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← Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works)/Book 2 · Liber Divinorum Operum — Pars 2
Chapter 36LDO.2.36

VISIO QUINTA, cap. XXXVI

The Lights of the Church

God's command to place lights in the firmament is read as the raising up of priests and teachers to illuminate the Church, culminating in the making of the two great lights.

"God said: Let there be lights in the sky's firmament, to separate day and night, to serve as signs and to mark seasons, days, and years, and to shine in the firmament of the sky and give light to the earth.✦ And so it was done.✦ Here is what to consider: God, through the Holy Spirit, said in the hearts of his own disciples: "Let priests and teachers be raised up in my Son, to give light to the Church, which is built on the firm rock, that is, Christ, from which the stone the justice of true faith flowed forth.✦1 "Let the priests themselves also be sent into the whole Church, illuminating it in this way: so that through their own words they may bring the people the day, that is, the salvation of faith, and proclaim that blessed happiness which is obtained through the same faith, if they live by what they have observed. And let them also bring before the people the night, that is, the eternal torments that stretch on without end, and let the teachers themselves confirm this with various signs, so that they proclaim what must be observed: namely, the feasts that must be celebrated, the seasons of fasting that are fixed, and the days that are forgivable under God's law, so that they may keep the year with its institutions and precepts.2 And let those precepts shine through faith in heaven, that is, in my Son, because the praise of the angels follows them, and let them also give light to the Church, the land of the living, with the praise of God. "And so it was done.✦ So God made two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night.✦

The Two Luminaries and the Stars

The greater light signifies spiritual teachers, the lesser light secular rulers, and the stars lesser authorities, all ordered within the Church for the governance of the faithful and the correction of delinquents.

And the stars. And he placed them in the firmament of heaven so that they might shine over the earth, and preside over day and night, and divide the light from the darkness. "God made two great luminaries, which were necessary for the Church; the greater luminary so that it might preside over the day — namely, the principal and spiritual teachers, who are set over the Church as the light of the faithful — so that the remaining spiritual teachers, that is, persons of lesser standing, might be subject under their precept, like oxen under the yoke, bound and submitted, so that without a shepherd they might not, wandering astray, be seized by the fierce bird, that is, the devil.3 And also the lesser luminary — namely, kings and other secular powers — so that they might preside over earthly matters and secular peoples as if over night, those who are frequently darkened by the shadow of many illicit things, because the sensible pleasure of the flesh, which arose in Adam, often surges up in them. Whence they reckon among themselves what they can do, and they hide themselves from righteous judgment, not rightly judging themselves. He also made the stars — namely, those who in lesser power are subject to greater princes — so that they might shine for the living earth, that is, the Church, wherever she herself might be in the firmament of the rock, that is, in Christ, so that they might preside over the bright, that is, those living rightly, and over the shadowy, that is, those quarreling in evil, judging the bright according to their works and the wicked according to their own wickedness. "And God saw that it was good," that is, he disposed in his good pleasure that in the Church, distinguished by diverse grades, the simple might be illuminated by the teaching of the wise, and delinquents might be corrected by the discipline of rulers. "And there was evening and morning, the fourth day.

The Fourth Day Dawns in the Church

With the Church's ordination, the instability of the early Christian community begins to give way to the stable light of faith and holy living.

Once God established the Church, the instability that had marked her—back when Christians still lacked spiritual pastors and secular rulers—began, as it were, on the fourth day to turn away from the darkness of its own confusion and toward the dawning of a stable day, which shone forth in that same Church when it was confirmed by the light of true faith and the other virtues through the zeal of holy living.✦ And in yet another way:

The Inner Firmament of Love

In tropological reading, the firmament is the discernment of reason, the two great lights are the two precepts of love, and the stars are right thoughts, guiding the faithful in honoring God and serving neighbor.

Likewise, because in the tropological sense the firmament represents the discernment of reason, the two great luminaries represent the two precepts of love, and the stars represent right thoughts, so that through these images every faithful person, once illuminated, may carefully discern what honor and grace are due to God, and what is due to the need of himself and of his neighbors, with a view to the salvation of the soul and the benefit of the body.✦

