Revelation 14, 6-20:
06 Then I saw another angel flying in midair; he had an everlasting gospel to proclaim, good news for those dwelling on earth, for every nation, tribe, language and people.
07 He said with a loud voice: “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour has come when he will judge; bow down before him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the springs of water.”
08 Another angel, the second, came after her. He said, “Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, she who made all nations drink of the wine of the fury of her whoredom.”
09 Another angel, the third, came after them. He said with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the Beast and his image, if he receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand,
10 he too will drink of the wine of God’s fury, poured without mixture into the cup of his wrath; he will be tortured by fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb.
11 And the smoke of these tortures goes up for ever and ever. They have no rest day nor night, those who worship the Beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
12 Here we recognize the perseverance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven. It said: “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, let them rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
14 Then I saw: and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud one sat, who seemed like a Son of man. On his head was a golden crown, and in his hand was a sharp sickle.
15 Another angel came out of the Sanctuary. He cried out with a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud: “Thrust in your sickle and reap: the hour of harvest has come, for the harvest of the earth is withering away.”
16 Then he who sat on the cloud threw the sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17 Then another angel came out of the sanctuary in heaven, also with a sharp sickle.
18 Another angel came out from the altar, with power over fire. He called out with a loud voice to the one with the sharpened sickle: “Throw your sharpened sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine from the earth, for the grapes are ripe.”
19 The angel, then, threw the sickle on the earth, and gathered the vine from the earth and threw the vintage into the immense vat of God’s fury.
20 They began to tread outside the city, and blood came out of the vat, as high as the horses’ bits, for a distance of one thousand six hundred stadia.
Contents
- Against what is God angry? Against that which deceives man, against that which leads him astray.
- God’s anger is directed against evil, not against his enemies, against men. Christ’s victory is a victory over evil, not against his flesh-and-blood enemies.
- Evil is vanquished forever, that is the message of Revelation. Man will never again be able to return to his former errors. This is also true in our own lives, when we realize our mistakes. The experience of evil and the recognition of one’s fault help us to move towards goodness.
- The enemy is not a human being, the enemy is evil. God will never wish to eliminate a single one of his own children; he will preserve the life of each one, until the end, even in spite of his bad choices, even if he does wrong, in the hope that he will come to himself, that he will understand. For this reason, man is free to go right to the end in the experience of evil. To know something in biblical language means to experience it, to test it, to put it to the test.
- God withholds his wrath to allow the sinner to repent, but when he leaves evil free to go all the way in persecuting the righteous, then that’s what the Bible calls wrath, because when the innocent is killed the unrighteous condemns himself. Paradoxically, God’s anger is expressed by taking on his passion to the very end, by loving us to the point of giving his life for us. Anyone who refuses to accept God’s offer of love and forgiveness is cutting himself off from happiness.
Related articles
The thousand years: resurrected with Christ
The evil in man will be rooted out. God gave man the gift of freedom, because he made him in his own image and likeness. God is love, and love comes from free choice. If we were obliged to love, it would not be love, but fear. Fear of disobeying an order, fear of punishment. The choice to love must be absolutely free, if we are to be truly like God, if our joy and glory are to come from that choice. In marriage, as a couple, for example, we choose to love someone and to be able to love them to the end of our lives, throughout the years, and even to the point of giving our lives for the other. This will be a source of infinite joy in the glory of heaven.
At the outset, then, there is God’s will to associate us with his joy, to let us know the joy of loving, to the end, totally, as he loves. And to make this possible, he offers us the freedom to love or not to love. He makes us in his image, that is, capable of loving, and he cares for us like father and mother, full of solicitude, so that this image, this potentiality, comes to full likeness with him, that is, to the full experience of the joy of loving.
But evil is also the fruit of this freedom; choosing not to love is also part of the freedom God offers his creatures. God’s creatures include not only human beings, but also spiritual creatures, angels and intelligences, who are called to live in the fullness of joy that comes from contemplating God’s goodness and beauty. These intelligences have also received the gift of freedom, and God is not going to take that away from them. The angel is also God’s spokesperson, the one who subtly, since he has no body, inspires us with God’s love, guides us, imperceptible. Unfortunately, when an angel chooses not to love, his intelligence, turned towards men, will also try to subtly turn them away from God and love. Indeed, human beings are also intelligent and capable of choosing for themselves, of distinguishing between good and evil, between what will be a source of happiness and eternal joy and what will lead them to destruction. The demons’ action will therefore be cunning, presenting as good what is not, trying to overturn even the vision of good. Presenting as just and beautiful what, on the contrary, leads to misfortune.
