On Revelation 12.1: A
woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet.
24. When the sun is used
figuratively [in Scripture], sometimes it designates the Lord, sometimes persecution,
sometimes the manifestation of the clear sight of something, but sometimes the
understanding of the wise. Now by the “sun” the Lord is figuratively represented
as when in the Book of Wisdom it is testified that all the impious on the day
of final judgment will say in full knowledge of their own damnation: “We
strayed from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not shine
upon us, and the sun did not rise upon us.” It is as if they were saying in
plain speech: “The ray of inward light did not shine upon us.” In a similar
manner, John said: A woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her
feet (Rv 12.1). For by the “sun” is understood the illumination of truth,
whereas by the “moon,” which wanes when the month is completed, the
changeableness of temporal existence. But because the holy Church is protected
by the splendor of light from above, she is, as it were, clothed with the sun.
But because she despises all temporal things, she tramples the moon under her
feet. (Gregory the Great, Moralia 34.14 [25], 1-15, as found in “Testimonies
of Gregory the Great on the Apocalypse,” in Cassiodorus, St. Gregory the
Great, and Anonymous Greek Scholia: Writings on the Apocalypse [trans. Mark
DelCogliano; The Fathers of the Church 144; Washington, D. C.: The Catholic
University of America Press, 2022], 64-65)
To Support this Blog:
Email for Amazon Gift card: ScripturalMormonism@gmail.com
Email for Logos.com Gift Card: IrishLDS87@gmail.com
