Die komende sabbatsrus

 

VIR Die Kerk het 2000 jaar moeite gedoen om siele in haar boesem te trek. Sy het vervolging en verraad, ketters en skeuring ondervind. Sy het seisoene van glorie en groei, agteruitgang en verdeeldheid, mag en armoede deurgemaak, terwyl sy die Evangelie onverpoos verkondig het - al was dit maar soms deur 'n oorblyfsel. Maar eendag, het die kerkvaders gesê, sal sy 'n 'sabbatsrus' geniet - 'n era van vrede op aarde voor die einde van die wêreld. Maar wat is hierdie rus presies, en wat bring dit tot stand?

 

DIE SEWENDE DAG

St. Paul was actually the first to speak of this coming “sabbath rest”:

And God rested on the seventh day from all his works… So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. (Heb 4:4, 9-10)

In order to enter God’s rest, we have to understand what was accomplished on the seventh day. Essentially, the “word” or “Fiat that God spoke set creation into motion in perfect harmony — from the movement of the stars to the very breath of Adam. All was in perfect balance and yet, not complete. 

Die skepping het sy eie goedheid en regte volmaaktheid, maar dit het nie volledig uit die hande van die Skepper voortgespruit nie. Die heelal is geskep "in 'n toestand van reis" (in beeld viae) na 'n uiteindelike volmaaktheid wat nog bereik moet word, waarop God dit bestem het. -Kategismus van die Katolieke Kerk, N. 302

What, then, was to complete and perfect creation? In a word: Adam. Created “in the image of God”, the Holy Trinity desired to expand the infinite borders of divine life, light, and love through the progeny of Adam and Eve in “endless generations.” St. Thomas Aquinas said, “Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened His hand.”[1]Gestuur. 2, Prol. God created all things, said St. Bonaventure, “not to increase His glory but to show it forth and to communicate it,”[2]In II Sent. I, 2, 2, 1. and this would be done primarily through Adam’s participation in that Fiat, the Divine Will. As Jesus said to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:

My joy reached its peak in seeing in this man [Adam], the almost endless generations of many other human beings who would provide Me with as many other kingdoms as there would be humans who exist, and in whom I would reign and expand My divine boundaries. And I beheld the bounty of all other kingdoms that would overflow for the glory and honor of the first kingdom [in Adam], which was to serve as the head of all others, and as the prime act of creation.

“Now, to form this kingdom,” states theologian Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi,

Adam being the first of all humans, had to freely unite his will to the eternal operation of the Divine Will that formed in him the divine indwelling (‘abitazione’) of God’s ‘being’.’ -Die geskenk van die lewe in die goddelike wil in die geskrifte van Luisa Piccarreta (Kindle Locations 896-907), Kindle-uitgawe

In her teachings to Luisa, Our Lady reveals that in order for creation to enter further into this glorious state of perfection (of endlessly expanding kingdoms of love), Adam needed to pass a test. 

[Adam] had command over all creation, and all the elements were obedient to his every nod. By virtue of the Divine Will reigning in him, he too was inseparable from his Creator. After God had bestowed upon him so many blessings in exchange for one act of his fidelity, He commanded him not to touch only one fruit of the many fruits in the terrestrial Eden. This was the proof God had asked of Adam to confirm him in his state of innocence, holiness and happiness, and to give him the right of command over all creation. But Adam was not faithful in the test and, as a result, God could not trust him. So Adam lost his right of command [over himself and creation], and lost his innocence and happiness, whereby one may say that he turned the work of creation upside down. —Ons dame tot dienskneg van God Luisa Piccarreta, Die Maagd Maria in die Koninkryk van die Goddelike Wil, Dag 4

Hence, not only Adam but in a certain sense Goeie lost the “sabbath rest” that He had established on the “seventh day.” And it was this “sabbath rest” that Jesus came to earth as a man to restore…

 

FORESEEN BY THE FATHERS

According to the “deposit of faith” handed on to them by the Apostles, the Early Church Fathers taught that the “eighth day” or eternity would not come totdat the seventh day was restored in the order of creation. And this, the Scriptures teach, will come through a great labor and tribulation, since the fallen angels now battle for dominion over man and his will[3]sien Die botsing van die koninkryke. Though claiming many souls, Satan and his legions will ultimately fail, and the seventh day or “sabbath rest” will come after the fall of the Antichrist…

