(Rev. 1:16) “He had in
his right hand seven stars.” By these seven stars Saint John wants us to
hear the Church, because the spiritual Church is on the right of Jesus Christ,
and it is to this Church placed on his right that he says: “Come, blessed of my
Father.” (Matt. 25:34) The seven stars are therefore the Church. We said that
the Spirit of the seven gifts was given to him by the Father, as Peter tells
the Jews about Jesus Christ: and after he was raised by the hand of God, he
spread this Spirit that he received from his Father. (Acts 2:33) Now, by
calling each of these seven churches by his own name, he does not mean that
they are the only churches, but what he says to one of them he says to all.
These seven churches therefore represent all the churches, either of Asia or of
the whole universe, and these churches form but one Catholic Church, as St.
Paul says to Timothy: “That you may know how you should behave in the house of
God, which is the church of the living God.” (1 Tim. 3:15) Similarly, in the prophet
Isaiah, the seven women who take one man represent the seven churches that do
not. One man is Jesus Christ, the bread of these women is the Spirit who gives
the food of eternal life, To print these explanations more strongly in your mind,
I want to give you an abbreviated recapitulation of it: By the seven churches
to which St. John writes, it is necessary to understand the one and only
Catholic Church, because of the seven graces which have been given to it: “The
faithful witness,” if it be Jesus Christ; the seven candlesticks is like the Son
of man, is Jesus Christ in the midst of the Church. He is girded beneath the
breasts of a golden girdle; these udders are two Testaments that receive from
the breast of Jesus Christ the spiritual milk that nourishes the Christian people
for eternal life. The golden belt is the choir or multitude of saints whose
constant application to reading and meditation prove the close attachment to
Jesus Christ. That is enough, dear brothers. Pass between you in holy
conversations what you have heard, until we can give you, with the help of the
Lord the explanation of what follows. May God give you grace, etc. (Caesarius
of Arles Commentary on Revelation: A Sixth Century Commentary on the Book of
Revelation [trans. John Litteral; Litteral Truth Publishing, n.d.], 4-5)
