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The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.Anne Catherine Emmerich322The form under which the Heavenly Jerusalem is generally represented in my visions is that of abeautiful and well-regulated city, and the different degrees of glory to which the elect are raisedare demonstrated by the magnificence of their palaces., or the wonderful fruit and flowers withwhich the gardens are embellished. Hell is shown to me under the same form, but all within it is,on the contrary, close, confused, and crowded; every object tends to fill the mind with sensationsof pain and grief; the marks of the wrath and vengeance of God are visible everywhere; despair,like a vulture, gnaws every heart, and discord and misery reign around. In the Heavenly Jerusalemall is peace and eternal harmony, the beginning, fulfilment, and end of everything being pure andperfect happiness; the city is filled with splendid buildings, decorated in such a manner as to charmevery eye and enrapture every sense; the inhabitants of this delightful abode are overflowing withrapture and exultation, the gardens gay with lovely flowers, and the trees covered with deliciousfruits which give eternal life. In the city of Hell nothing is to be seen but dismal dungeons, darkcaverns, frightful deserts, fetid swamps filled with every imaginable species of poisonous anddisgusting reptile. In Heaven you behold the happiness and peaceful union of the saints; in Hell,perpetual scenes of wretched discord, and every species of sin and corruption, either under the mosthorrible forms imaginable, or represented by different kinds of dreadful torments. All in this drearyabode tends to fill the mind with horror; not a word of comfort is heard or a consoling idea admitted;the one tremendous thought, that the justice of an all-powerful God inflicts or, the damned nothingbut what they have fully deserved is the absorbing tremendous conviction which weighs down eachheart. Vice appears in its own grim disgusting colours, being stripped of the mask under which itis hidden in this world, and the infernal viper is seen devouring those who have cherished or fosteredit here below. In a word, Hell is the temple of anguish and despair, while the kingdom of God isthe temple of peace and happiness. This is easy to understand when seen; but it is almost impossibleto describe clearly.The tremendous explosion of oaths, curses, cries of despair, and frightful exclamations which, likea clap of thunder, burst forth when the gates of Hell were thrown open by the angels, would bedifficult even to imagine; our Lord spoke first to the soul of Judas, and the angels then compelledall the demons to acknowledge and adore Jesus. They would have infinitely preferred the mostfrightful torments to such a humiliation; but all were obliged to submit. Many were chained downin a circle which was placed round other circles. In the centre of Hell I saw a dark andhorrible-looking abyss, and into this Lucifer was cast, after being first strongly secured with chains;thick clouds of sulphureous black smoke arose from its fearful depths, and enveloped his frightfulform in the dismal folds, thus effectually concealing him from every beholder. God himself haddecreed this; and I was likewise told, if I remember right, that he will be unchained for a time fiftyor sixty years before the year of Christ 2000. The dates of many other events were pointed out tome which I do not now remember; but a certain number of demons are to be let loose much earlierthan Lucifer, in order to tempt men, and to serve as instruments of the divine vengeance. I shouldthink that some must be loosened even in the present day, and others will be set free in a short time.It would be utterly impossible for me to describe all the things which were shown to me; theirnumber was so great that I could not reduce them sufficiently to order to define and render them186
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.Anne Catherine Emmerich323324intelligible. Besides which my sufferings are very great, and when I speak on the subject of myvisions I behold them in my mind’s eye portrayed in such vivid colours, that the sight is almostsufficient to cause a weak mortal like myself to expire.I next saw innumerable bands of redeemed souls liberated from Purgatory and from Limbo, whofollowed our Lord to a delightful spot situated above the celestial Jerusalem, in which place I, avery short time ago, saw the soul of a person who was very dear to me. The soul of the good thiefwas likewise taken there, and the promise of our Lord, ‘This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise,’was fulfilled.It is not in my power to explain the exact time that each of these events occurred, nor can I relateone-half of the things which I saw and heard; for some were incomprehensible even to myself, andothers would be misunderstood if I attempted to relate them. I have seen our Lord in many differentplaces. Even in the sea he appeared to me to sanctify and deliver everything in the creation. Evilspirits fled at his approach, and cast themselves into the dark abyss. I likewise beheld his soul indifferent parts of the earth, first inside the tomb of Adam, under Golgotha; and when he was therethe souls of Adam and Eve came up to him, and he spoke to them for some time. He then visitedthe tombs of the prophets, who were buried at an immense depth below the surface; but he passedthrough the soil in the twinkling of an eye. Their souls immediately reëntered their bodies, and hespoke to them, and explained the most wonderful mysteries. Next I saw him, accompanied by achosen band of prophets, among whom I particularly remarked David, visit those parts of the earthwhich had been sanctified by his miracles and by his sufferings. He pointed out to them, with thegreatest love and goodness, the different symbols in the old law expressive of the future; and heshowed them how he himself had fulfilled every prophecy. The sight of the soul of our Lord,surrounded by these happy souls, and radiant with light, was inexpressibly grand as he glidedtriumphantly through the air, sometimes passing, with the velocity of lightning, over rivers, thenpenetrating through the hardest rocks to the very centre of the earth, or moving noiselessly over itssurface.I can remember nothing beyond the facts which I have just related concerning the descent of Jesusinto Limbo, where he went in order to present to the souls there detained the grace of the Redemptionwhich he had merited for them by his death and by his sufferings; and I saw all these things in avery short space of time; in fact, time passed so quickly that it seemed to me but a moment. OurLord, however, displayed before me, at the same time, another picture, in which I beheld theimmense mercies which he bestows in the present day on the poor souls in Purgatory; for on everyanniversary of this great day, when his Church is celebrating the glorious mystery of his death, hecasts a look of compassion on the souls in Purgatory, and frees some of those who sinned againsthim before his crucifixion. I this day saw Jesus deliver many souls; some I was acquainted with,and others were strangers to me, but I cannot name any of them.Our Lord, by descending into Hell, planted (if I may thus express myself), in the spiritual gardenof the Church, a mysterious tree, the fruits of which—namely, his merits—are destined for theconstant relief of the poor souls in Purgatory. The Church militant must cultivate the tree, andgather its fruits, in order to present them to that suffering portion of the Church which can do nothingfor itself. Thus it is with all the merits of Christ; we must labour with him if we wish to obtain our187
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