God's Visit

Lewis & Short renders visitationis secondarily as "punishment".

Thus, Wisdom 3:7 could be read: "In the time when they are punished, the Just will shine and will dart about as sparks through a thicket."

No wonder Luther excised this text from his Bible. What's being revealed to us by the Word is a vision of Purgatory, the holy glance of God into our souls. When God visits us, when God looks upon us, something occurs. For the Just, this process resembles the goldsmith proving the molten gold. The gold is tested in fire until all impurities are shed; not until the liquid pool reflects the smith's countenance like a mirror can the gold be declared utterly refined.

But for those yet to be purified, there is still the shedding of impurity, the process of purging yet to take place. In other words, there is more cleansing that needs to take place before God will look upon us and we won't still have a trace of scum. When you boil a chicken to make a pot of broth, the stuff that floats on the surface and has to be removed is the scum. It's the residue caused by fats and germs, the stuff that needs to be boiled away in order for the broth to be safe to consume. It floats to the surface, and you ladel it out and discard it. Gold when it melts does the same thing during the refining process. Scuzzy bits rise to the surface, marring what would otherwise be a flawless argent pool.

The Just are those who will shine- who will perfectly reflect back to God the Glory inherent to God. This moment of joy will come after that soul has cooperated over a lifetime with the will of God, has allowed God to be the master goldsmith. For them, the glance of God will cause them to dart about as sparks in a jungle of reeds. It will not be an excruciating process. It will be rejoicing at what the Lord has accomplished- it will be instantaneous combustion of the Holy Spirit.

Picture now what sparks do as they leap and ignite. Have you ever witnessed a forest fire, as one tree after another is consumed with flame? Sparks are powerful, dazzling, and in this case dangerous only to the Wicked. Who are the Wicked therefore? Those yet to be caught in the furnace of combustibility that is the Scared Heart of Jesus. We cannot fathom the heat of the Sun in its helium core. We cannot measure the power of a billion such suns in one galazy nor a billion galaxies and the fission taking place in each. God is more powerful than all of these and the love of God revealed in the Son indescribable.

Dry reeds can do nothing once a spark has caught hold of them. We exist only as a fuel for the appetite of the Sacred Heart. Becoming as such, being rendered holy therefore, we dart among the reeds; our lives bring about a chain reaction. Saints are canonized only after death, when miracles attributed to their intercession from heaven can be declared. Until then, they are being refined like the rest of us. Once God gazes and sees Glory reflected back upon them, these souls dart like sparks.

Did you know you were part of a maelstrom? Did you know that all through Christian history an unquenchable wildfire has claimed souls? Since Pentecost. Each of us have been created to present ourselves as dry reeds, golden nuggets, or skinless chicken.

Go ahead, it will only hurt a bit :)