God’s words to mankind, through his angels and prophets, are not commandments or orders, but words full of benevolence. Jesus reminds us: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete”. (John 15:11). We call them commandments, because we’re not as trusting as God is towards us. When we speak to a child who doesn’t understand, after gently suggesting that he do something for his own good, and seeing that he doesn’t, we move on to commands and, if necessary, threats: “If you don’t do it, you’ll suffer this or that.” Not so with God our Father, who also possesses the tenderness and benevolence of a mother. He continues, with infinite patience, to suggest to mankind the right path that leads to goodness, despite refusal, ad infinitum, whatever the cost. Indeed, when the prophets who carry his word are killed or persecuted, he insists on using them with a face of mercy, and when the prophets are not enough, he himself comes to announce to his children the good news, the path to happiness and joy. His word becomes flesh in Jesus Christ, who will reveal the true face of the Father, forgiving men to the end, trusting his children: he knows that they will eventually understand and choose love. In other words, they will be able to distinguish true love from evil, which is continually presented to them under the guise of good. His last words on the cross bear witness to this attitude: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” It’s the tenderness of parents towards the little ones, even if the men who are torturing him are adults, yet lost: they haven’t recognized the good, they don’t know where their happiness lies. It is by forgiving 70 times 7 times that God will reveal to them true love, not only when his word becomes flesh in Jesus, but when his own spirit of love inspires his children.
Here, then, is the parable in which Jesus illustrates God’s attitude towards the man who doesn’t know, who doesn’t understand, who doesn’t know right from wrong. It’s the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). A son, still young, probably around 18 or 20, asks his father for his share of the inheritance; he wants to leave the family home, yet he is in contempt of the father, as if he were dead, he asks for his share of the inheritance. Now, a human father, foreseeing the inexperience of his son’s young age, would probably not have offered him the equivalent of his share of the inheritance, only for him to misuse it, squander it, waste it. However, the father in the parable represents God himself, trusting him, as if to say to himself, “He’s still young, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’ll understand where true good lies, he’ll be able to recognize it.” Indeed, the young person already has experience of this good and happiness but has not yet recognized it. He hasn’t put his father’s love to the test, and yet he’s already receiving it, every day. He must go to the end of the road that leads away from this love in order to recognize it, to experience its infinite mercy. He has to experience all that is illusory, deceptive happiness. This is how the father of the parable lets him go. He trusts in his return and, full of benevolence, waits for him every day, every day watching for his return from the top of the hill, scanning the road that leads home.
Here’s the difficulty mankind has in understanding God’s attitude: why does he allow evil so much freedom? Why will this young man go to extremes, spending his money on drink, indulging in pleasures that won’t lead him to a stable, but temporary, illusory happiness? God allows his sons and daughters to go all the way in the experience of evil, in the end they will know, they will understand, they will recognize the true face of evil. For this to happen, evil must also be able to lead mankind wherever it wants, and in the end mankind will understand that it has not led them to happiness, to eternal happiness. Indeed, as Augustine says, if happiness is to be genuine, we must not fear losing it. If we are always in fear of losing it, that is not true happiness, true peace. Happiness must be eternal, and envisaged as such, if it is to be a source of joy. Only love can meet this requirement, love whose true face we have seen, love that has led us to the end.
Then, when humanity has seen the true face of evil, it will understand, it will come to its senses, and not only at the end of time, but in the life of each and every one of us. When we recognize our errors, this experience will fortify us, make us grow and strengthen us in the pursuit of what is good. The Book of Revelation tells us, then, about what happens in the life of each individual, and at the same time about what happens in the history of humanity as a whole. Mankind is free to follow what deceives it to the end, and God allows this so that it can recognize where true good lies, what is good for it and lasts forever.