... wanneer Sy Seun sal kom en die tyd van die wettelose sal vernietig en die goddelose sal oordeel, en die son en die maan en die sterre sal verander - dan sal Hy inderdaad op die sewende dag rus ... nadat Hy alles gerus het, sal Ek maak die begin van die agtste dag, dit wil sê die begin van 'n ander wêreld. —Letter van Barnabas (70-79 n.C.), geskryf deur 'n Apostoliese Vader in die tweede eeu

St. Irenaeus, in fact, compares the “six days” of creation to the following six thousand years after Adam was created:

Die Skrif sê: 'En God het op die sewende dag gerus van al sy werke' ... En in ses dae is die dinge geskape; dit is dus duidelik dat hulle teen die sesde duisend jaar tot 'n einde sal kom ... Maar wanneer die Antichris alles in hierdie wêreld vernietig het, sal hy drie jaar en ses maande regeer en in die tempel in Jerusalem sit; en dan sal die Here uit die hemel in die wolke kom ... hierdie man en diegene wat hom volg, na die poel van vuur stuur; maar om vir die regverdiges die tye van die koninkryk in te bring, dit wil sê die res, die heilige sewende dag ... Dit sal plaasvind in die tye van die koninkryk, dit wil sê op die sewende dag ... die ware sabbat van die regverdiges Diegene wat Johannes, die dissipel van die Here, gesien het, [vertel ons] dat hulle van Hom gehoor het hoe die Here hierdie tye geleer en gepraat het ...  St. Irenaeus van Lyons, kerkvader (140–202 n.C.); Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus van Lyon, V.33.3.4, Die Vaders van die Kerk, CIMA Publishing Co .; (St. Irenaeus was 'n student van St. Polycarpus, wat van die apostel Johannes geken en geleer het en later deur Johannes as biskop van Smirna ingewy is.)

Hint: the Jubilee year 2000 marked the proximate end of the Sesde dag. [4]The Church Fathers did not calculate this in hard, literal numbers but as a generality. Aquinas writes, “As Augustine says, the last age of the world corresponds to the last stage of a man’s life, which does not last for a fixed number of years as the other stages do, but lasts sometimes as long as the others together, and even longer. Wherefore the last age of the world cannot be assigned a fixed number of years or generations.” —Vrae betwis, Vol. II De Potentia, Q. 5, n.5 This is why St. John Paul II called the youth to become “the watchmen of the morning who announce the coming of the sun who is the Risen Christ!”[5]Message of the Holy Father to the Youth of the World, XVII World Youth Day, n. 3; (cf. Is 21:11-12) — “‘morning watchmen’ at the dawn of the new millennium.”[6]Novo Millennio Inuente, n.9, Jan. 6th, 2001 This is also why the Church Fathers understood St. John’s “thousand year” reign after the death of Antichrist (Rev 20:6) to inaugurate the “seventh day” or “Day of the Lord.” 

Kyk, die dag van die Here sal duisend jaar wees. —Brief van Barnabas, Die Vaders van die Kerk, Hfst. 15

En weer,

... hierdie dag van ons, wat begrens word deur die opgang en die ondergang van die son, is 'n voorstelling van die groot dag waarop die stroombaan van duisend jaar sy grense plaas. -Lactantius, Vaders van die kerk: Die goddelike institute, boek VII, Hoofstuk 14, Katolieke Ensiklopedie; www.newadvent.org

St. Augustine would later confirm this early apostolic teaching:

... asof dit 'n goeie ding is dat die heiliges in daardie periode 'n soort sabbatsrus moes geniet, 'n heilige ontspanning na die arbeid van sesduisend jaar sedert die mens se skepping ... (en) daar moes gevolg word aan die voltooiing van ses duisend jaar, soos ses dae, 'n soort sewe-dag sabbat in die daaropvolgende duisend jaar ... En hierdie opinie sou nie beledigend wees as daar geglo word dat die vreugde van die heiliges in daardie sabbat geestelik en gevolglik sou wees nie oor die teenwoordigheid van God ... St. Augustinus van Hippo (354-430 nC; kerklike dokter), De Civitate Dei, Bk. XX, Hfst. 7, Catholic University of America Press

