For translation use subtitles by buttton ‘CC’ and Settings to change language. Voice: Late Father Elias Leyds c.s.j. (1958-2024)
Part 3 of the sixth seal of the Apocalypse. The mystical embryo of the Church: Hope and Responsibility in the Face of Destiny
April 10th 2020 – Father Elias Leyds C.S.J.(1958-2024) reflects in the holy week on the Apocalypse, the Gospel and the letters of St.John.
He talks about the ‘Mystical embryo of the church’, the embryonic face of the church in front of the cross, and the mystical body of the church which is the current universal church. Embryo is a provisional state. It is an individual, but cannot live on her own yet. It is there but it cannot be seen yet.
The body of Christ contains all the secrets. All the causes our holy lady knows all the secrets of, but we can only pray for it.
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Update 18th April 2025 – Transcript of video text spoken by late Father Elias Leyds c.s.j.
Dear Viewer, I would like to add a third part to my meditation about the sixth Seal of the apocalypse. Just as a clarification, you might have been a little bit surprised that I talk not about the body of the church, but the embryo of the church, not the mystical body. I think I mentioned it once, but in fact it’s the mystical embryo of the church.
And you might even be a little bit scandalized, that I included the four soldiers in it who did not, as far as the gospels are concerned, who never openly confessed their faith in Christ. So why should I talk about them as being included into a mystical vision of the church?
Well, it’s all in the word embryo. Embryo is a provisional state, it’s a preparatory state. It’s not everything yet. . An embryo needs to be born. It’s an individual. It exists as an individual, but it cannot live an as an individual, yet. , it is, there but it cannot be seen yet. In fact, an embryo with respect to birth is a little bit like the body of Christ with respect to the resurrection. In other words. It is like a disposition. It’s tending towards something, but it’s not quite the same thing yet.
The body of Christ, in fact, contains everything, all the secrets of what Christ has died for, but has not been realized yet. In fact, the body of Christ and the moment that it is dead contains in itself.
All the causes that we should pray for. It sounds a bit strange, but then again, the body of Christ is a very strange thing because it’s the body of an eternal divine person. There is no more soul at the moment of Christ’s death, so you can’t call it really a normal human body anymore, but you can’t call it a corpse either, because it belongs to the second person of the Holy Trinity. The eternal word of God.
It’s a very strange thing, and it’s the greatest mystery there, that our lady holds into our hands. And that’s why it’s about causes that we should pray for and the whole vision, and it’s about the importance of, of prayer. The crucial importance of prayer in our lives because there’s many things that Christ has died for, but they have not been realized yet. And if they have not been real realized yet, it means we have to pray for it.
And that’s why in the same way that the body of Christ after his death is not a normal body. It’s a body that will necessarily resurrect, because it’s the body of a divine person. In the same way, I talk about the 12 pres, people witnessing what is happening at the cross and being fully, responding in their own way, but they are taking the responsibility of what they’re doing there in the presence of the death of Christ and in the presence of the dead body of Christ.
All 12 persons may not believe, explicitly, but all 12 are obeying. So they have a very important place in divine providence.
That’s why this vision of the Seventh Seal, the Hour of Truth, in the Secret Body, secret in the Secret Book of God, the book of the secrets, divine Secret, divine Secrets of Wisdom, in this sixth Seal, it is not so much about faith as it is, about hope. It is about what can be, not so much about what is, but what now can be, what is potential reality, if you like to say it in a more philosophic way. So that’s why I talk an embryo of the church. And you should never forget, you could say, okay, at Pentecostal church is born, we shouldn’t talk about the embryo anymore. Well, not quite.
Okay, there is a church, and the church is heavenly Jerusalem being built, but there’s more than that because when Christ is risen, he shows that he’s not just cured. He still has the wounds on his body, the wounds of the crucifixion. Now, those wounds don’t hurt anymore. They don’t even itch. But they are the signs of glory.
Christ has been glorified. He carries the signs of death on his body, as part of his resurrection. The resurrection doesn’t obliterate history. It doesn’t obliterate the His passage through death on the contrary. His passage through death and the reason why he passes through death, which means us, it’s for us. He carries them now on his glorified body.
And in the same way, although the church is born at Pentecost, in this world, there will be unto the end of time also an embryonic church. That means a church, which is still on its way in a certain way. … it hasn’t confessed Christ openly yet, but it will confess Christ openly, if we pray for it.
There will be souls on their way to their judgment who may not give signs of faith, but they are already acting in good will. In the best they can do. According to their knowledge, there are already souls who are genuinely of good, genuinely of good will, and who are answering to their conscience and who want to answer to their conscience.
There’s plenty of souls who we have to pray for, , because. They are already in the light of God’s providence. Well, they are what I call the embryonic church in the same way that Christ still carries the wounds of his passion even more so when he is resurrected. We as church should pray for all the places where a church is in its embryonic states, in its embryonic state.
Why? Because we want to realize fully what it means that a body of the second person of the Holy Trinity, without a human soul was held in the arms of our lady. The word of God was received in a new way by our lady, the Mother of the church, and that’s why I developed a little bit that vision about the embryonic state of the church. It is still amongst us and we should really pray for it.
I would just like to add something about, this embryonic state, which we can see also in chapter 20 of the apocalypse. This is the final fight of Satan against the church where he comes in the appearance, in the manifestation that the apocalypse names Gog and Magog.
We can talk about it later, what that means. But we see that the armies or the masses, the crowds that the mobs that gog and Magog assembled, to attack the people of God, we see that actually they encircle two entities.
They encircle the camp or the encampment, or the battle array of the Saints and the beloved city. Now here you see also the two states, the beloved city, that’s the unity, that’s the fullness of faith. That’s the church. That is the unity, the oneness, the communion of the people, who have answered the word of God by their open confession of faith, by their manifest, penance, and their, their, their life of charity.
That’s Jerusalem, but there’s also the encampment or the camp, the assembly of tens of the saints. That means it’s a provisional place.
They are on their way, and I think you could interpret it this also as the embryonic phase of the church, and it’s clear that they’re attacked too, which means the people of goodwill. Or the people who respect their conscience, who respect human nature, they are also being attacked, and we should be very well aware of that and pray for them.
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