The Resurrection And The Seals

Flebat Joannes in Apocalypsi quia non inveniebat qui solveret septem signacula signati libri. Cum enim Joannes Baptista, qui major erat inter natos mulierum, iam se publice judicasset indignum solvere corrigiam calceamenti: perinde erat ac si diceret: Non sum dignus solvere signaculum libri. Nihil est aliud signaculum libri quam ligatura calceamenti. Unus autem de senioribus dixit ei: Ne fleveris. Dignus est Agnus, qui occisus est, accipere librum, et solvere septem signacula ejus. Hic est liber involutus, sicut in propheta legitur, scriptus digito Dei, in pergameno uteri virginalis. Liber iste in quo legunt angeli delectationes aeternas. Septem fuerunt hujus libri signacula. Deus enim gloriam suae majestis in carne abscondens, pretium nostrae redemptionis quasi in sacculo consignavit. Nonne saccus fuit carnis mortalis assumptio? Posuitisti, inquit vestimentum meum cilicium. Et iterum: Conscidisti saccum meum et circumdedisti me laetitia. In hoc sacculo attulit species pretiosas, veniam peccatorum, profectum virtutum, praemium meritorum. Haec saccum texuit divina sapientia novem mensibus: nam de illa legitur: Manum suam misit ad fortia et dirigit ejus apprehenderunt fusum. Hunc saccum in Jordane lavit, in passione torsit, in cruce siccavit. Humanitas Christi vocatur liber, quia in eo est scientia vitae et disciplinae. Fuit ergo vivum signaculum, ut non posset ejus divinitas comprehendi, dispensatio Virginis, corporis infirmitas, circumcisio, fuga in Aegyptum, fames in deserto, humilitas crucis, sepultura. Quae licet ultimum signaculum, multum tamen clausit et abscondit de gloria divinae majestatis. Haec omnia Christus hodie solvit, non rupit; nam omnibus quae ad dispensationem carnis assumptae pertinebant, obedienter impletis, hodie de miseri humanitatis resurgit in gloriam deitatis. Opportebat siquidem Christum pati, et resurgere et sic intrare in gloriam suam. Suam dico, imo et nostram. Non enim per aliud ostium intrabit caput, et per aliud membra. Volo, inquit, ut ubi ego sum, illic sit et minister meus. Petrus Blenensis, Sermo XXI, In Resurrectione Source: Migne PL 207.621a-d

In the Apocalypse John wept because he was not able to find anyone to undo the seven seals of the sealed book. 1 For when John the Baptist, compared to whom no one greater was born among woman, openly proclaimed that he was not worthy to undo a strap of His sandal, it was as if he had said, 'I am not worthy to undo a seal of the book.' 2 There is no difference between the seal of the book and the strap of the sandal. Then one of the elders said to John, 'Do not weep. The lamb who was slain is worthy to receive the book and undo the seven seals.' This is the book that is bound up, as is read in the prophet, 3 and was written by the finger of God on the parchment of the Virgin's womb. This is the book in which the angels read all the eternal joys. There were seven seals on this book. For leaving the glory of His majesty for the flesh, God consigned the reward of our redemption as if in a sack. Was this sack not the taking up of mortal flesh? 'And I made haircloth my garment.' And again, 'You have cut off my sackcloth and surrounded me with joy.' 4 In this sack He brought precious wealth, the forgiveness of sins, the perfection of virtue, the reward of merit. The Divine wisdom fashioned this sack in nine months, for concerning it we read, 'She has put her hand to strong things and her fingers have taken hold of the spindle.' 5 He washed this sack in the Jordan, He wrung it in the Passion, He dried it on the Cross. The book he speaks of is the humanity of Christ, because in it is the knowledge of life and discipline. It then had a living seal, so that it was not possible to understand His Divinity, the dispensation to the Virgin, the infirmity of the body, the circumcision, the flight into Egypt, the hunger in the desert, the humility of the cross, or the tomb. This last seal hid and obscured much of the glory of the Divine majesty. Today Christ undoes all these, and does not break them, for He obediently fulfilled everything of the dispensation of the taking up of the flesh, and today He rises from the wretchedness of humanity to the glory of Godhood. It was necessary that Christ suffer and rise and so enter into His glory. 6 His own, I say, and even ours. For it is not that the head enters through one gate and the members through another. 'I wish,' He says, 'that where I am, that there is my servant.' 7 Peter of Blois, from Sermon 21, On The Resurrection 1 Apoc 5.4 2 Lk 7.28, Lk 3.16 3 Ezek 2.9 4 Ps 68.12, Ps 29.12 5 Prov 31.19 6 Lk 24.26 7 Jn 12.26