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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

How are you?

I wrote to you a few weeks ago about a strange shiny and colorful flying object that I spotted in front of my bed at night.

I found a biblical passage about it. In fact, the description given matches exactly what I saw. I would like to know what the Bible says about it.

Thank you, and best regards.

Ezekiel 1,16: “The wheels had the sparkling appearance of chrysolite, and all four of them looked the same: they were constructed as though one wheel were within another.”

A priest answer

Dear friend,

1.     Ezekiel’s one was not a sensitive vision like the one you had.

It was, in fact, a supernatural vision.

In Ez 1,3 we read that “There the hand of the LORD came upon me (t/n Ezekiel).”

2.  The Jerusalem Bible regarding comments regarding this passage: “Frequent expression in Ezekiel to indicate ecstasy (cf. 3.22; 8.1; 33.22; 40.1).

3.   Ezekiel therefore experienced an ecstasy, that is, an exit from himself, a suspension of the senses, to gaze through with the mind rather than see with the eyes.

4.     The word ecstasy, from the Greek ex stasis, indicates the exit from oneself.

Ecstasy is always accompanied by partial or total suspension of the senses.

This suspension is partial when it suspends only the external senses.

It is total when it also suspends the internal ones.

5. Total suspension was the one felt by St. Paul when he writes about himself: “I know someone in Christ who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven.And I know that this person (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable things, which no one may utter”(2Cor 12,2-4)

6.     As you can see, this is a typically supernatural phenomenon, as was that of Ezekiel.

Now the vision of flying objects – according to those who assert they had such an experience – is of a purely human and sensitive order.

In itself, it would be within everyone’s reach: in order to make such an experience, it would be enough to open your eyes.

While that of Ezekiel is a pure gift from the Lord and of a supernatural order.

So it is in no way comparable to what you described to me.

I wish you all the beast, I entrust you to God and I Bless You.

Father Angelo