Then, for each of us, it will be harvesting time. We’ll be able to distinguish the good from the bad. Finally, we’ll be able to recognize the good we can and want to do, the good works, the wheat, which is no longer hidden behind false appearances. When the weeds have grown, when the evil has gone all the way, we’ll be able to recognize it, we’ll see that it bears no fruit, doesn’t nourish, doesn’t satiate, leads to nothing good, nothing lasting. Then the harvest will be reaped, and we’ll be able to distinguish good from evil, good works from bad, and separate the good wheat from the weeds. It’s also harvest time. God’s vine is his people, his children, and the juice of the clusters is red like blood, an image of life. From this life, evil will be uprooted, squeezed out in anger for having deceived mankind. This wrath illustrates God’s contempt for evil. But beware, we’re talking about evil, not mankind. Jesus on the cross gives his life, his blood, for the salvation of mankind; it is the wine of God’s love that fills the cup. In this life of God, there is no evil; he has conquered evil and death by not responding to offense with offense. It is forgiveness, love, that is victorious, that wrests evil from the hearts of men. Christ’s victory is not over his enemies; he doesn’t kill those who hurt him, he doesn’t take revenge on men. It is a victory over the evil that dwells in man and deceives man. God is angry at deception, not at anyone, and finally this deception is torn from man’s heart. The life, the blood, the juice of the clusters is squeezed out and the evil is extracted, forever extirpated. Man is set free.
The text of Revelation specifies that this juice is pressed outside the city, and this recalls the blood of Christ that was shed on Calvary, a mound outside the city, because those condemned to death are not executed in the holy city, but outside it. It was when Christ’s innocent blood was shed that evil was vanquished; the immolated lamb did not respond to offense with offense but offered forgiveness to the multitude. Here is the wrath of God, which achieves victory over evil, evil is extirpated from the heart of man by the excess of divine mercy. And so the victory is consummated, once and for all: it’s up to mankind to follow this path and be liberated in its turn. It’s up to mankind to meditate again and again on the innocent victim, and to recognize its own error. This is how shed blood purifies, because it continues to offer the world a vision of God’s love for his children, and at the same time reveals the error of those who, by condemning an innocent to torment, thought they were securing power or gain. The Gospel repeats: you cannot serve two masters, God and money. Either we pursue our personal interests to the detriment of others, whatever the cost, or, when love demands it, we are ready to renounce our personal interests, if this risks to harm our fellow man. Our personal path cannot be to the detriment of others; the most important thing is love, which wins and bears good fruit; it is the good seed.
He who persecutes the righteous condemns himself; the cup he drinks, the innocent blood he sheds, becomes the cup of wrath, for this blood leads to his condemnation and judgment, and excludes him from the happiness of neighborly love. On this theme, see also the article: The cup, the judgment.
The commentator Tyconius (4th century) explicitly states that it is when the Church endures persecution that it dominates its enemies, that it is victorious over evil.
Tyconius, Commentaire de l’Apocalypse, translated and annotated by Roger Gryson, Brepols, 2011, p. 172, n.12-13 :
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud: Thrust in your sickle and reap; the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe” (Rev 14:15), i.e. the measure of sins is full. The angel crying out from the temple is a command given by the Lord in the Church, not aloud, but by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He is acting in his body, warning that it is now time to condemn the wicked to anathema, i.e. to make the separation and overcome the adversaries once and for all by suffering persecution.
“And he who sat on the cloud threw his sickle on the earth, and the earth was harvested” (Rev 14:16). He is obviously speaking in the spiritual sense: when the Church is persecuted by the wicked and patiently endures the outrages, then those are dominated.
Tyconius, Commentary on the Apocalypse, translated and annotated by Roger Gryson, Brepols, 2011, p. 176, n.27:
“And one of the four beasts gave to the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of the living God for ever and ever” (Rev 15:7). These are the vials carried with perfumes by the animals and the elders, who are the Church, and who are none other than the seven angels. Perfumes are the same as God’s wrath and God’s word. All this gives life to the good and brings death to the wicked, as the apostle says: “We are the good odor of Christ to those who are saved and to those who are lost, to some a fragrance of life for life, to others a fragrance of death for death” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
Tyconius explains the spiritual logic of the Bible below. In fact, these spiritual plagues are the honors enjoyed on earth by those who work for evil, following in the devil’s footsteps. To be able to act badly, without correction, and even to enjoy honor because of it, is the worst plague: it is correction that saves us.
