Revelation 6:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As was said above, the first living creature signified apostolic authority. The second, the calf, in my view, signifies the sacred sacrifices of the holy martyrs.

The second benefaction of Christ, by which He removed the second seal from the book, released our dishonor and restored to us the possibility of beholding the Godhead. This was His temptation and His victory over the tempter. This happened not only so that the Victor might triumph. It happened also so that the unclean one, being subdued, should no longer wound the horse's heel (Gen 49:17) or trip us on the path to God. He was to fall away and be cast out in the manner fitting a vile being. From the Man whom he once overcame, though God was now in Him, he was to hear: "Away with you, Satan!" (Mt 4:10). He was to depart in shame. Now he was to learn his own weakness, he who, in Isaiah's personification, boasted that he would set his throne upon the clouds and imagined that he would become like the Most High (cf. Is 14:13-14).

The same words, urging one to come and see, are repeated in another case, when the white horse is presented as good and the red horse as evil. I think that here good is spoken of as a promise of the Church’s victory, and evil as a warning arising from foreknowledge of the future.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you (Jn 14:27). Those who have love for God and neighbor have the peace of Christ. For those who have such peace, neither persecutions nor tortures are fearful, and death is gain (cf. Phil 1:21).

The opening of the second seal is the stirring up of unbelievers against believers. This happened when the Gospel preaching disturbed the peace of the world, in fulfillment of Christ’s words: I did not come to bring peace, but a sword (Mt 10:34). Then the earth was abundantly watered with the blood of Christian confessors and martyrs.