In the last century, nearly all the popes have spoken of this coming “pacification”, “peace”, or “restoration” in Christ that will subdue the world and give relief to the Church, as it were, of her labors:

Wanneer dit wel aankom, sal dit 'n plegtige uur wees, een groot met gevolge nie net vir die herstel van die Koninkryk van Christus nie, maar ook vir die versoening van ... die wêreld. Ons bid vurig en vra ook ander om te bid vir hierdie baie gewilde pasifisering van die samelewing. - Pous PIUS XI, Ubi Arcani dei Consilioi “Oor die vrede van Christus in sy koninkryk”, Desember 23, 1922

O! wanneer die wet van die Here in elke stad en dorp getrou onderhou word, wanneer respek getoon word vir heilige dinge, wanneer die sakramente besoek word en die verordeninge van die Christelike lewe vervul word, sal ons beslis nie meer nodig hê om verder aan sien alles herstel in Christus ... Dit alles, agbare broeders, ons glo en verwag met onwrikbare geloof. - Pous PIUS X, E Supremi, ensikliek “Oor die herstel van alle dinge”, n.14, 6-7

You can read more of their prophecies in Die pous en die doop-era

Still, what produces this Sabbath Rest? Is it merely a “time out” from war and strife? Is it simply the absence of violence and oppression, especially that of Satan who will be chained during this period in the abyss (Rev 20:1-3)? No, it’s far more than that: the true Sabbath Rest will be the fruit of the opstanding van die Goddelike Wil in man that Adam forfeited…

So word die volledige optrede van die oorspronklike plan van die Skepper omlyn: 'n skepping waarin God en man, man en vrou, mensdom en natuur in harmonie is, in dialoog, in gemeenskap. Hierdie plan, ontstel deur die sonde, is op 'n wonderlike manier opgeneem deur Christus, wat dit geheimsinnig maar effektief uitvoer in die huidige werklikheid, in the expectation of bringing it to fulfillment…—POPE JOHN PAUL II, algemene gehoor, 14 Februarie 2001

 

THE TRUE SABBATH REST

In one of the most consoling passages in the New Testament, Jesus says: 

Kom na my toe, almal wat arbei en belas word, en ek sal u rus gee. Neem my juk op u en leer van my, want ek is sagmoedig en nederig van hart; en jy sal rus vind vir jouself. Want my juk is sag, en my las is lig. (Matt 11: 28-30)

What is this yoke that is “easy” and this burden that is “light”? It is the Divine Will.

…my Will alone is celesial rest. —Jesus to Luisa, Volume 17, May 4th, 1925

For it is the human will that produces all the miseries and unrest of the soul. 

Fears, doubt and apprehensions are that which dominate you — all miserable rags of your human will. And do you know why? Because the complete life of the Divine Will is not established within you — the life which, putting to flight all the evils of the human will, makes you happy and fills you with all the blessings it possesses. Oh, if with a firm resolution you decide no longer to give life to your human will, you will feel all evils die within you and all goods come back to life. —Ons dame tot dienskneg van God Luisa Piccarreta, Die Maagd Maria in die Koninkryk van die Goddelike Wil, Dag 3

Jesus says, “Take my yoke and learn from me.” For Jesus, the yoke was His Father’s Will. 

Ek het uit die hemel neergedaal om nie my eie wil te doen nie, maar die wil van die een wat my gestuur het. (Johannes 6:38)

Thus, Christ modeled for us the unie of the human will with the Divine Will as the quintessence of interior harmony.

... in Christus word die regte orde van alle dinge besef, die vereniging van hemel en aarde, soos God die Vader van die begin af bedoel het. Dit is die gehoorsaamheid van die vleesgeworde God, wat die oorspronklike gemeenskap van die mens met God hervestig, herstel, en dus vrede in die wêreld. Sy gehoorsaamheid verenig weer alles, 'dinge in die hemel en dinge op aarde'. —Kardinaal Raymond Burke, toespraak in Rome; 18 Mei 2018; lifesitnews.com

If planet Earth were to go out of its orbit by even one degree, it would throw the entire balance of life into chaos. So too, when we do anything in our human will apart from the Divine Will, our interior life is thrown into imbalance — we lose our interior peace or “rest”. Jesus is the “perfect man” precisely because everything He did was always in the Divine Will. What Adam lost in disobedience, Jesus repaired in His obedience. And thus, the mysterious plan of God being carried out “in this present reality” is that, through Baptism, every human is invited to be incorporated into the “Body of Christ” in order that the life of Jesus may be lived in them — that is, through the union of the human with the Divine in one Enkellopende testament.

