A turning sign can be like a sword in the soul or a tidal wave in the brain, destroying old patterns as it creates ‘a new heaven and a new earth.’ The role of the Prophet or Savior is to provoke a violent revelation which is at once the Last Judgment and the resurrection of the dead. Simeon’s prophecy about Jesus, spoken to Mary in Luke 2:34-5, foreshadows the coming conflict:
Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel,
and for a sign that is spoken against
(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also),
that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.(RSV)
The living sign is set that he may be spoken against, bringing out the contrast between the falling and the rising. The Judgment is not imposed from the outside but is spoken from the heart; it is the heart which is, in the end, revealed by its actual response to the Word or Sign.
Every actual judgment – that is, every judgment that is acted upon or embodied – is the last judgment that can be made at that moment, for it cannot be unmade or its consequences called back.