The Seven Seals

Ecce vicit leo de tribu Juda, radix David, aperire librum, et solvere septem signacula ejus. Septem signacula sunt, temporalis nativitas, legalis circumcisio, matris purgatio, fuga in Aegyptum, carnis necessitudo, baptismus, passio. Haec siquidem sunt vera quaedam humanitatis insignia, quibus se teneri ac ligari voluit incarnata Dei Sapientia. Ipsa quippe est secunda in Trinitate persona: et licet eamdem incarnationem simul fecerint Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus; non tamen Pater aut Spiritus sanctus est incarnatus, sed solus Filius. Implevit quidem et Pater et Spiritus sanctus carnem Filii, a quo neuter eorum poterat separari; sed implevit majestate, non susceptione. Ideoque Filius ostendit in carne potentiam Patris per opera, exhibuit bonitatem Spiritus sancti remittendo peccata; et quod suum erat, imo quod ipse erat, id est Sapientia, se occultavit per illa praedicta signacula. Facta est igitur res mira et obstupenda. Infirmata est virtus summa, et (ut ita dicam, si dici liceat, quod tamen reverenter dico) quasi infatuata est sapientia. Nec crubesco dicere, quod non erubuit Doctor gentium docere. Sic nempe credidit, sic docuit, sic scriptum reliquit. Nos, inquit, praedicamus Christum crucifixum, Judaeis quidem scandalum, gentibus autem stultitiam: ipsis autem vocatis Judaeis atque Graecis, Christum Dei virtutem, et Dei sapientiam; quia quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominibus; et quod infirmum est Dei, fortius est hominibus. Verumtamen haec virtus abscondenda erat, et in humilitate perficienda; ut omnium implerentur oracula prophetarum. Passus est ergo in cruce impassibilis Deus, et in carne nostra mortali mortuus ac sepultus immortalis Dei Filius. Sed ecce tertia die resurrexit a mortuis: et, qui agnus exstiterat in passione, leo factus est in resurrectione. Surrexit et vicit leo de tribu Juda; quia mortem, quam ex infirmitate nostra pertulit, ex virtute sua resurgendo calcavit. Resurgens enim a mortuis, jam non moritur, mors illi ultra non dominabitur. Resurgendo autem et in coelum ascendendo, librum aperuit, quia nimirum ex auctoritate sacrae Scripturae, quod Deus esset, innotuit manifeste. Unde scriptum est: Exaltare super coelos, Deus, et super omnem terram gloria tua. Septem quoque ejusdem libri signacula solvit, quando intellectum eloquii sacri fidelium mentibus reseravit: et quidquid de mysteriis suis lex et prophetae sub allegoriis praedixerant, de his scilicet, quae per hominem temporaliter gessit; haec de se praedicta, et in se ac per se completa, luce clarius indicavit. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones de Diversis, Sermo LVII, De septem signaculis per Christum solutis Source: Migne PL 183.680d-681c

'Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, the root of David, even to open the book and break its seven seals.' 1 There are seven seals: the temporal nativity, the circumcision, the purification of the mother, the flight to Egypt, the necessity of the flesh, the baptism, the passion. These are all true signs of humanity, to which the incarnate wisdom of God wished to be held and bound. He certainly is the second person of the Trinity, and it is possible than the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together made the incarnation, yet is was not the Father or the Holy Spirit that was incarnated but only the Son. Both the Father and the Holy Spirit filled the flesh of the Son, from which He could not be separated, but they filled with majesty not by taking up. Therefore the Son in the flesh showed the power of the Father through works, and He exhibited the benevolence of the Holy Spirit by forgiving sins, and what was His, or rather what He was, that is, Wisdom, He hid by the aforementioned seals. Therefore a wonder and unspeakable thing was done. Weakness is the height of strength, and, if I may say, if it is permitted, yet I do speak reverently, foolishness is wisdom. I do not blush to speak, because the teacher of the Gentiles did not blush to teach. So certainly he believed as he taught and as he left in his writings. 'We,' he said, 'preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those Jews and Greeks who have been called, Christ is the virtue of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is stronger than man.' 2 Truly this virtue was hidden and in humility perfected, that all be fulfilled according to the oracles of the prophets. Therefore the impassible God suffered on the cross and in our mortal flesh died, and the immortal son of God was buried. But, behold, on the third day He rose from the dead, and He who was the lamb in the passion was made the lion in the resurrection. The lion of Judah arose and conquered, because death, which He took on from our infirmity, in his rising He crushed down with His own virtue. 'For rising from the dead, now He cannot die, death had no more dominion over him.' 3 Rising, then, and ascending into heaven, He opened the book, because certainly from the authority of Holy Scripture, because He was God, He became known openly. Whence it is written, 'Exalted over the heavens is God, and over the whole earth His glory.' 4 Also He broke the seven seals, when the understanding of His sacred words opened the minds of the faithful, and whatever the Law had spoken about His mysteries and the prophets had done allegorically, concerning these things certainly which He bore for a time as man, the things spoken before about Himself, in Him and through Him completed, in splendour he declared most clearly. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons On Various Things, Sermon 57, On the Seven Seals Broken by Christ. 1 Apoc 5.5 2 1 Cor 1. 23-25 3 Rom 6.9 4 Ps 107.6