Hunolt Sermons/Volume 10/Sermon 48

by Franz Hunolt

FORTY-EIGHTH SERMON.

ON THE JOY OF THE ELECT IN THE BEATIFIC VISION.

Subject.

The souls of the elect in heaven shall be filled with joy in the sight, love, and possession of God.—Preached on the feast of the Ascension.

Text.

Videntibus illis elevatus est.—Acts i. 9.

“While they looked on He was raised up.”

Introduction.

My dear disciples, said the Lord, I am leaving yon; I go on before you, and return to Him who sent Me into the world to you: “I go to Him that sent Me.”^[1] A sad and unwelcome news this, and to sweeten it somewhat He had to add: “I go to prepare a place for you,”^[2] and to await you there. These words Our Lord spoke a good while before His ascension, just as a good friend who has a long journey before him takes leave of his relatives and acquaintances betimes. But what consolation, delight, and joy, mingled indeed with sorrow, did not the apostles experience when they afterwards saw their beloved Master on Mount Olivet, and beheld Him rising gradually from the earth, soaring in the air for a time, then standing still, and again slowly mounting towards heaven! There is no doubt that they were pained at the thought of losing Him and being separated from Him; and the sight of His departure from them must have been a sorrowful one; yet they must have rejoiced at the same time because they saw that the way to heaven was opened for them, and that they should one day enter on it. Oh, truly a joyful hope! I go from you; but it is to prepare a place for you; it is for your good, your advantage that I go to heaven before you. You shall indeed see Me no longer in this mortal life; but in that place to which I am now ascending, and to which you shall come also, you shall see Me for all eternity. And that it is, my dear brethren, that constitutes the perfect happiness of the elect in heaven; they shall behold the Son of God, not only in His human nature, but also in the complete, infinite, and all-perfect beauty of His Godhead and divine nature. In this vision of God, from which love and joy necessarily spring, consists the essential happiness of the elect, as theologians tell us; so that if there were no other joy in heaven but this vision alone, still the happiness of the blessed would be perfect. Oh, rejoice, just souls that serve the Lord! If we go to heaven, as we hope, we shall see God, love God, and rejoice in God for all eternity. The immensity of this joy we shall now make the subject of our meditation, namely.

Plan of Discourse.

The souls of the elect in heaven shall be filled with joy in the sight, love, and possession of God. Such is the whole subject. Let us begin here on earth this heavenly occupation, that is, think of God, love God, rejoice in God. Such shall be the conclusion.

And that we may make it and constantly adhere to it, give us Thy light and grace, O glorious Saviour! through the merits of Mary, Thy Mother, and the intercession of our holy guardian angels.

The joy of the elect in seeing God can be inferred from the joy they have outside of God. If a blessed soul in heaven finds such unspeakable delight in the knowledge and possession of those things that are outside of God, what infinite joy it must experience in God Himself, who has imparted all their wonderful beauty and properties to those things? If such magnificence and glory are to be seen in the forecourts of heaven, such riches in the dwelling-place of the blessed, what must there not be in Him who is the Creator and Lord of all the heavens? If creatures, who are only small drops fallen from the sovereign Good, are so beautiful, sweet, and pleasing, that they make a delightful paradise for the soul, what must not God be, who is the living Source and Origin of all sweetness, all beauty, all delight? And how the soul will rejoice when it is allowed to satiate itself fully at that Fountain! Such is the reasoning employed by St. Augustine. “If,” he says, “heavenly goods are so great and so noble, what must not God Himself be who has prepared them? If you seek for greatness, God is greater than heaven and earth; if you seek for beauty, God is infinitely more beautiful than all things in heaven and on earth; if you desire sweetness, God is sweeter than all sweet things.” How great then must not be the joy of possessing this sovereign Good in clear vision, and possessing Him by love as your very own property? When the disciples saw the glorified humanity of Our Lord on Mount Thabor, they were ravished out of themselves, and became almost senseless through delight. “Lord,” cried out Peter, “it is good for us to be here.”^[3] Let us build tabernacles that we may dwell here forever. They thought they were already in heaven. What would have been their feelings if they had got even one glimpse of Our Lord’s divinity?

