54. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. (1:17) This symbolically means that he experienced a failure of his own life owing to such a presence of the Lord.

A person's own life cannot endure the presence of the Lord such as the Lord is in Himself, indeed such as He is in the inmost constituents of His Word. For His Divine love is altogether like the sun, which no one can endure as it is in itself, because it would consume him.

This is the meaning of the declaration that no one can see God and live (Exodus 33:20, Judges 13:22).

This being the case, the Lord therefore appears to angels in heaven as the sun, at a distance from them, like the world's sun from people. That is because the Lord in that sun is present as He is in Himself.

But still the Lord moderates and tempers His Divinity so as to make it possible for a person to endure His presence. This He does by veilings. It was what He did when He revealed Himself to many people in the Word. Indeed, it is by veilings that He is present in everyone who worships Him. As He says in John,

He who... keeps (My commandments)..., in him (I) will make (My) abode. (John 14:21, 23)

And He says that He must be in them and they in Him (John 15:4-5).

It is apparent from this why, when John saw the Lord in such glory, he fell at His feet as though dead. And why, too, when three of the disciples saw the Lord in His glory, they were "heavy with sleep," and a cloud covered them (Luke 9:32, 34).