I am in the middle of reading a commentary on the Apocalypse published in 1955 by Fr Hermann Kramer and called The Book of Destiny. It is better and more erudite than you might suppose from its title. I learned about it when listening to a talk by Hamish Fraser, who refers to it as the most interesting book that he has ever read.
Fr Kramer takes the Apocalypse to be principally a chronological prophecy of the Church’s future from the apostolic age to the Parousia, though with some reprises, rather than, say, a depiction of permanent features of the Church’s situation in this world. He offers some interesting interpretations of the 7 trumpets of Apoc. 8 and 9. On the assumption, reasonable given his general approach, that the description in 7:13-14 of those who have come through the great tribulation represents the Church as she emerged from the Diocletian persecution, he argues that the seven trumpets announce events that follow this period of freedom.
The first trumpet he takes to mark the barbarian invasions. His interpretation here is perhaps too literal: he suggests that the burning up of a third part of the trees might refer to a serious disruption of agriculture, at that time. Earlier, by contrast, he suggested that ‘tree’ might be taken to refer to the leading men of the time, and this might apply better here also. Although he doesn’t mention it, the burning up of all the green grass would fit well with his view of the barbarian invasions as a punishment for excessive luxury. The Fathers interpret ‘green grass’ as a symbol of concupiscence, in the Feeding of the Five Thousand.
But I was more interested in the next two trumpets. Apoc. 9:8 says:
And the second angel blew sounded the trumpet: and as it were a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood. And the third part of those creatures died, which had life in the sea, and the third part of the ships was destroyed.
Fr Kramer thinks this is a reference to Islam; and it does seem antecedently plausible that so terrible and permanent an enemy of the Church would be mentioned in the only canonical prophecy of the Church’s life (if that is indeed what we should understand the Apocalypse to be). ‘Fire’ suggests, among other things, the passionate fanaticism of militant Islam, while ‘mountain’ is a good symbol of its bulk, impermeability and deadness. ‘The creatures which had life’ is literally ‘the creatures which had souls’, suggesting the death of the soul caused by the prolonged Mohammedan usurpation. He also suggests that ‘ships’ here might be a symbol for ‘churches’. Might one-third, approximately, of the churches then existing have been desecrated by Islam?
The Apocalypse continues:
And the third angel sounded the trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, burning as it were a torch, and it fell on the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountain of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made better.
This disaster differs from the previous two, since it is said to proceed from ‘heaven’. The author interprets heaven throughout the book to refer to the Church, considered as endowed with heavenly gifts. Apoc. 1:20 itself strongly suggests that ‘stars’ in the Apocalypse will refer to bishops or priests. A ‘great’ star, therefore, says Fr Kramer, will be an eminent bishop or metropolitan. It is said to be burning even after as it descends (unlike the stars that fall in 6:13, 9:1 and 12:9), suggesting that it still gives some light to the faithful after leaving the Church, indicating rather schism than heresy, and the continued presence of erudition.
The star is called ‘Wormwood’. In Jeremiah and Amos, wormwood is mentioned in connection with priests who are disobedient (Jer. 9:13-15), and who teach falsely (Jer. 23:11-40), and with those who pervert the sources of justice (Amos 5:7). These last people are told, instead, to ‘seek him that maketh Arcturus and Orion’ (Amos 5:8), which, if we accept the symbolism of a star as a bishop, implies a command to recognise the diving origin of the hierarchy of the Church: again, a warning against schism.
This great shining star falls upon a third part of the springs of water, presumably the sources of grace. Many die from drinking the bitter waters. As Fr Kramer says:
Wormwood is to be given those people, priests, and bishops who refuse to obey the authority of the Church which possesses this authority by divine commission from Christ. This is schism, ad formal schism is grievous sin. And many shall die from participation of the fountains, the sacraments, polluted by the star fallen into schism. […] The fallen star is guilty of pride, hypocrisy, and rebellion, when he assumes unlawful authority over others and perverts and refuses submission to the true order established by Christ. It begets pride and rebellion in his followers. They follow a slippery path and must stumble and fall after they have partaken of this poisonous potion. Sharing in the hypocrisy and rebellion of their schismatic superior, they knowingly partake of his wormwood and become wormwood themselves.
Surely, as the author implies, this describes no one so well as Photios the Great? His very name suggests a shining light, and he was famed for his learning. He was a great star, too, metropolitan of a see that claimed second rank in the Church, but he broke away from the constellation appointed for him. A great number of dioceses, though still a minority, were struck by his calamitous fall and the sources of grace to this very day have been made bitter for all those who knowingly partake of his schism. What, in fact, is more bitter than schism, directly opposed as it is not to the faith, but to charity and joy and peace?
November 12, 2017 at 11:48 pm
So what happens next?!
