“And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair: and the whole moon became as blood: and the stars fell upon the earth, as the fig tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind: and the heaven departed as a book folded up: and every mountain, and the islands were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and tributes, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of mountains: and they say to the mountains and the rocks: ‘Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?’”
The Lord, hearing the prayers of His faithful ones, opens the sixth seal, which points to the crucifixion on the sixth day of the week. It is a response to His martyrs, his little ones, whom He loathes to see so treated: “For it is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of recompenses of the judgment of Sion” (Isaias 34:8), and in this it is shown that even when your prayer is you screaming and crying to God, it is heard: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him: and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 33:7). Now, when you are harmoniously in love with God, all created things seem to be made specifically for you and your happiness: “For all things are yours… all are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:22-23), but when this harmony is broken by sin, nature shows its revulsion: “For the creature serving thee the Creator, is made fierce against the unjust for their punishment; and abateth its strength for the benefit of them that trust in thee” (Wisdom 16:24); “And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened” (Luke 23:44-45). From this, the earth opens in disgust at the treatment of God’s people, with the sun then darkening: “And Moses stretched forth his hand towards heaven: and there came horrible darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days” (Exodus 10:22). This is an indication of the seeming lack of God’s intervention on earth, with the ugliness of fallen man being put on full display. In Homer’s Iliad, the first half of the poem shows a war between gentlemen, with many displays of civility, but after the gods pull back their intercession, the warfare becomes more grisly and darker, and this is what is indicated here; the seeming absence of God’s hand due to the prevalence of the misuse of free will allows for the depths of human fallenness, spurred on by the devil, to truly show its ugliness: “And after all thy abominations, and fornications, thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth” (Ezechiel 16:22); “Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaias 58:1). The moon, which draws its light from the sun, is then a type of man, specifically the Church, which will incur much violence at the hands of those who do not love. This terrifying picture then links into the next image of the stars falling out of the sky, which is indicative of those who abandon their Catholic practices when it becomes difficult, not holding to the love story within, but having stayed at the base of the mountain rather than ascending it for safety: “The children of Israel trust not in their spears, nor in their arrows, but the mountains are their defence, and the steep hills and precipices guard them” (Judith 7:8), are picked off by the trials that overwhelm a faith that does not have the roots of love: “And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that heareth the word, and immediately receiveth it with joy. Yet hath he not root in himself, but is only for a time: and when there ariseth tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized” (Matthew 13:20-21). Thus, a mighty wind strikes the fig tree of the Church, and those who have not gone deep into the love of Jesus are shaken off the tree: “I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:23). When the heavens are like a book folded up, this shows that the persecution will be so rabid and normalized that prudence will carry her children deeper into their own communities, folding up the mysteries of God to the undesiring outside world and instead drawing her own into a deeper love: “Do good to the humble, and give not to the ungodly: hold back thy bread, and give it not to him, lest thereby he overmaster thee. For thou shalt receive twice as much evil for all the good thou shalt have done to him” (Ecclesiasticus 12:6-7). When all hearts are stone, water will find its way into the open vessels with greater vigor, having no other outlet, and so you are invited, Theophila, to make yourself into a vessel to receive this love: “If any man therefore shall cleanse himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and profitable to the Lord, prepared unto every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21). By the mountains he means lofty souls that live in the heights of wisdom and contemplation, with the island being those that enjoy being filled with the good things of God and surrounded by His consolations, even these will retire from their places further from the public eye, knowing that any public labors will be in vain: “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him” (John 7:1). From this, however, there is a glimmer of hope, which is hidden in some difficult language. Judgment is declared on all those who sin: “Judge thy neighbour according to justice” (Leviticus 19:15), but there is an emphasis, besides the bondmen, on the powerful of this world, who are more often than not very weak in virtue and love: “To him that is little, mercy is granted: but the mighty shall be mightily tormented” (Wisdom 6:7). When they ask for the mountains and rocks to fall upon them, on the surface this is because this death is greater than the wrath of God for their iniquities, but the deeper meaning is that, in seeing all things crumble in human hands, many will realize their error and cry out to go into the shadow of the mountains, which are the aforementioned lofty souls, and be guided by their counsel, protected by their prayers, and have them fall upon them in compassion, that they may be led from the scorching sun into the shade of peace: “The sun shall not burn thee by day” (Psalm 120:6). Finally, because the Lord exhorts you: “Watch ye therefore, because you know not what hour your lord will come” (Matthew 24:42), and persecutions, resistance, and evil are always present, it is a call to make yourself into a mountain, to be a great saint in which other souls can nest: “When it is sown, it growth up, and beccometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the birds of the air may dwell under the shadow thereof” (Mark 4:32).