VISIO QUARTA, cap. XCIX
The Moon's Mothering of the Seasons
God made the moon temporal so that, like a nursing mother, it nourishes the seasons with milk in its waning and solid food in its fullness.
God made the moon for seasons; the sun knew its own setting. This is clear to understanding: God made the moon temporal, so that it might nourish all seasons like a mother nursing an infant—first with milk, and afterward with solid food. For in its waning the moon is weak, and so it nourishes the seasons, as it were, with milk; but in its fullness it feeds them with what is, as it were, solid food.
The Sun's Watchful Rhythm
The sun shines by day over the earth like a watchful person and hides by night like one asleep, mirroring the earthly and heavenly dimensions of human life.
But God appointed the sun to shine above the earth, and to hide itself beneath the earth. Therefore it shines by day over the earth, just as a person, by day, is watchful with open eyes; and by night it is hidden beneath the earth, just as a person, by night, sleeps with closed eyes. So the earthly person exists in the flesh according to the lowest things, and the heavenly person exists in the soul according to the height of heaven, and knows the seasons of all seasons, because through all these things a living person is moved.
Humanity in the Image of God
The human being was created in God's image to rule creation, with man bearing the form of divinity and woman the form of Christ's humanity.
The human being was created in the image of God, and sits like another lord on the tribunal of the earth, ruling over all creation that was made for him, so that he might be the fullness of God's own work and might be truly pleasing to him; and the other sex was made for the help and consolation of the other, so that the man might hold the form of divinity and the woman the form of Christ's humanity.12
Read the original Latin
« Fecit lunam in tempora, sol cognovit occasum suum. » Quod sic intellectui patet: Deus posuit lunam esse temporalem, quatenus omnia tempora velut mater infantem nutriret, primo quidem lacte, postea cibo. In defectu enim suo luna debilis est, unde et velut lacte tempora lactat; in augmento autem suo quasi solido cibo illa nutrit. Solem vero Deus super terram lucere, et se sub terra abscondere constituit. Quapropter in die super terram lucet, quemadmodum homo in die apertis oculis vigil est, et in nocte sub terra est, ut etiam homo in nocte clausis oculis dormit. Sic homo terrenus secundum ima in carne est, et coelestis secundum altitudinem coeli in anima existit, et tempora temporum novit, quia per haec omnia vivus movetur.
Quod homo ad imaginem Dei creatus, et quasi alter Dominus super tribunal terrae sedens, omnique creaturae propter se factae imperans, plenum ipsius Dei opus sit, et ei valde placeat; et quod alter sexus ad adjutorium et consolationem alterius factus sit, virque divinitatis, et mulier humanitatis Christi formam teneat.
Notes
- 1 ↩plenum ipsius Dei opus sit: rendered 'the fullness of God's own work' — the sense is that the human person is God's complete work or its full expression; alternative: 'God's work may be complete in him.'
- 2 ↩virque divinitatis, et mulier humanitatis Christi formam teneat: the man holds/signifies the form of divinity and the woman the form of Christ's humanity. This is a figural reading (vir = divinitas, mulier = humanitas Christi), not a claim about sexual essence; rendered to preserve that theological typology.
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