November 13, 2017 at 10:18 am
The next trumpet speaks of a third part of the heavenly bodies being smitten and darkened, which he interprets as the great Western Schism.
The fifth trumpet then signals the falling of a star holding keys to the bottomless pit, which is opened letting out smoke & locusts which fill the air. The fallen star he interprets as Martin Luther, the opening of the bottomless pit and the smoke as the Protestant revolt, and the locusts as Protestant princes and armies which persecute the Church with violence.
An interesting thing is that between these two trumpets, the fourth & fifth, there is talk of an eagle in “mid-heaven” announcing the coming of further woes. Fr. Kramer gives an interesting clue here, in that apparently it is known that St. Vincent Ferrer declared himself to be this very figure in the Apocalypse, and performed a miracle to prove it: raising someone to life who declared that he was telling the truth. Knowing that St. Vincent is this figure allows Fr. Kramer to tell which parts of the apocalypse correspond to which periods of time, before & after St. Vincent Ferrer. St. Vincent is often called the “Angel of the Apocalypse”, he was a great Dominican preacher.
See pages 188 onwards. The book is here:
Click to access the-book-of-destiny-herman-bernard-kramer-2mur2ayackua6ald3vqyhk6dd.pdf
November 13, 2017 at 1:48 pm
He is unsure whether the sixth trumpet has been sounded yet, but he wonders whether it might signify a union between Communism and resurgent Islam. I think he may be guilty of excessive literalism in supposing that the ‘one third of mankind’ who are to be killed by the 200,000,000 horsemen are physically killed. It may refer rather to spiritual death.
He has an interesting suggestion about the 7 thunders in 10:3, that this refers to an ecumenical council whose definitions will fortify the faithful before the coming of antichrist. He also thinks that the expulsion of Satan from heaven with his angels in Apoc. 12 is not primarily a reference to the fall at the start of time, but to the expulsion of the devil and his followers from within the Church.
November 20, 2017 at 12:45 am
Off-topic, but I’ve noticed you are very astute fellows and I would appreciate any thoughts you might have on this text I’ve written against evolution.
http://dumptext.com/m2x1RU14
I’ve tried to keep it as brief and to-the-point as possible, and I’d be very interested to get any of your own thoughts on the subject.
November 20, 2017 at 9:30 am
Please see this edited version instead:
http://dumptext.com/tXsHRGxn
November 21, 2017 at 1:33 pm
I agree. While it is hard for me to see (pace Fr Ripperger) any direct contradiction between the theory of evolution and natural theology, it does seem in practice impossible for the great majority of people to accept the former without denying the latter; which is perhaps another reason to suppose that God would not have used evolution as a means to bring species into being.
We had a discussion about it here:
https://exlaodicea.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/evolution-and-metaphysics/#comments
November 22, 2017 at 5:46 pm
Any orthodox reconciliation of evolution with natural theology will be an uneasy minimalist reconciliation where “God did it” is merely appended to every step of the evolution of the cosmos. But as soon as one attempts a full reconciliation, where we allow the notion of an evolving cosmos to penetrate our understanding of God, orthodoxy will be threatened. This is because the power to create is divine, so if nature itself has the power to create new forms then there is a divine power immanent in nature; ergo pantheism.
The reason that most people cannot reconcile evolution with theism (divine transcendence) is that it contradicts our common sense notion of how creation works, i.e. an intelligent artificer has the idea of the artefact, and puts the parts together in an orderly and deliberate fashion; he does not throw the parts in a pot and stew them for a thousand years. If God is an Intelligence that transcends the world, then we would expect Him to have built the world in a rational manner analogous to an artificer building an artefact (St. Thomas uses this analogy in Summa Contra Gentiles). If the world has been made in the way that evolutionists describe God does not appear to be a divine Mind that transcends the world, but at the very best some kind of force or principle immanent in the world, moving it in a certain direction slowly over time.
“… which is perhaps another reason to suppose that God would not have used evolution as a means to bring species into being.”
Indeed, God made the world as a medium through which we could come to know Him. We are supposed to look at the world as reflecting the glory of God, as an icon of its Creator. An evolutionary cosmos obscures the nature of God more than it reveals.
December 8, 2020 at 9:12 am
[…] I am persuaded by the interpretation of the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse (chapters 8 & following) which sees them as announcing seven great events in sacred history from the time after the persecution of Diocletian (itself alluded to in Apoc. 7:13-15) until the coming of antichrist. More exactly, they refer to seven great assaults of the enemy against the Church and Christendom. On this reading, the first five trumpets announce: the barbarians devastating the empire; the emergence of Islam; the Photian schism; the dimming of faith and the supernatural spirit toward the end of the Middle Ages; and the Protestant Reformation (I have written about this here.) […]