Tyconius, Commentaire de l’Apocalypse, translated and annotated by Roger Gryson, Brepols, 2011, p. 177, n.30 and p.179 n.34 :
“And the first angel went and poured out his vial on the earth, and a malignant and cruel sore appeared on men bearing the mark of the beast and worshipping his simulacrum” (Rev 16:2). All these plagues are of a spiritual nature, for at the same time, the whole godless people will be preserved from all bodily harm, as if they had been given all power to do evil. For the measure of sins to be full, and for divine wrath to reach its peak (1 Thessalonians 2:16), it will not be necessary for any of the wicked to be chastened and restrained in their outbursts. “A malignant ulcer appeared”, i.e. an atrocious wound filled with pus, but in the spiritual sense, due to the fact that one has
given over to one’s own will and voluntarily committing mortal sins. […]
Right now, however, the devil is honoring his own, as much as he is allowed. These honors and joys, the Holy Spirit has declared, are plagues and sufferings.
Tyconius, Commentaire de l’Apocalypse, translated and annotated by Roger Gryson, Brepols, 2011, p. 184, on Ap 16, 20 :
Babylon is universal evil, present in pagans and false brothers alike, but it must be understood in context. Babylon collapses or drinks God’s wrath at the very moment it is granted the power to attack Jerusalem, especially at the end of time.
Césaire d’Arles in L’Apocalypse expliquée par Césaire d’Arles, Les Pères dans la foi, DDB, 1989, Paris, Homélie 17, p.136:
“And out of his mouth goes a double-edged sword”: this is the one by which the righteous are defended and the wicked punished; “to smite the nations with it, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, it is he who treads the winepress of the indignation and wrath of Almighty God” (Rev 19:15). He is treading it even now, when he allows the wicked to do evil and abandons them to their voluptuousness; then he will tread it outside the city, i.e. outside the Church, when he delivers those who have not done penance to the fires of Gehenna.
Biblical texts (official liturgical translation ©AELF):
Isaiah 35:1-10 :
Let the desert and the land of thirst rejoice! Let the dry land rejoice and blossom like a rose, let it be covered with the flowers of the field, let it exult and shout for joy! The glory of Lebanon is given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sarone. We shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the hands that fail, make firm the knees that bend, say to the people who panic: “Be strong, do not be afraid. This is your God: vengeance is coming, God’s revenge. He himself is coming to save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the mouth of the mute will shout for joy; for water will gush forth in the desert, streams in the dry land. The scorching earth will turn into a lake, the thirsty region into gushing waters. Where jackals roam, the grass will become reeds and rushes. There, there will be a causeway, a way that will be called “The Sacred Way”. Impure men will not pass through it – they will follow their own path – and fools will not stray there. There will be no lions, no ferocious beasts, none at all; but the redeemed will walk there. Those whom the Lord has freed return, they enter Zion with shouts of celebration, crowned with eternal joy. Joy and gladness will join them, sorrow and lament will flee.
The text does indeed speak of vengeance, but this vengeance consists in the coming of the Messiah, and this coming will be amply described by the prophet: it is a suffering Messiah, who will be led to the slaughter like a lamb that does not open its mouth. Here again is the paradox of a God who is said to take vengeance, but who in reality, exposing himself to the wickedness of men, accepts that they rage unjustly against him, who is innocent, like a lamb. And in so doing, he reveals the folly of those who persecute him, of those who are condemning an innocent man because they feel threatened by the righteous man who denounces their misdeeds. In reality, then, God’s vengeance does not consist in destroying his enemies. Jesus will not cause anyone’s death but will reveal the evil within them that drives them to jealousy and hatred. It is therefore by commenting on evil that sinners condemn themselves and separate themselves from the happiness that God offers them. Jesus, the Messiah, came to save mankind; by revealing their blindness, their errors, their evil deeds, he offers them a chance to return to justice, to tell the truth and ask forgiveness. Indeed, the truth could set them free: by recognizing their fault, their selfishness, they would no longer have to hide behind hypocritical behavior, they could access forgiveness. Jesus came to save us, not to condemn us. But only those who open their hearts to welcome their brothers and sisters will enter the holy city of Zion, the kingdom of God, where justice and love reign, and where people live in perfect communion and harmony with one another.
