VISIO QUINTA, cap. XXVI
Faith Heard but Not Yet Tasted
Before the works of faith were lived out, people knew them only by hearing, as in a shadow, just as the firmament lacked the splendor of sun, moon, and stars.
But what wasn't said here — "and God saw that it was good" — means that this burning work of faith and the other virtues hadn't yet risen up in action; they'd only taken shape in people's hearing, who hadn't yet tasted them in the experience of action.✦ And just as someone doesn't know whether food is good unless through tasting it, so people weren't yet tasting the works of faith by doing them — they were only hearing about them, as if in a shadow. And so, just as the firmament above the earth's orb was still without the splendor of the sun, the moon, and the stars, so too then — as if in a second light of faith — faith itself remained without the shining work of rightly established ordinances, so that those people perceived faith only as if in a shadow.✦✦
The Firmament as Discernment
In the moral sense, the firmament represents the power of discernment by which the faithful person distinguishes what is necessary from what is superfluous in both active and contemplative life.
And again, in another way: In the moral sense, then, the firmament can be understood as the power of discernment, because the faithful person, in both the active and the contemplative life, knows how to separate what is necessary for the body from what is superfluous, and what is wholesome for the soul from what is harmful.
Read the original Latin
Quod autem hic dictum non est, « et vidit Deus quod esset bonum , hoc est quod hoc igneum opus fidei et caeterae virtutes nondum in opere surrexerant: sed tantum in auditu populorum illis eas in gustu operis nondum gustantibus se formaverunt. Et sicut homo quis cibus bonus sit nisi per gustum nescit, sic homines opera fidei operando nondum gustabant; sed quasi in umbra auditus ea tantum audiebant. Itaque sicut firmamentum super orbem terrae sine splendore solis, lunae ac stellarum adhuc erat, sic etiam tunc quasi in secunda luce fidei, ipsa fides sine lucido opere juste constitutarum ordinationum manebat, ita ut illi homines fidem tantum quasi in umbratione perciperent. Et iterum alio modo:
Quod secundum moralem sensum firmamentum intelligatur virtus discretionis, quia fidelis quisque in activa et contemplativa vita et corpori necessaria a superfluis, sed et animae salubria a noxiis secernere novit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.1.4 — And God saw the light, that it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
- ↩Gen.1.6-Gen.1.8 — And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate waters from waters." Gen.1.7 — And God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. Gen.1.8 — And God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning — a second day.
- ↩Gen.1.3-Gen.1.5 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Gen.1.4 — And God saw the light, that it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. Gen.1.5 — And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning: the first day.
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