Today we are going to
00:19
tackle another rather grand
00:22
passage from The Old Testament
00:25
in the book of Daniel.
00:26
Still with the theme of fire,
00:30
it is chapter 7 of Daniel.
00:35
This is the description
00:37
of the vision of the elder,
00:39
a mysterious elder, who is on a throne
00:42
and of the Son of Man
00:43
appearing.
00:45
The son of man, more precisely,
00:47
it was Daniel who speaks,
00:49
while I gazed,
00:51
thrones were placed
00:52
and old sat,
00:54
his raiment white as snow
00:56
(it reminds a little bit,
00:57
the transfiguration)
00:58
His a garment white as snow,
01:00
the hair of his head,
01:01
pure as wool.
01:03
His throne was flames of fire
01:06
with wheels of fire.
01:08
A river of fire
01:09
flowed from before him.
01:11
A thousand thousands served him
01:13
Miriades of miriades,
01:14
standing before him.
01:17
Then follows the famous vision
01:20
of the coming of the son of man
01:22
from the son of man on the clouds of heaven.
01:25
There is therefore a son of man
01:26
who comes in the clouds of the sky
01:27
to whom one confers an empire
01:29
which will never pass.
01:32
This passage, which is of the
01:34
apocalyptic genre , is very close
01:36
to the grand final vision of chapter 22
01:38
of our book of Revelation.
01:42
“The Angel showed me a river
01:43
of living waters, clear as crystal.”
01:44
With the difference that
01:46
here, it is
01:47
not a river of life as clear
01:48
as crystal which springs from the throne
01:51
of the throne of God, but a river of fire.
01:54
Another symbol of the power
01:57
of the Holy Spirit.
02:01
And the heart of Jesus, a
02:04
fiery furnace of charity,
02:07
must be contemplated
02:08
as the permanent source
02:10
of the outpouring of the Spirit,
02:12
outpouring of fire
02:14
for those who know
02:15
Paray-le-Monial well.
02:18
This vision of Daniel
02:19
could suggest by allusion
02:22
to the large mosaic of the chapel of
02:23
Saint Claude la Colombière.
02:26
The large mosaic
02:27
where we see Jesus sitting
02:29
in majesty on a throne from
02:30
which flames spout,
02:32
like a river of fire,
02:34
precisely.
02:36
And so, I recall that
02:37
the enigmatic figure
02:41
of the son of man who comes
02:42
on the clouds of the sky.
02:44
Jesus will appropriate it
02:46
each time he speaks of the son of man
02:49
and especially in the trial,
02:51
and it is the word that will
02:54
lose him.
02:55
In any case,
02:55
who will decide on his conviction?
02:59
“And I say to you,
03:01
you will see the son of man
03:02
sitting at the right hand of power,
03:05
and you will see the son of man
03:06
therefore come in the clouds of heaven,
03:10
and then sit at the right hand of power.”
03:12
And that’s where the high priest
03:13
tears his garment.
03:17
This vision of Daniel, apocalyptic,
03:20
is very oriented towards Christ.
03:25
And particularly
03:26
towards this river of fire
03:29
that we can identify with the fire of love
03:32
or the fire of the Holy Spirit
03:33
which can no longer contain in itself,
03:35
as I said yesterday
03:37
when I spoke
03:38
of the first great apparition
03:40
to Marguerite -Marie,
03:42
and this river of fire
03:44
which gushes out for eternity
03:47
to catch us in its flames,
03:50
to warm us, to set us ablaze
03:53
and to make us
03:54
bearers of the good news.
03:58
Filled with the Holy Spirit.
Source: Fr Kars, Sanctuaire Paray