The Beast on the Road

This is the vision I saw, brothers and sisters, twenty days after the one before it — a foreshadowing of the great affliction that is coming. I was on my way out to a farm along the Campanian road. The place is about a mile and a quarter off the public road, and it is easy country to walk. So, walking alone, I asked the Lord to complete the revelations and the visions he had shown me through his holy church — to make me strong, and to give repentance to his servants who have been tripped up, so that his great and glorious name might be honored, since he counted me worthy to be shown his wonders. And while I was praising him and thanking him, something like the sound of a voice answered me: Do not be double-minded, Hermas. I began to turn it over in my mind and say to myself: What have I got to be double-minded about? I have been set on a foundation by the Lord, and I have seen glorious things. [a]

I went on a little way, brothers and sisters, and there — I see dust rising as high as the sky. I began to say to myself: Is that cattle coming, kicking up the dust? It was about six hundred feet away from me. The dust grew thicker and thicker, and I began to suspect that this was something from God. Then the sun broke through a little, and there — I see an enormous beast, like some sea monster, with fiery locusts pouring out of its mouth. The beast was about a hundred feet long, and its head was like a clay jar.

I began to cry, and to beg the Lord to rescue me from it. Then I remembered the word I had heard: Do not be double-minded, Hermas. So I put on faith in the Lord, brothers and sisters, and remembered the great things he had taught me, and I took heart and handed myself over to the beast. It came on with such a rushing noise that it could have wrecked a city. I come up close to it, and this huge monster stretches itself out on the ground and puts out nothing but its tongue, and it did not stir at all until I had gone past it. The beast had four colors on its head: black, then fiery and blood-red, then gold, then white.

After I had passed the beast and gone on about thirty feet, there — a young woman meets me, dressed as if she were coming out of the bridal chamber: all in white, with white sandals, veiled to her forehead, the veil held by a headband. And her hair was white. From my earlier visions I knew this was the church, and my heart lifted. She greeted me: Greetings to you, sir. And I greeted her back: Greetings, my lady. She answered me: Did nothing meet you on the way? I said to her: My lady, a beast so big it could destroy whole peoples. But by the Lord’s power and his great compassion I escaped it. She said: [h]

You escaped it well, because you threw your worry onto God and opened your heart to the Lord, believing that you can be saved by nothing except the great and glorious name. That is why the Lord sent his angel, the one who is set over the wild beasts, whose name is Thegri, and blocked its mouth so that it could not maul you. You have escaped great affliction because of your faith, and because you did not turn double-minded at the sight of a beast that size.

So go and tell the Lord’s chosen ones what great things he has done. Tell them that this beast is a foreshadowing of the great affliction that is coming. If you get ready for it beforehand and turn to the Lord in repentance with your whole heart, you will be able to escape it — if your heart becomes clean and unblemished, and you spend the rest of your days serving the Lord blamelessly. Throw your worries onto the Lord, and he will set them straight.

Trust the Lord, you double-minded people, because he can do anything. He turns his anger away from you, and he sends whips on you, the double-minded. Woe to those who hear these words and take no notice: it would have been better for them never to have been born.

I asked her about the four colors the beast had on its head. She answered me: You are prying into such things again. I said: Yes, my lady. Show me what they mean. She said: Listen. The black is this world, the one you are living in. The fiery and blood-red means that this world has to be destroyed by blood and fire. The gold part is you, the ones who have escaped this world. For as gold is tested by fire and so becomes useful, in the same way you are being tested, you who live among them. Those who hold out and are put through the fire will be made clean. As gold throws off its slag, so you will throw off every grief and hardship, and you will be made clean and useful for the building of the tower. The white part is the age that is coming, where God’s chosen ones will live; for those chosen by God for eternal life will be spotless and clean. [l]

So do not stop speaking these things into the ears of the holy ones. You also have the foreshadowing of the great affliction that is coming. But if you are willing, it will come to nothing. Remember what was written down before.

When she had said this she left, and I did not see what place she went to, because a cloud came. And I turned around behind me in fear, thinking that the beast was coming.