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To have a just idea of this vision, we must see its
immediacy, its source, and its object, primary and
secondary. [564]
This Vision Is Intuitive and Immediate
According to the definition of Benedict XII, [565]
this act of the blessed intellect is a vision, clear,
intuitive, immediate, of the divine essence. Without
being comprehensive, it still enables us to know God
as He is.
By its clarity this vision is distinguished from the
obscure knowledge which we have of God, either by
reason or by faith. By its intuitive and immediate
character it is immeasurably superior to all
knowledge that is discursive and analogical, which
does not reach God except by using His effects as
principle. This intuitive vision is higher than all
abstraction, all reasoning, and all analogy. It is
immediate intuition of the supreme reality of the
living God. Hence it surpasses by far all vision,
even the intellectual visions which the great mystics
receive here on earth, because these visions remain
within the order of faith and do not give intrinsic
evidence of the Trinity. The beatific vision, on the
contrary, does give this evidence, showing that God,
if He were not triune, would not be God.
Hence we are called to see God, not only in the
mirror of creatures, however perfect, not only by His
highest radiations in the world of angels. We are
called to see Him without the medium of any creature,
to see Him better than we see those to whom we speak
on earth, because God, being spiritual, will be most
intimately present in our intelligence, which He
fortifies with power to see Him.
Between God and ourselves there will be not even an
intermediary idea, [566] because all created ideas,
even infused ideas, however elevated, can be only
limited participations in the truth, and cannot
therefore represent God as He is in Himself: supreme
Being, infinite Truth, Wisdom without measure,
infinite and luminous source of all knowledge. No
created idea could ever represent as He is in Himself
Him who is thought itself. Thus the child's cup
cannot contain the ocean. [567]
Further, we cannot express our contemplation in one
word, even in an interior word, in a mental word,
because this word, being created and finite, cannot
express the Infinite as He is in Himself. This
contemplation without medium absorbs us in some sense
in God, leaving us without a word to express it,
because only one word can express perfectly the
divine essence, namely, the Word begotten from all
eternity from the Father. The divine essence itself,
sovereignly intelligible, more intimate to us than we
ourselves are, will take the place of all created
ideas, impressed and expressed. [568] In the order of
knowledge we cannot conceive one more intimate than
this, even though it be distinguished by different
degrees.
Here on earth, when at some sublime spectacle, we
cannot find words to describe it, we say that it is
ineffable. With far higher reason is this true when
we see God face to face.
This vision, though it is intuitive and without
medium, is still not comprehensive. God alone can
know Himself to the full extent of His knowableness.
This limitation involves no contradiction. Here on
earth many persons may see the same scene in
different degrees, according as their vision is more
or less good. Many intellects see one and the same
truth more or less profoundly. Each grasps the
proposition, subject, verb, and attribute, but more
or less perfectly. Thus in heaven all the blessed see
God without medium, but with a penetration that
varies in proportion to their merits, but none as
profoundly as God knows Himself, all that He is, all
that He can do, all that He will do. [569]
The Light of Glory
This vision, intuitive and immediate, reaches the
object of that uncreated vision whereby God knows
Himself. It reaches Him less perfectly than He does
Himself, but it reaches Him.
How is this possible? It would be absolutely
impossible for any created or creatable intelligence
left to its own natural forces, because these forces
are proportioned to their own natural object, which
is infinitely inferior to the object proper to the
divine intellect. Any created intelligence therefore
needs a supernatural light to elevate it, to fortify
it, that it may be able to see God as He is in
Himself. Otherwise it would be before Him as the owl
before the sun; it would not see Him. [570]
This light, received in a permanent fashion in the
intellects of the blessed, is called the light of
glory. The Council of Vienne [571] condemns those who
"maintain that the human soul does not have to be
elevated by the light of glory in order to see God
and to have holy joy in Him."
Thus the beatific vision arises from the intellectual
faculty as its radical principle, and secondly from
the light of glory as its proximate principle. This
light supernaturalizes the vitality of our
intelligence, as the infused virtue of charity
supernaturalizes the vitality of our will.
The light of glory and infused charity, thus received
into our two higher faculties, themselves arise from
the consummation of sanctifying grace, which is
received, like a divine graft, into the essence of
the soul. How well sanctifying grace merits the
appellation, participation in the divine nature!
Grace is a nature, a radical principle of operations,
a principle which, fully developed, makes us able to
see God as He sees Himself. In God the divine nature
is the principle of operations strictly divine, the
principle of His own uncreated vision of Himself. In
the just soul in heaven, sanctifying grace is the
radical principle of the intuitive vision of the
divine essence, a vision which has the same object as
the uncreated vision.
The Object of the Beatific
Vision
The first and essential object is God Himself. The
secondary object is creatures known in God.
The blessed see clearly and intuitively God Himself
as He is in Himself, that is, they see His essence,
His attributes, and the three divine persons. The
Council of Florence says: "They see clearly God
Himself, one and three, as He is." [572] Hence the
beatific vision surpasses immeasurably, not only the
most sublime human philosophy, but even the natural
knowledge of the most elevated angels, even of any
creatable angel. The blessed see the divine
perfections, concentrated and harmonized in their
common source, in the divine essence which contains
them all, eminently and formally, in a far higher way
than white light contains the colors of the rainbow.
Thus the blessed see how mercy the most tender, and
justice the most inflexible, proceed from one and the
same love, infinitely generous and infinitely holy.
They see how this same love identifies in itself
attributes apparently the most opposed. They see how
mercy and justice are united in each and every work
of God. They see how uncreated love, even in
decisions the most free, is identified with wisdom.
