ACC ~ Revelation 10 v9 - 10

SUFFERING MAKES BITTER THE FRUIT OF PREACHING. VICTORINUS OF PETOVIUM: That he “received the little scroll and ate it” indicates that he committed to memory what had been shown [to him]. “And it was sweet in the mouth.” The fruit of preaching is very sweet to the speaker and to those who hear, but through suffering it becomes very bitter to the preacher and to those who persevere in the commandments. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 10.3.

THE COMMANDS OF CHRIST GIVE INDIGESTION TO THE CARNAL. AUGUSTINE: “Our belly stuck to the ground.”They mean that “our belly” consented to the impious persuasion of that dust [i.e., godless persecutors]; for that is what the expression “stuck to” implies. … To cling to God is to do his will. It makes sense, then, to say of the belly that it clung to the earth, when we mean those people who could not hold out under persecution but yielded to the will of the wicked; for this is how they “stuck to the earth.” But why are they called “the belly”? Because they are carnal. It suggests that the church’s mouth is to be found in the saints, in spiritual people, and the church’s belly in the carnal. This is why the church’s mouth is plainly visible, but its belly is covered up, as befits something weaker and more vulnerable. Scripture supports this interpretation in the passage where someone says he was given a book to eat, “and the book was sweet in my mouth but bitter in my stomach.” What can that mean? Surely that the highest precepts, which spiritual persons accept, are unacceptable to the carnal, and that commands that delight the spiritual only give the carnal indigestion. What is in that book, brothers and sisters? “Go and sell all you possess, and give the money to the poor.” How sweet is that command in the church’s mouth! All the spiritual have obeyed it. But if you tell any sensual person to do that, he or she is more likely to walk sadly away, as the rich man in the Gospel walked away from the Lord, than to fulfill the injunction. Why does a carnal person walk away? Because that book, so sweet to the mouth, is bitter in the belly. EXPLANATION OF PSALM 43.25.

THE HOLY APOSTLE LEARNS OF THE BITTERNESS OF SIN. OECUMENIUS: When I took it, it says, I ate it and “it was sweet in my mouth,” but after the eating, it was bitter to my stomach. Then the blessed Evangelist saw and heard the torments against the wicked that he might learn by experience, and not only by report, how bitter and abominable are the transgressions of people that are brought to God. He was taught this through this vision—for as a holy and chaste man himself, he did not know this from [his own] experience—and through the vision he came to know that the wrath of God against the wicked is just. For the book contained the names and the sins of those who were especially serious transgressors, as we noted above. He is therefore commanded to eat it, and as though by taste and a sort of spiritual experience of the bitterness of sin that comes through his vision, he found that what had been sweet to the mouth was, when eaten, bitter to the stomach afterward. For such it is with every sin. It is sweet in the doing but bitter in its consequences. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 10.8-11.

DIVINE REPROOF. PRIMASIUS: [I told the angel to give me the book.] The church is moved by divine inspiration to be thoroughly instructed about this mystery. “And he said, ‘Take and eat it.’” This means that he was to store [the book] in his secret inward parts. “And it will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.” This means that when you receive it, you will be delighted by the sweetness of the divine speech and by the hope of the promised salvation and by the sweetness of the divine justice; however, you will then sense bitterness when you begin to preach this to the pious and to the impious. For when the preaching of the divine judgment is heard, some are turned by the bitterness of penance and are changed for the better, while others are offended and become yet more hardened and bear a bitter hatred toward the preachers. “Reprove a wise man, and he will love you; refute a foolish man, and he will hate you.” But the preacher takes in bitterness from either of these two persons. For he either sheds tears with the penitents out of a feeling of compassion, or he is tormented by the bitterness that comes from their failure. For this reason the apostle said, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart; for I wished that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers.” But I think it more apt that the bitterness mentioned here be attributed to the impious alone and the sweetness to the pious. For the spiritual person can say, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth!”COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 10.9.

SWEET TO THE SPIRITUAL BUT BITTER TO THE CARNAL. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: “It will be sweet in your mouth but bitter in your stomach.” By the mouth we are to understand the good and spiritual Christians, while by the stomach we understand the carnal and dissolute. And so it is that when the word of God is preached, it is sweet to the spiritual, but to the carnal, whose “god is the belly” as the apostle says, it seems bitter and harsh. EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 10.10, HOMILY 8.

OUT OF COMPASSION FOR THE WICKED. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: He says that although the knowledge of future things will be sweet to you, at the same time it will be bitter to your stomach, that is, to your heart, which is the dwelling place of spiritual foods. For you will have compassion on those who receive punishments given according to God’s judgment. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 10.9.

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