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From: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

Daniel’s Vision (Continuation)

[9] As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his
seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his
throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. [10] A stream of fire issued
and came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thou-
sand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the
books were opened.

[13] I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came
one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented
before him. [14] And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all
peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlas-
ting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be
destroyed.

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Commentary:

7:9-14. Divine judgment is passed on the kingdoms in this scene. God is depic-
ted as being seated on a throne in heaven, his glory flashing out and angels all
around. Judgment is about to take place, and it will be followed by execution of
the sentence. The books (v. 10) contain all the actions of men (cf. Jer 17:1; Mal
3:16; Ps 56:8; Rev 20:12). The seer is shown history past (not laid out accor-
ding to chronology: all the empires are included in one glance), and he notes
that a more severe sentence is passed on the blasphemous horn than on the
other beasts. They had their lives extended (v. 12), that is, their deprivation of
power did not spell the end; but the little horn is destroyed forthwith. “Following
in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judg-
ment of the Last Day in his preaching (cf. Dan 7:10; Joel 3-4; Mal 3:19; Mt 3:7-
42)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 678).

The one “like a son of man” who comes with the clouds of heaven and who, after
the judgment, is given everlasting dominion over all the earth, is the very antithe-
sis of the beasts. He has not risen from a turbulent sea like them; there is no-
thing ferocious about him. Rather, he has been raised up by God (he comes with
the clouds of heaven) and he shares the human condition. The dignity of all man-
kind is restored through this son of man’s triumph over the beasts. This figure,
as we will discover later, stands for ‘the people of the saints of the Most High’ (7:
27), that is, faithful Israel. However, he is also an individual (just as the winged li-
on was an individual, and the little horn), and insofar as he is given a kingdom,
he is a king. What we have here is an individual who represents the people. In
Jewish circles around the time of Christ, this “son of man” was interpreted as
being the Messiah, a real person (cf. “Book of the Parables of Enoch”); but it
was a title that became linked to the sufferings of the Messiah and to his resur-
rection from the dead only when Jesus Christ applied it to himself in the Gospel.
“Jesus accepted Peter’s profession of faith, which acknowledged him to be the
Messiah, by announcing the imminent Passion of the Son of Man (cf. Mt 16:23).
He unveiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcen-
dent identity of the Son of Man ‘who came down from heaven’ (Jn 3:13; cf. Jn 6:
62; Dan 7:13), and in his redemptive mission as the suffering Servant: ‘The Son
of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many’ (Mt 20:28; cf. Is 53:10-12)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 440).

When the Church proclaims in the Creed that Christ is seated at the right hand
of the Father, she is saying that it was to Christ that dominion was given; “Being
seated at the Father’s right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah’s king-
dom, the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel’s vision concerning the Son of man; ‘To
him was given domination and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and
languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall
not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed’ (Dan 7:14). Af-
ter this event the apostles became witnesses of the ‘kingdom [that] will have no
end’ (Nicene Creed)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 664).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Revelation 12:7-12ab

The Woman Fleeing from the Dragon (Continuation)

[7] Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon;
and the dragon and his angels fought, [8] but they were defeated and there was
no longer any place for them in heaven. [9] And the great dragon was thrown
down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of
the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown
down with him. [10] And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salva-
tion and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ
have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accu-
ses them day and night before our God. [11] And they have conquered him by
the blood of the Lamb and by the word of the testimony, for they loved not their
lives even unto death. [12] Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein!”

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Commentary:

7-9. The war between the dragon with his angels, and Michael and his, and the
defeat of the former, are depicted as being closely connected with the death and
glorification of Christ (cf. vv. 5, 11). The reference to Michael and the “ancient”
serpent, and also the result of the battle (being cast down from heaven), reminds
us of the origin of the devil. Once a most exalted creature, according to certain
Jewish traditions (cf. “Latin Life of Adam and Eve”, 12-16) he became a devil be-
cause when God created man in his own image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26; 2:7),
he refused to acknowledge the dignity granted to man: Michael obeyed, but the
devil and some other angels rebelled against God because they regarded man
as beneath them. As a result the devil and his angelic followers were cast down
to earth to be imprisoned in hell, which is why they ceaselessly tempt man,
trying to make him sin so as to deprive him of the glory of God.

