ACC ~ Revelation 18 v4 - 5

THE INN OF BETHLEHEM CONTRASTED WITH THE FALLEN CITY. JEROME: Of all the ornaments of the church our company of monks and virgins is one of the finest. … Let us pass now to the cottage inn that sheltered Christ and Mary. … The stall where he cried as a babe can best be honored by silence, for words are inadequate to speak its praise. Where are the spacious porticoes? Where are the gilded ceilings? … Behold, in this poor crevice of the earth the Creator of the heavens was born; here he was wrapped in swaddling clothes; here he was seen by the shepherds; here he was pointed out by the star; here he was adored by the wise men. … Read the Apocalypse of John, and consider what is sung therein of the woman arrayed in purple and of the blasphemy written upon her brow. … “Come out of her, my people,” so the Lord says, “that you be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues.” … It is true that Rome has a holy church, trophies of apostles and martyrs, a true confession of Christ. The faith has been preached there by an apostle, heathenism has been trodden down, the name of Christian is daily exalted higher and higher. But the display, power and size of the city, the seeing and being seen, the paying and the receiving of visits, the alternate flattery and detraction, talking and listening, as well as the necessity of facing so great a throng even when one is least in the mood to do so—all these things are alike foreign to the principles and fatal to the repose of the monastic life. … But in the cottage of Christ all is simple and rustic, except for the chanting of psalms everything is completely silent. LETTER 46.10-12.

CHRISTIANS MUST FLEE FROM THE SINS OF THE WORLD. OECUMENIUS: When the angels of God took hold of the city of the Sodomites and on that occasion exacted punishment on its inhabitants and the surrounding cities—or rather, as it would seem to the saintly Cyril, when the Son of God and the Holy Spirit visited there, for “the Father judges no one,” as it is written, “but has given all judgment to the Son,”the life-giving Spirit clearly being with him according to nature and essence—then the angels said to holy Lot, “Save your own life. Do not look back nor remain in all the country round about; escape to the mountain, lest you be overtaken together with them.” This is what the Revelation now is also teaching us. For although the servants of Christ are not in one large and populous city, Rome, it says to them, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in their sins, lest you share in her plagues.” For to partake of sins is also to partake of the plagues, since the plagues come on account of sins. “For her sins are heaped high as heaven,” it says. This is as though he had said, “And they polluted the air all around with their sins.” And so it says, although God is in every way longsuffering, he has now arisen to give to [the city] its due. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 18.4-8.

THE RIGHTEOUS SEPARATE FROM THE SINFUL. PRIMASIUS: What the heavenly voice said was this, “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,”and, “The Lord knows those who are his,” or something similar to this. There follows, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins.” To this point I think that [the narrative] has been of the first coming, when until the end of the world the good [people] allow the wicked to be intermingled with them, so that [the wicked] do not think that the good are to be abandoned on their behalf or that they are to be followed by a noxious imitation. For the prophecy, “Go out from her, my people, lest you touch any unclean thing,” is fulfilled in this way—when the righteous no longer commingle with the sinful, not so much by the separation of the body but by the difference of their fully sound will. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 18.4.

TO “COME OUT” MEANS TO ABANDON AN EVIL LIFE. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: We see from this passage that Babylon is divided into two parts. For as long as God allows, the wicked are converted to the good, so that Babylon is divided, and that part that departs from it is the making of Jerusalem. For as long as some are moved from Babylon to Jerusalem and others are seduced from Jerusalem to Babylon, so long are the wicked converted to the good and those who seem through hypocrisy to be good are openly revealed to be wicked. And, therefore, through Isaiah Scripture speaks to the good, “Go out from their midst and touch no unclean thing; go out from their midst and be separated from them, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.”The apostle also mentions this separation, saying, “The firm foundation of the Lord remains; and the Lord knows those who are his, and let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” “Lest you take part in her sins,” it says, “and lest you share in her plagues.” Although it is written, “Whatever righteous man shall be taken by death, he will be at rest,” how can a righteous person, whom the fall of the city affects along with the impious, partake of sin? Except perhaps in this way. When the good leave the city of the devil, that is, abandon a profligate and impious life, should any one of them choose to remain and to enjoy the pleasures of Babylon, such a one would certainly share in its plagues. But whenever it says “Come out,” do not understand this in a bodily sense but in a spiritual sense. For one comes out of Babylon whenever one abandons an evil manner of life. Babylonians are with Jeru-salemites in each house and in the one church and in each city. Nonetheless, as long as the good do not consent with the wicked and the wicked do not convert to the good, Jerusalem is recognized in the good and Babylon is recognized in the wicked. Although they live together in the body, they are far from each other in the heart, for the life of the wicked is always in the things of the earth, for they love the earth and they place their entire hope and the entire intention of their soul in the earth. But according to the apostle, the mind of the good is always in the heavens, since they are wise in that which is on high. EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 18.4, HOMILY 16.

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