They see how this love is identified with sovereign
good, loved from all eternity. They see how wisdom is
identified with the first truth, always known. They
see how all these perfections are one in the essence
of Him who is. They contemplate this pre-eminent
simplicity, this purity and absolute sanctity, this
quintessence of all perfection.
In this intellectual vision, never interrupted, they
see also how the infinite fecundity of the divine
nature blossoms into three persons. They see the
eternal generation of the Word, who is the splendor
of the Father, figure of His substance. They see the
ineffable spiration of the Holy Spirit, who is the
terminus of the mutual love of the Father and the
Son, who unites the Father and Son in the most
intimate and mutual self-communication. Such is the
primary object of the beatific vision.
Here below we can but enumerate the divine
perfections, one after the other. We do not see in
what intimate manner they are in harmony. We do not
see how infinite goodness harmonizes with the
permission of evil, even of unspeakable malice. We
know indeed that God does not permit evil except for
a greater good, but we do not clearly see this
greater good. But in heaven everything becomes clear,
particularly the value of the trials we ourselves
have suffered. We shall see how divine goodness,
essentially self-diffusive, becomes the principle of
mercy. On the other hand, we shall see how this same
infinite goodness, having the right to be loved above
all things, becomes the principle of justice. Here on
earth we are like a man who has seen each color of
the rainbow, but who has not yet seen white light. In
heaven, seeing the uncreated Light, we shall see how
the divine perfections, even the most widely
different, are harmonized in Him and become one.
The blessed see in God, in the Word, also the holy
humanity which the Son assumed for our salvation.
They contemplate the hypostatic union, the plenitude
of grace, of glory, and of charity in the holy soul
of Jesus. They see the infinite value of His
theandric acts, of the mystery of the Redemption.
They see the radiations of that Redemption: the
infinite value of each Mass, the supernatural
vitality of the mystical body, of the Church,
triumphant, suffering, and militant. They see with
admiration what belongs to Christ, as priest for all
eternity, as judge of the living and the dead, as
universal king of all
creatures, as father of the poor.
In this same vision, the saints contemplate the
eminent dignity of the Mother of God, her plenitude
of grace, her virtues, her gifts, her universal
mediation as co-redemptrix.
Further, since beatitude is a perfect state which
satisfies all legitimate desires, each saint knows
all others who are blessed, particularly those whom
he has known and loved on earth. He knows their
state, be they on earth or in purgatory. [573] Thus
the founder of an order knows all that concerns his
religious family, knows the prayers which his sons
address to him. Parents know the spiritual needs of
their children who are still in this world. A friend,
reaching the end of his course, knows how to
facilitate the voyage of friends who address
themselves to him. St. Cyprian speaks thus: "All our
friends who have arrived wait for us. They desire
vividly that we participate in their own beatitude,
and are full of solicitude in our regard." [574]
The beatific vision is one unique, unbroken act,
measured by the one unique instant of an unchangeable
eternity. It is an act that cannot be lost. It is the
source of the happiness of the elect and, as we shall
see later, of their absolute impeccability.
In this supernatural knowledge everything is
harmonized. There is no longer danger of being too
intent on secondary goods or of losing the chief
good. The soul in heaven sees the corporeal world
from on high, in perfect subordination to the
spiritual world. The events of time are seen in their
relation to the plenitude of eternity. God's deeds,
natural or supernatural, are seen as radiations of
God's action. The line of view is no longer
horizontal, stretched out between past and future. It
is the vertical view, which judges of everything from
on high, in the light of supreme Truth.
This entire beatific world of knowledge leads the
blessed soul to love God above all things, immovably,
and to love creatures in Him only as manifestations
of His infinite goodness.
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| 564. |
St. Thomas, Ia, q 12. See also the Commentaries
of
Cajetan, John of St. Thomas, etc. See also Dict. theol.
cath., "Intuitive." |
| 565. |
Denz., no 530. |
| 566. |
Ia, q. 12, a. 2. |
| 567. |
Sometimes, during a storm at night, we may see a
flash from one extremity of the heavens to the other.
Now let us imagine a flash of lightning, not sensible
but intellectual, similar to a lightning flash of
genius, but one which subsists eternally, which would
be Truth itself and Wisdom itself, and which at the
same time would be a vivid flame of Love itself. This
imagination will give us some idea of God |
| 568. |
Ia, q. 12, a. 2, and the commentaries of Cajetan,
John of St. Thomas, Gonet, the Salmanticenses,
Billuart. The divine essence itself takes the place,
both of the impressed species and of the expressed
species, that is, of the mental word. Theologians
often
compare this intimate union in the order of knowledge
to the union in the order of being brought about by
the
hypostatic union, the humanity of Jesus and the
person
of the Word, where the Word terminates and possesses
the humanity. If this second union is not impossible,
then the first, with still greater reason, must also
be
possible. |
| 569. |
Ia, q. 12, a. 6, 7. God, so say the theologians,
is
seen in His entirety, but He is not totally seen in
that entirety. |
| 570. |
Ia, q. 12, a. 4, 5. |
| 571. |
Denz., no. 475. |
| 572. |
Ibid., no. 693. |
| 573. |
Ia, q. 12 a. 10. That which the blessed see in
God
they do not see successively but simultaneously. The
beatific vision, measured by participated eternity,
does not tolerate succession. Things which the
blessed
see successively they see extra Verbum, by a
knowledge
inferior to the beatific vision and hence called the
vision of evening whereas the beatific vision itself
is
like an eternal morning. Cf. Dict. theol. cath.,
"Intuitive," cols. 2387 ff. |
| 574. |
De immortalitate, chap. 25. |
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