“He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life; I will confess his name before my Father and before His Angels” (Rv 3:5). Reading this passage from Apocalypse, we almost inevitably think: “Whatever that book is, I hope my name is in it…’
But what exactly is this Book of Life? A passport registry for the “heavenly consulate”? The guest list for eternal life? Or perhaps a simple – or not so simple… – biographical record of humanity? St. Thomas explains it to us.
Both the Old and New Testaments use the expression Book of Life metaphorically. In fact, it is something like a guest list or a military enlistment, for “it is usual among men that they who are chosen for any office should be inscribed in a book; as, for instance, soldiers, or counsellors” (Summa Theologiæ. I, q.24, a.1). And just as just as those invited to a party are, as it were, predestined to it, those predestined to life, that is, to eternal salvation, have their names inscribed in this volume.
However, this does not mean that it is a physical book, but a figurative reference to the knowledge of God himself, who “firmly remembers that He has predestined some to eternal life” (a.1).
As well as being the “inscription of those who are chosen to life,” this book can also mean the “the inscription of those things which lead us to life” (a.1, ad 1), whether regarding what must be done, which is recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, or the actions already performed on earth, which God will one day recall to mankind.
Returning to the first of the two meanings just given, if this is a book of the “chosen”, what about those who are excluded from it?
God does not condemn anyone beforehand. Everyone is predestined to glory, but not everyone reaches it, due solely to their own behaviour. The Most High has foreknowledge of all things: He knows all destinies and all choices, but that does not mean that He forcibly conditions wills. It is on account of Sacred Scripture’s use of human and chronological language that we read that some are “blotted out of the book of the living” (Ps 69:28), while elsewhere the “blotted out” seem not to have been written from the beginning, because of God’s foreknowledge. In short, it is man, and man alone, who excludes himself from the number of the elect.
By now, the reader will surely be wondering: “Is my name in that book?” The fact that there is a Book of Life should not worry us! On the contrary, it should spur us on to reach eternal salvation. In fact, just as someone can be blotted out from the Book of Life, they can also be inscribed in it again, provided that they begin, “again to have relation towards eternal life through grace” (a.3, ad 3).
There is an additional way of inscribing our name in this register of salvation. It is a secret revealed by St. Louis Grignion de Montfort, who refers to the Angelic Doctor to corroborate this statement: “to be entirely and genuinely devoted to her [the Blessed Virgin] is a sure sign of God’s approval.”1 Whoever has devotion to Our Lady has their name written in the Book of Life in letters of gold, and even if a just hand were to threaten to wipe them out, the luminous arm of her who is Suppliant Omnipotence would promptly prevent it. We only need to accept her maternal mercy and keep praying: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” ◊
Notes
1 ST. LOUIS-MARIE GRIGNION DE MONTFORT. True devotion to the Blessed Virgin, n.40. In: God Alone. Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, 1987, p.300.
