one. And first of all, indeed, that he himself also might maintain the type of seven churches, he did not exceed that number. But he wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterwards he wrote to individual persons, so as not to exceed the number of seven churches. And abridging in a short space his announcement, he thus says to Timothy: That you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the Church of the living God. 1 Timothy 3:15 We read also that this typical number is announced by the Holy Spirit by the month of Isaiah: Of seven women which took hold of one man. Isaiah 4:1 The one man is Christ, not born of seed; but the seven women are seven churches, receiving His bread, and clothed with his apparel, who ask that their reproach should be taken away, only that His name should be called upon them. The bread is the Holy Spirit, which nourishes to eternal life, promised to them, that is, by faith. And His garments wherewith they desire to be clothed are the glory of immortality, of which Paul the apostle says: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:53 Moreover, they ask that their reproach may be taken away— that is, that they may be cleansed from their sins: for the reproach is the original sin which is taken away in baptism, and they begin to be called Christian men, which is, Let your name be called upon us. Therefore in these seven churches, of one Catholic Church are believers, because it is one in seven by the quality of faith and election. Whether writing to them who labour in the world, and live of the frugality of their labours, and are patient, and when they see certain men in the Church wasters, and pernicious, they hear them, lest there should become dissension, he yet admonishes them by love, that in what respects their faith is deficient they should repent; or to those who dwell in cruel places among persecutors, that they should continue faithful; or to those who, under the pretext of mercy, do unlawful sins in the Church, and make them manifest to be done by others; or to those that are at ease in the Church; or to those who are negligent, and Christians only in name; or to those who are meekly instructed, that they may bravely persevere in faith; or to those who study the Scriptures, and labour to know the mysteries of their announcement, and are unwilling to do God's work that is mercy and love: to all he urges penitence, to all he declares judgment.”
Image: Peter Paul Rubens – ‘Virgin as a Woman of the Apocalypse’
Music: ‘Dies Irae’ - Gregorian Chant (with lyrics and translation) - One of the most famous melodies of the Gregorian Chant, Dies Irae was traditionally ascribed to Thomas of Celano (d 1260), but now is usually attributed to an unknown Franciscan of that period.
‘Dies Irae’ = ‘Day of Wrath’
>>> youtube.com/watch?v=2OBB5-bP6qs