Vision 1: Hermas Is Rebuked
1. The master who brought me up had sold me to a woman named Rhoda in Rome. After many years I met her again and began to love her as a sister. Some time later I saw her bathing in the river Tiber. I gave her my hand and helped her out of the river.
Seeing her beauty, I reasoned in my heart, “How happy I would be if I had a wife like her, in both beauty and character.” I only reflected on this, and nothing more.
Some time later I was traveling to Cumae, glorifying God’s created works for their greatness, splendor, and power, and as I walked I fell asleep. A Spirit took me and carried me away through a pathless region where no one could pass, for the place was steep and broken into ravines by the waters.
When I had crossed the river, I came into level country. I knelt down and began to pray to the Lord and to confess my sins. While I was praying, heaven was opened, and I saw the lady I had desired greeting me from heaven. “Good day, Hermas,” she said.
I looked at her and said, “Lady, what are you doing here?”
She answered, “I was taken up so that I might charge you with your sins before the Lord.”
I said to her, “Are you charging me now?”
“No, not that,” she said, “but hear the words I am going to say to you. God, who dwells in the heavens, who created out of nothing the things that are, and increased and multiplied them for the sake of His holy Church, is angry with you because you sinned against me.”
I answered her, “Sin against you? In what way? Did I ever speak an improper word to you? Did I not always regard you as a goddess? Did I not always respect you as a sister? How could you falsely accuse me, lady, of such wickedness and impurity?”
She laughed and said to me, “The desire for evil entered your heart. Don’t you think it is an evil deed for a righteous man if evil desire enters his heart? It is indeed a sin, and a great one too,” she said, “for the righteous man holds righteous purposes.
“As long as his purposes are righteous, his reputation stands firm in the heavens, and he finds the Lord easily appeased in everything he does. But those who hold evil purposes in their hearts bring death and captivity on themselves. This is especially true of those who claim this present world for themselves, boast in its riches, and do not hold fast to the good things that are to come.
“Their souls will regret it, since they have no hope, but have abandoned themselves and their life. But you, pray to God, and He will heal your own sins, and those of your whole household, and those of all the saints.”
2. As soon as she had spoken these words, the heavens were shut, and I was overcome with horror and grief. Then I said to myself, “If this sin is recorded against me, how can I be saved? How can I appease God for my sins, which are full-blown? With what words shall I entreat the Lord to be gracious to me?”
While I was pondering and turning these things over in my heart, I saw before me a great white chair of snow-white wool. An aged lady in shining clothing came, holding a book in her hands. She sat down alone and greeted me: “Good day, Hermas.”
Grieved and weeping, I said, “Good day, lady.”
She said to me, “Why so gloomy, Hermas, you who are patient and good-tempered and always smiling? Why do you look so downcast and so far from cheerful?”
I said to her, “Because an excellent lady said that I had sinned against her.”
Then she said, “Far be such a thing from a servant of God! Still, the thought about her did enter your heart. For the servants of God, an intention like that brings sin.
“For it is an evil and mad thing when such an intention overtakes a devout spirit that has already been approved, so that it desires an evil deed. It is especially so when that spirit is Hermas the self-controlled, who abstains from every evil desire and is full of all simplicity and of great guilelessness.
3. “Yet it is not for this that God is angry with you, but so that you may convert your family, which has done wrong against the Lord and against you, their parents. Out of fondness for your children you did not admonish your family, but allowed it to become terribly corrupt. That is why the Lord is angry with you.
“But He will heal all your past sins committed within your family, for it is because of their sins and iniquities that you have been corrupted by the affairs of this world. But the great mercy of the Lord has had pity on you and your family, and it will strengthen you and establish you in His glory.
“Only do not be careless; take courage and strengthen your family. Just as a smith hammering at his work conquers the task he has set himself, so righteous words repeated daily conquer all evil. So do not stop rebuking your children. For I know that if they repent with all their heart, they will be written in the books of life with the saints.”
When she had finished these words, she said to me, “Will you listen while I read?”
I said, “Yes, lady.”
She said to me, “Pay attention, and hear the glories of God.”
I listened with attention and wonder to things I had no power to remember, for all the words were terrifying, more than a human being can bear. But I remembered the last words, for they were suited to us and gentle:
“See, the God of Hosts created the world by His invisible and mighty power and by His great wisdom. By His glorious purpose He clothed His creation with beauty. By His strong word He fixed the heaven and founded the earth on the waters. By His own wisdom and providence He formed His holy Church, which He also blessed.
“See, He is removing the heavens and the mountains and the hills and the seas, and all things are being made level for His elect. He does this so that He may fulfill to them the promise He made with great glory and rejoicing, if they keep the ordinances of God, which they received, with great faith.”
4. When she had finished reading and rose from her chair, four young men came. They took away the chair and departed toward the East. Then she called me to her, touched my chest, and said to me, “Did my reading please you?”
I said to her, “Lady, these last words please me, but the earlier ones were difficult and hard.”
Then she told me, “These last words are for the righteous, but the earlier ones are for the heathen and the rebellious.”
While she was still speaking with me, two men appeared and took her by the arms. They departed toward the East, where the chair had also gone. She was smiling as she left, and as she was going she said to me, “Be courageous, Hermas.”