Ezekiel 35:5-6:
Because your hostility has been perpetual, and you have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword, in the time of their debacle, in the time of the last of their faults, well, by my life – oracle of the Lord God – I will put you to blood, and blood will pursue you; since you have not hated blood, blood will pursue you.
The prophet Ezekiel also tells us that it is the shed blood of martyrs that becomes condemnation for those who shed it. Jesus and the martyrs offer their lives with the abundance of their forgiveness for their very persecutors, but if the latter do not welcome this forgiveness, this gift, it will be the very blood they shed that condemns them,
Joel 4:9-21:
Shout this among the nations, sanctify yourselves to make war, awaken the warriors; let them come forward, let them go up, all the men of war! From your plowshares, forge swords, and from your pruning hooks, javelins; let the weak say, “I am a brave!” Make haste and come, all the nations around, assemble here. Lord, bring down your braves! Let the nations wake up, let them go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat (whose name means “The Lord judges”), for it is there that I will sit to judge all the peoples around you. Throw the sickle: the harvest is ripe; come and tread the vintage: the press is full and the vats overflowing with all the evil they have done! Multitudes and multitudes more in the Valley of Judgment; the Day of the Lord in the Valley of Judgment is at hand! The sun and moon are darkened, the stars have withdrawn their brightness. From Zion the Lord roars, from Jerusalem he gives voice. Heaven and earth are shaken, but the Lord is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the sons of Israel. You will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, his holy mountain. Jerusalem will be a holy place, and strangers will no longer pass through. On that day, new wine will flow from the mountains, milk from the hills. All the streams of Judah will be full of water; a spring will gush forth from the House of the Lord and water the ravine of the Acacias. Egypt shall be desolate, Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for they have multiplied their violence against the children of Judah, they have shed their innocent blood in the land. But there will always be inhabitants in Judah, as well as in Jerusalem, from generation to generation. I will avenge their blood, which I have not yet avenged. And the Lord will dwell in Zion.
Second Letter of Peter the Apostle 3, 8 :
Beloved, one thing must not escape you: for the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord does not delay in keeping his promise, even though some claim he is late. On the contrary, he is patient with you, for he does not want to let any of you go astray but wants all of you to come to conversion.
Faced with men’s desire for justice, who demand the defeat of their enemies, who rage against God when they see the innocent dying in youth and the criminal prospering into old age, St. Peter, following in the footsteps of the prophets, reaffirms that God does not want the sinner to die, but to be converted and return to him, so that he can reach the happiness of brotherly love. So, he explains, if we see the wicked stubborn in his behavior and blame God for not intervening, God is actually offering the wicked yet another opportunity to convert. In so doing, he is acting in accordance with his word, which invites us to offer yet another chance to the one who sins against us, to forgive 70 times 7 times, to turn the other cheek. This gesture on God’s part is a gesture of hope towards his children, that they will understand the misfortune engendered by their bad behavior and return to him, to the truth. In this way, the Lord is not slow to keep his promise; he is patient.
In chapter 6 of his Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul tells us of the liberation from sin offered to us in Jesus Christ, of the man who gains access to the truth and freedom of love, no longer chained, no longer a prisoner of his evil deeds. Indeed, to hide his evil deeds, man is obliged to commit other crimes and often to suppress the righteous person who could reveal them, bring them to light. And violence also calls for violence: he who kills with the sword will die with the sword, as Jesus said. To ensure his life on earth, to accumulate wealth and power, to guarantee his survival, man is ready to kill rather than share. He deprives himself of the joy of sharing, of fraternal and friendly bonds, and lives in fear of those who might denounce him or take revenge.
In the Letter to the Colossians, chapters 2 to 3, 4, St. Paul tells us about the journey of the man who frees himself from his sins and comes to love his neighbor. This liberation is brought about by the grace of Christ, by the forgiveness of our sins received in baptism, and by the love with which he fills us.
In chapter 2 of the Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul speaks of the mercy and love with which God fills us, of the gratuitousness of his forgiveness, of the offering of his life to save us.