119. That the church is called mother is apparent from the following passages:

(Jehovah said,) "Contend with your mother...; ...she is not My wife, and I am not her Husband." (Hosea 2:2)

"You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her Husband...." (Ezekiel 16:45)

"Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, whom I have put away?" (Isaiah 50:1)

Your mother was like a vine..., planted by the waters, fruitful.... (Ezekiel 19:10)

"Mother" in those places refers to the Jewish Church.

(Jesus, stretching out His hand toward His disciples, said,) "My mother and My brothers are they who hear the word of God and do it." (Luke 8:21, cf. Matthew 12:48-50, Mark 3:33-35)

The church is meant by the Lord's disciples.

By the cross of Jesus stood His mother.... (And) Jesus...seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, (also) said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!" And He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (Therefore) from that hour the disciple took her into his own [home]. (John 19:25-27)

The meaning here is that the Lord did not acknowledge Mary but the church as His mother. That is why He calls her "woman" and names her the mother of the disciple. He named her the mother of this disciple, John, because John represented the church in respect to its good acts of charity. These good acts are the church in actual practice. Therefore it is said that the disciple took Mary into his own [home].

(We explained in The Apocalypse Revealed that Peter represented truth and faith, James charity, and John works of charity - see nos. 5, 6, 790, 798, 879 - and that the twelve disciples together represented the church in all its elements - see nos. 233, 790 [798?], 903, 915.)

790. 18:20 "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has visited your judgment on her!" This symbolically means, so that angels in heaven, and people in the church who possess goods and truths from the Word, now rejoice at heart that those caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion have been removed and cast out.

Rejoice over her, O heaven, symbolically means, so that angels in heaven now rejoice at heart, for rejoicing is a joy of the heart. And you holy apostles and prophets means, symbolically, together with them, also people in the church who possess goods and truths from the Word - apostles symbolizing people who possess the church's goods and consequent truths from the Word, and abstractly the church's goods themselves and consequent truths themselves from the Word (no. 79), and prophets symbolizing truths springing from goodness from the Word (nos. 8, 133). They are called holy because, as we said, apostles and prophets symbolize abstractly the Word's goods and truths, which in themselves are holy, being the Lord's (nos. 586, 666). For God has visited your judgment on her, symbolically means, because those caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion have been removed and cast out. That no others are meant may be seen in no. 786 above.

The joy of angels in heaven over the removal and casting down of people caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion is the subject of the next chapter, verses 1 to 9. Here they are only told to rejoice. The angels' joy, however, is not a joy because of these people's damnation, but because of the new heaven and new church, and the salvation of the faithful, which could not come into being before the aforesaid people were removed, whose removal is achieved and was achieved by a last judgment, something that will be seen in our exposition of verses 7 to 9 of the next chapter.

It can be seen from this that "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has visited your judgment on her!" symbolically means that angels in heaven, and people in the church who possess goods and truths from the Word, should now rejoice at heart that those caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion have been removed and cast out.

Who cannot see that it is not the apostles and prophets found in the Word that are meant here? They were few in number and men no better than others. But the apostles and prophets meant here are all in the Lord's church who possess goods and truths from the Word, as are meant also by the twelve tribes of Israel, as explained in no. 349 above. The apostle Peter means the church's truth or faith; the apostle James the church's charity; and the apostle John the charitable works of the people in the church.