‹ Back

Hebrews 10:12-13. "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, there to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet."

 

This is not a random reading, it comes from the second reading at today's Mass. I wanted to write about it because the idea that Christ is waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool has always bothered me a bit. I know that, Biblically, an enemy being "made a footstool" means that he has been completely defeated, but I think the figurative language is important, as well, and it never seemed to me that Jesus would want anyone, even His enemies, to be His footstool. 

 

Recently, I read of Mary's descriptions of various locations in hell to St. Veronica Giuliani. In one, Mary said "The first is the location where Lucifer is shackled, and with him Jude, who serves as his chair (seat), and there are all those who were followers of Jude." It was when thinking about this that I think I came to understand a little better about Jesus' enemies being His footstool. 

 

When Paul says Jesus is waiting for His enemies to become His footstool he is, I think, not so much saying that Jesus awaits this eagerly, but rather just stating a fact: that at Jesus' Second Coming, the enemies of God will be utterly defeated, never to bother God's children again. Those enemies will, in this defeat, be subject entirely to Jesus Christ, thus they will be at His feet, they will be His footstool. But again, Jesus is not looking forward to His enemies being in this position, He is, in fact, using all the time between His defeat of death with His Crucifixion and Resurrection and His coming again as the Just Judge, to intercede for all of us, hoping that none of us remain His enemy, that none become His footstool, and how it is, actually, an act of mercy.

 

We know, however, that the devil has chosen to be Jesus' enemy. We know also that others choose this position as well, as Mary's description to St. Veronica Giuliani shows. In that description, Mary says Judas is Satan's chair. In other words, Judas is reduced to being nothing more than an object for Satan to use and abuse as he wishes. I am certain that, in this position, Judas does not receive lenient treatment from Satan; I'm sure he is tormented incredibly and without respite. But notice that he is not Satan's footstool. In other words, Judas has not been completely defeated by Satan, because Satan does not have the power to do that, only Judas' Creator does.

 

The same is true for Lucifer, who was also created by God, and is thus subject to His judgment. Paul is describing the time of that judgment, when even the devil himself will be so thoroughly defeated as to be Jesus' footstool. Will Jesus treat Satan and His other enemies the same way that Lucifer treats his? Absolutely not. Jesus is all loving, so even these those under His subjugation for all time will get no worse treatment than they have brought on themselves. Jesus will not torment them or torture them, He will simply have them under His feet, under complete control. None of them will have any remaining power to hurt another, nor will Jesus take any action to hurt them, they will simply be left in the pain of their own torment as they serve their Creator in the only way left to them - as His footstool.