Even in this life the saints found great happiness in the thought of God. Even in this mournful vale of tears the mere remembrance and love of God sometimes, as St. John Chrysostom remarks, cause such comfort and delight to His faithful servants that all their trials and crosses become sweet; they take on themselves the greatest labors for God’s sake with joy and pleasure, and look on austerities, mortification of the senses, and the chastening of the flesh as most agreeable and delightful; nay, so great sometimes are the joy and consolation they feel in God that they are insensible to the natural pains of the body, and would not exchange the joys they experience for all the goods of the world. St. Francis Borgia, who renounced completely his duchy and all the riches he possessed or had hoped to possess, used to say that one quarter of an hour spent in his cell with God was worth all he had given up in the shape of worldly wealth. The great St. Anthony, hungry and thirsty in his desert, after having spent the whole night kneeling in prayer, used to complain when the sun came in the morning to disturb him by its light in the joy he felt in conversing with God. Our holy Father Ignatius could hardly ever think of God without shedding tears of consolation, and the doctors had to warn him at last to moderate the ardor of his meditations on God, lest he should lose his sight through constant weeping; as it was, he injured his eyes so much that he almost became blind. The holy apostle of the Indies, St. Francis Xavier, in the midst of his apostolic labors once received a special illumination from God while engaged in meditation, and the consolation and delight thus caused him were so great that he could no longer support them and had to cry out: “Enough, O Lord! enough!” No more light! Less consolation or else I must die! I am not able to bear it! St. Theresa says, in the twenty-eighth chapter of her life, that she studied for a long time how to give some slight idea of the interior joy and delight she had in God, but at last she found that it was unspeakable; all that she could do to give some idea of her experience was to say that in comparison with that joy all the pleasures of the world were insipid, and disgusting, and abominable; that the stars and the sun itself were mere shadows in contrast with that heavenly illumination; that all men seemed to her like sorrowful ghosts, and that she was very near dying of joy.

How great then must be the joy of heaven, where we shall see God clearly as He is. Now, my dear brethren, every memory of God, all the love we have for Him, all the illuminations we receive from Him in this mortal life, no matter how clear they may be, are still mingled with much darkness that is found in the dim light of faith, “We see now through a glass in a dark manner,”^[4] as St. Paul says. O my God! how will it be when I come to Thee in heaven? when all darkness shall be banished? when every veil shall be drawn aside? when I shall behold Thee face to face, and as Thou art in Thyself? How exceeding great shall be my joy and delight when Thou shalt show me the treasures and riches Thou hast hidden in Thy infinite being? When all Thy beauties shall exhibit themselves most magnificently, and Thy perfections shall be open before me? Yes, my dear brethren, we shall see this God, and possess and enjoy forever this supreme Good. “We shall see Him as He is;”^[5] the Godhead in all its entirety shall be present to the eyes of our minds, and we shall see His omnipotence, His wisdom, His glory, His majesty, His infinite perfections, “as He is,” in His own being. And it is in this vision and knowledge that the happiness of the elect principally consists, as St. John says: “Now, this is eternal life: That they m.ay know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”^[6]

No one could bear this great joy for a moment. Ah, poor soul of mine! if thou wert abandoned to thy own natural powers, how I should pity and compassionate thee on thy arrival in heaven! Why? Do I not wish to be therewith God forever? Oh, truly, would I were there now! But why then should I pity my soul if I had really gained the end I so much desire? Because if it were left to its natural power alone it could not bear the happiness of heaven for one moment. Now I cannot look at the sun for an instant with my bodily eyes without being blinded; much less should I be able to see my God with the eyes of the soul; they are too, weak to bear the infinite splendor of His light and glory. Now it is, naturally speaking, impossible to put the vast ocean into a sack; much less could my soul contain even for a moment the immense joy that comes from the sight of God. Because there is an infinite distance between the divine majesty and the human intellect, and if the latter were not somehow raised and strengthened it would not be capable of seeing God, or of bearing the great happiness of that sight, but in the very first moment would faint and die. This is what God meant in the answer He made to Moses when the latter said to Him: “If therefore I have found favor in Thy sight, show me Thy face, that I may know Thee, and may find grace before Thy eyes.” Ah, Moses, replied the Lord, that is a vain desire of yours! “I will show thee all good,” but not yet; hereafter in heaven you shall behold Me; but not now. “Thou canst not see My face: for man shall not see Me and live.”^[7] Thus giving us to understand not only that man must die before being admitted into the glory of heaven, but also that he would be overwhelmed and lose his life through excess of happiness on seeing God.

If he were not strengthened by a supernatural light. Human soul, what art thou then to do? How will it be with thee in heaven? Will it help to thy happiness to get there and at once to be annihilated at the sight of God? No; be comforted; thou shalt live; the same God who is to be thy eternal joy will also find the means to enable thee to support for all eternity the brightness of His beauty and the love and joy that spring from it. And that, my dear brethren, as theologians tell us, He will do by the light of glory, a supernatural illumination, a communication of that uncreated light by which God sees and knows Himself. St. John speaks of this in the Apocalypse in his description of the heavenly Jerusalem: “The city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God hath enlightened it.”^[8] And the Prophet David says: “With Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light we shall see light;”^[9] that is, as interpreters say, in Thy light we shall clearly see Thy divine essence. By this supernatural light of glory the souls of the elect shall be so raised above their natural powers that they shall be able to fix the eyes of the mind on the very centre of all the divine beauties, aud to gaze on them as on a bright sun undazzled and undismayed; and the same light of glory shall so strengthen them that they shall contain and endure forever that immense joy without ever being wearied by it. From this alone we may form some idea of the infinite beauty of God, and of the immensity of the joy that results from beholding Him, since a supernatural help is required to prevent the mind from being overwhelmed by it.