In all of his life Jesus presents himself as our model. He is “the perfect man”… Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us. By his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man. We are called only to become one with him, for he enables us as the members of his Body to share in what he lived for us in his flesh as our model: We must continue to accomplish in ourselves the stages of Jesus’ life and his mysteries and often to beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his whole Church… This is his plan for fulfilling his mysteries in us. -Kategismus van die Katolieke Kerk, N. 520-521

... totdat ons almal die eenheid van geloof en kennis van die Seun van God bereik, tot volwasse manlikheid tot die volle grootte van Christus ... (Efesiërs 4:13)

In short, the Sabbath Rest will be given to the Church when Ware Seun is restored to her such that the original harmony of creation is returned. I believe this will ultimately come through a “second Pentecost,” as the popes have been imploring for over a century — when the Spirit will “renew the face of the earth.”[7]vgl Die komende afkoms van die goddelike wil Through the revelations of Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, we understand that this “full stature” is essentially the restoration of the “gift of living in the Divine Will” that Adam forfeited. The Lord has called this “the crown and the fulfillment of all the other sanctities” [8]April 8, 1918; Vol. 12 that He has bestowed upon His People throughout the centuries, beginning with the “Fiats” of Creation and Redemption, and now coming to completion through the “Fiat of Sanctification” in the last era.

Die geslagte sal nie eindig voordat my wil op aarde heers nie ... Die derde FIAT sal die skepsel so genade gee dat dit hom byna na die oorsprongstoestand laat terugkeer; en eers dan, as ek die mens sien net toe hy van My af uitgaan, sal my werk voltooi wees, en sal ek my ewige rus in die laaste FIAT neem. —Jesus aan Luisa, 22 Februarie 1921, Deel 12

Indeed, not only will man find his Sabbath Rest in the Divine Will, but astonishingly, God, too, will resume His rest in ons. This is the divine union Jesus willed when He said, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love… so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15: 10-11).

…in this love I find My true Love, I find My true rest. My Intelligence rests in the intelligence of the one who loves Me; My Heart, My desire, My hands and My feet rest in the heart that loves Me, in the desires that love Me, desiring only Me, in the hands that work for Me, and in the feet that walk only for Me. Therefore, bit by bit, I go resting within the soul who loves Me; while the soul, with her love, finds Me everywhere and in every place, resting completely in Me. —Ibid., May 30, 1912; Volume 11

In this way, the words of the “Our Father” will at last find their fulfillment as the final stage of the Church before the end of the world…

... elke dag in die gebed van die Onse Vader, vra ons die Here: "U wil geskied, net soos op die aarde" (Matt 6:10) .... ons besef dat 'hemel' is waar die wil van God geskied, en dat 'aarde' 'hemel' word - dit is die plek van die teenwoordigheid van liefde, van goedheid, van waarheid en van goddelike skoonheid - slegs as op aarde die wil van God geskied. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, algemene gehoor, 1 Februarie 2012, Vatikaanstad

 

VERWANTE LEES

Die Sesde Dag

Skepping wedergebore

Millenarisme - Wat dit is en wat nie

Hoe die era verlore gegaan het

Liewe Heilige Vader ... Hy kom!

Faustina, en die dag van die Here

 

 

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voetnote

voetnote
1 Gestuur. 2, Prol.
2 In II Sent. I, 2, 2, 1.
3 sien Die botsing van die koninkryke
4 The Church Fathers did not calculate this in hard, literal numbers but as a generality. Aquinas writes, “As Augustine says, the last age of the world corresponds to the last stage of a man’s life, which does not last for a fixed number of years as the other stages do, but lasts sometimes as long as the others together, and even longer. Wherefore the last age of the world cannot be assigned a fixed number of years or generations.” —Vrae betwis, Vol. II De Potentia, Q. 5, n.5
5 Message of the Holy Father to the Youth of the World, XVII World Youth Day, n. 3; (cf. Is 21:11-12)
6 Novo Millennio Inuente, n.9, Jan. 6th, 2001
7 vgl Die komende afkoms van die goddelike wil
8 April 8, 1918; Vol. 12
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