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Faith, say the theologians, is a habit of the soul,
certain and obscure. And the reason for its being an
obscure habit is that it makes us believe truths
revealed by God Himself, which transcend all natural
light, and exceed all human understanding, beyond all
proportion.Hence it follows that, for the soul,
this excessive light of faith which is given to it is
thick darkness, for it overwhelms greater things and
does away with small things, even as the light of the
sun overwhelms all other lights whatsoever, so that
when it shines and disables our visual faculty they
appear not to be lights at all. So that it blinds it
and deprives it of the sight that has been given to
it, inasmuch as its light is great beyond all
proportion and transcends the faculty of vision.
Even so the light of faith, by its excessive
greatness, oppresses and disables that of the
understanding; for the latter, of its own power,
extends only to natural knowledge, although it has a
faculty[216] for the supernatural, whenever Our Lord
is pleased to give it supernatural activity.
2. Wherefore a man can know nothing by himself,
save after a natural manner,[217] which is only that
which he attains by means of the senses. For this
cause he must have the phantasms and the forms of
objects present in themselves and in their
likenesses; otherwise it cannot be, for, as
philosophers say: Ab objecto et potentia paritur
notitia. That is: From the object that is present and
from the faculty, knowledge is born in the soul.
Wherefore, if one should speak to a man of things
which he has never been able to understand, and whose
likeness he has never seen, he would have no more
illumination from them whatever than if naught had
been said of them to him. I take an example. If one
should say to a man that on a certain island there is
an animal which he has never seen, and give him no
idea of the likeness of that animal, that he may
compare it with others that he has seen, he will have
no more knowledge of it, or idea of its form, than he
had before, however much is being said to him about
it. And this will be better understood by another and
a more apt example.
If one should describe to a man that was born
blind, and has never seen any colour, what is meant
by a white colour or by a yellow, he would understand
it but indifferently, however fully one might
describe it to him; for, as he has never seen such
colours or anything like them by which he may judge
them, only their names would remain with him; for
these he would be able to comprehend through the ear,
but not their forms or figures, since he has never
seen them.
3. Even so is faith with respect to the soul; it
tells us of things which we have never seen or
understood, nor have we seen or understood aught that
resembles them, since there is naught that resembles
them at all. And thus we have no light of natural
knowledge concerning them, since that which we are
told of them bears no relation to any sense of ours;
we know it by the ear alone, believing that which we
are taught, bringing our natural light into
subjection and treating it as if it were not.[218]
For, as Saint Paul says, Fides ex auditu.[219] As
though he were to say: Faith is not knowledge which
enters by any of the senses, but is only the consent
given by the soul to that which enters through the
ear.
4. And faith far transcends even that which is
indicated by the examples given above. For not only
does it give no information and knowledge, but, as we
have said, it deprives us of all other information
and knowledge, and blinds us to them, so that they
cannot judge it well. For other knowledge can be
acquired by the light of the understanding; but the
knowledge that is of faith is acquired without the
illumination of the understanding, which is rejected
for faith; and in its own light, if that light be not
darkened, it is lost.
Wherefore Isaias said: Si non credideritis, non
intelligetis.[220] That is: If ye believe not, ye
shall not understand. It is clear, then, that faith
is dark night for the soul, and it is in this way
that it gives it light; and the more the soul is
darkened, the greater is the light that comes to it.
For it is by blinding that it gives light, according
to this saying of Isaias. For if ye believe not, ye
shall not (he says) have light.[221] And thus faith
was foreshadowed by that cloud which divided the
children of Israel and the Egyptians when the former
were about to enter the Red Sea, whereof Scripture
says: Erat nubes tenebrosa, et illuminans noctem.[222]
This is to say that that cloud was full of darkness
and gave light to the night.
5. A wondrous thing it is that, though it was
dark, it should give light to the night. This was
said to show that faith, which is a black and dark
cloud to the soul (and likewise is night, since in
the presence of faith the soul is deprived of its
natural light and is blinded), can with its darkness
give light and illumination to the darkness of the
soul, for it was fitting that the disciples should
thus be like the master.
For man, who is in darkness, could not fittingly
be enlightened save by other darkness, even as David
teaches us, saying: Dies diei eructat verbum et nox
nocti indicat scientiam.[223] Which signifies: Day
unto day uttereth and aboundeth in speech, and night
unto night showeth knowledge. Which, to speak more
clearly, signifies: The day, which is God in bliss,
where it is day to the blessed angels and souls who
are now day, communicates and reveals to them the
Word, which is His Son, that they may know Him and
enjoy Him. And the night, which is faith in the
Church Militant, where it is still night, shows
knowledge is night to the Church, and consequently to
every soul, which knowledge is night to it, since it
is without clear beatific wisdom; and, in the
presence of faith, it is blind as to its natural
light.
6. So that which is to be inferred from this that
faith, because it is dark night, gives light to the
soul, which is in darkness, that there may come to be
fulfilled that which David likewise says to this
purpose, in these works: Et nox illuminatio mea in
deliciis meis.[224] Which signifies: the night will
be illumination in my delights. Which is as much as
to say: In the delights of my pure contemplation and
union with God, the night of faith shall be my guide.
Wherein he gives it clearly to be understood that the
soul must be in darkness in order to have light for
this road. |