In the light of this tradition, the Book of Revelation emphasizes that Christ, the
new Adam, true God and true man, through his glorification merits and receives
the worship that is his due — which spells the total rout of the devil. God’s design
embraces both creation and redemption. Christ, “the image of the invisible God,
the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created” (Col 1:15-16), de-
feats the devil in a war which extends throughout human history; but the key
stage in that war was the incarnation, death and glorification of our Lord: “Now
is the judgment of this world,” Jesus says, referring to those events; “now shall
the ruler of this world be cast out and I, when I am lifted up from earth, will draw
all men to myself’ (Jn 12:31-33). And, when his disciples come to him to tell him
that demons were subject to his name, he exclaimed, “I saw Satan fall like light-
ning from heaven” (Lk 10:18).

In Daniel 10:13 and 12:1 we are told that it is the archangel Michael who defends
the chosen people on God’s behalf. His name means “Who like God?” and his
mission is to guard the rights of God against those who would usurp them, be
they human tyrants or Satan himself, who tried to make off with the body of Mo-
ses according to the Letter of St Jude (v. 9). This explains why St Michael ap-
pears in the Apocalypse as the one who confronts Satan, the ancient serpent,
although the victory and punishment is decided by God or Christ. The Church,
therefore, invokes St Michael as its guardian in adversity and its protector
against the snares of the devil (cf. “The Liturgy of the Hours”, 2nd September,
office of readings).

The Fathers of the Church interpret these verses of the Apocalypse as a refe-
rence to the battle between Michael and the devil at the dawn of history, a bat-
tle which stemmed from the test which angelic spirits had to undergo. And, in
the light of the Apocalypse, they interpret as referring to that climactic moment
the words which the prophet Isaiah uttered against the king of Babylon: “How
you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to
the ground, you who laid the nations low!” (Is 14:12). They also see this pas-
sage of the Apocalypse as referring to the war Satan wages against the Church
throughout history, a war which will take on its most dreadful form at the end of
time: “Heaven is the Church,” St Gregory writes, “which in the night of this pre-
sent life, the while it possesses in itself the countless virtues of the saints,
shines like the radiant heavenly stars; but the dragon’s tail sweeps the stars
down to the earth [...]. The stars which fall from heaven are those who have
lost hope in heavenly things and covet, under the devil’s guidance; the sphere
of earthly glory” (”Moralia”, 32, 13).

10-12. With the ascension of Christ into heaven the Kingdom of God is estab-
lished and so all those who dwell in heaven break out into a song of joy. The
devil has been deprived of his power over man in the sense that the redemptive

action of Christ and man’s faith enable man to escape from the world of sin. The
text expresses this joyful truth by saying that there is now no place for the accu-
ser, Satan whose name means and whom the Old Testament teaches to be the
accuser of men before God (cf. Job 1:6-12; 2:1-10). Given what God meant crea-
tion to be, Satan could claim as his victory anyone who, through sinning, disfi-
gured the image and likeness of God that was in him. However, once the Re-
demption has taken place, Satan no longer has power to do this, for, as St John
writes, “if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also
for the sins of the whole world” (Jn 2:1-2). Also, on ascending into heaven, Christ
sent us the Holy Spirit as “Intercessor and Advocate, especially when man, that
is, mankind, find themselves before the judgment of condemnation by that ‘accu-
ser’ about whom the Book of Revelation says that ‘he accuses them day and
night before our God”’ (Bl. John Paul II, “Dominum et Vivificantem”, 67).

Although Satan has lost this power to act in the world, he still has time left, be-
tween the resurrection of our Lord and the end of history, to put obstacles in
man’s way and frustrate Christ’s action. And so he works ever more frenetically,
as he sees time run out, in his effort to distance everyone and society itself from
the plans and commandments of God.

The author of the Book of Revelation uses this celestial chant to warn the Church
of the onset of danger as the End approaches.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.