Read the original Latin

« Dixit autem Deus: Fiant luminaria in firmamento coeli, ut dividant diem et noctem, et sint in signa, et tempora, et dies, et annos, et luceant in firmamento coeli, et illuminent terram. Et factum est ita . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Deus per Spiritum sanctum in cordibus discipulorum suorum dixit: « Fiant sacerdotes, et doctores in Filio meo, qui Ecclesiam, quae supra firmam petram, id est Christum, aedificata est, illuminent, de quo lapide justitia verae fidei emanavit. » Ipsi quoque sacerdotes in omnem Ecclesiam mitantur, eam ita illuminantes, ut populo per verba sua diem, id est salutem fidei dividant, et felicitatem illam quam per eamdem fidem consequantur, si ea observaverint annuntient. Et etiam populo noctem, scilicet aeterna tormenta, quae ad infinitatem pertinent, insinuent, et hoc eis ipsi doctores etiam cum variis signis probent, ita ut illa quae ipsis observanda sunt annuntient, scilicet festa quae celebranda sunt, et tempora jejuniorum quae constricta sunt, et dies qui in lege Dei remissibiles sunt, ut annum cum institutis praeceptis observent. Et praecepta illa per fidem in coelo, id est in Filio meo, luceant, quia laudem angelorum sequuntur, et etiam ecclesiam terram viventium cum laude Dei illuminent. » Et factum est ita. Fecit itaque Deus duo magna luminaria, luminare majus ut praeesset diei, et luminare minus ut praeesset nocti.

Et stellas. Et posuit eas in firmamento coeli ut lucerent super terram, et praeessent diei et nocti, et dividerent lucem ac tenebras . » Fecit Deus duo magna luminaria, quae Ecclesiae necessaria erant; luminare majus ut praeesset diei, videlicet principales et spiritales magistros, qui praepositi Ecclesiae, lumen fidelium oculorum existunt, ita ut reliqui spiritales magistri, id est minores personae, sub praecepto eorum, sicut bos sub jugo subditi et ligati sint, ne sine pastore errando ambulantes, ab acri volucre, scilicet diabolo, arripiantur. Et etiam luminare minus, scilicet reges et alias saeculares potestates, ut terrenis rebus et saecularibus populis tanquam nocti praesint, qui cum tenebrositate multarum illicitarum rerum frequenter obscurantur, quia sensibilis voluptas carnis, quae in Adam orta est, in illis multoties surgit. Unde in semetipsis quid facere possint computant, et a justo judicio se non recte dijudicantes abscondunt. Fecit etiam stellas, videlicet eos qui in minori potestate majoribus principibus subjecti sunt, ut viventi terrae, id est Ecclesiae luceant, ubicunque ipsa in firmamento petrae, id est in Christo, fuerit, ita ut lucidis, id est recte viventibus, et umbrosis, id est in malo rixantibus praesint, lucidos secundum opera eorum, et malos secundum nequitiam ipsorum judicantes. « Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum, » hoc est in beneplacito suo disposuit, ut in Ecclesia diversis distincta gradibus, et simplices sapientum doctrina illuminarentur, et delinquentes rectorum disciplina corrigerentur. « Et factum est vespere et mane dies quartus .

» Ordinante Deo Ecclesiam instabilitas illa, quae in ea erat quando Christiani spiritales pastores et saeculares rectores non habebant, quasi quarto die ab obscuritate confusionis illius se declinare coepit ad ortum stabilis diei, qui in eadem Ecclesia refulsit cum verae fidei et caeterarum virtutum luce sanctae operationis studio confirmata est. Et iterum alio modo:

Item quia secundum tropologiam per firmamentum discretio rationis, per duo magna luminaria duo praecepta charitatis, per stellas rectae cogitationes intelligantur, ut per ista quisque fidelis illuminatus sollicite discernat quid honoris et gratiae Deo, quid et suae et proximorum necessitati secundum salutem animae et utilitatem corporis debeat.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.1.14-Gen.1.16 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so. Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
  2. ↩Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so.
  3. ↩Gen.1.14 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years."
  4. ↩Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so.
  5. ↩Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
  6. ↩Gen.1.14-Gen.1.19 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so. Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Gen.1.17 — And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, Gen.1.18 — and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. Gen.1.19 — And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
  7. ↩Gen.1.14-Gen.1.16 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so. Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The Latin is textually difficult and syntactically tangled ("de quo lapide justitia verae fidei emanavit" is attached loosely to Christ/rock imagery). The translation renders the most plausible intended sense: from Christ the rock, justice and true faith issue forth.
  2. 2 ↩"dies qui in lege Dei remissibiles sunt" is unusual; it appears to mean days on which the law of God allows relaxation or forgiveness, rendered here as "forgivable under God's law."
  3. 3 ↩volucre: the word is uncertain; it may be a substantive ('bird') or an adjective ('swift/fierce'). The context suggests a bird of prey as a figure for the devil, so 'fierce bird' is a plausible rendering, but the reading remains uncertain.

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