By seeing god the blessed shall completely possess Him.

“We shall see Him as He is.” Ah, Christians! if we only love God here with our whole hearts for a short time we shall behold Him face to face in the kingdom of heaven for all eternity, and that too not in the superficial manner in which we see visible things here on earth. If I look at a fine house I cannot therefore say that it is mine. If I see gold and silver I cannot therefore say with truth: this gold and silver belongs to me. But in heaven the vision of God will be at the same time the full possession of God, so that the moment I shall see God and know Him clearly I shall be able to say with truth: God is mine; the God of infinite beauty belongs to me; the great, immense God is wholly mine, and will be my very own for all eternity.

Nay, they shall become like to Him. Nay, still higher shall my happiness go when I enter heaven; for by vision I shall become changed into my God, so that I shall be able to say with truth: not only is God mine, but I am, so to say, like my God. Nor is this manner of speech too daring when we recollect what St. John says: “We know that when He shall appear we shall be like to Him: because we shall see Him as He is.”^[10] Again a great difference between the heavenly vision of God and the sight of objects on earth. If I look at a prince or a king, I do not therefore become a prince or a king nor does it make me rich or beautiful to behold one who is rich or beautiful. But the clear vision of God changes a man into God, and as it were transforms him into the beauty and nature of God: “We shall be like to Him.” “As many as are there,” says St. Augustine, “are gods; they all know God without error, they see Him without end, they praise Him without fatigue, they love Him without weariness. They always see Him, and always desire to see Him, such a desirable sight is He. They always love Him, and always desire to love Him, so amiable is He.”^[11] In this delightful enjoyment they have perpetual repose; they are always filled with God, always united with God, not otherwise than a drop of water poured into a vessel full of wine, or a piece of iron made red hot in the fire; the water indeed still remains water in its nature, and the iron is still iron; but the former is so mixed and confounded with the wine, and the latter with the fire, that one cannot distinguish between them; and he who drinks out of the vessel of wine cannot say that he has drunk water, but pure wine; and he who is burnt by the hot iron cannot say that it is the iron, but the fire that has injured him. So, says St. Bernard, will it be with me when I go to heaven and there behold God: “the substance indeed shall remain, but in another form, another glory, another power, when I come and appear before the face of God.”^[12] Thus by this vision I shall be united with my God, and take to myself all His properties, so that there shall hardly be any traceable difference between God and me. Like God, I shall not be able to sin; like God, I shall be immortal; like God, impassible; like God, beautiful, free, reposeful, happy; nay, I shall enjoy the same happiness that my God enjoys, and for as long as He shall enjoy it. “We shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”

And shall rule with Him forever. O my God! is not that a too great and lavish reward for the little I can do for Thee here on earth? To be like Thee for all eternity! Would it not be more than enough for me to have the happiness of being numbered among Thy elect as their companion, and of living forever in Thy own house? Would it not be honor enough for me to wait on Thee at the throne of Thy glory as Thy servant and attendant? Would it not be happiness enough for me to be with Thee always as Thy friend and child? Would it not be joy enough to behold and admire forever the infinite beauty of Thy countenance? Would it not be wealth enough to possess Thee, the supreme Good, as my very own property? No; “I have said: You are gods, and all of you the sons of the Most High.”^[13] “We shall be like to Him,” when we see Him. When King Pharao gave Joseph authority over the whole of Egypt, he said to him: “Thou shalt be over my house, and at the commandment of thy mouth all the people shall obey, only in the kingly throne will I be above.”^[14] So shall God say to the elect soul in heaven; now you see Me as I am; all that I am, all that I have shall be yours too; you shall rule and govern as I do; you shall rejoice with the same joy in which My happiness consists; only in the kingly and divine throne will I be above you; that is, I am God of Myself, and in My own nature; you shall be a god by My grace and in My likeness. O happiness of the saints, how great thou art! as great as is the immense, infinite God Himself!

From this vision springs a most ardent love of God. From this we can easily see how fervent, intimate, and joyful is the love that will burn for all eternity in the souls of the elect on account of this vision of and union with God. There is nothing on earth that can be compared to it even remotely. There is nothing on earth sweeter to the hearts of those who love each other than the enjoyment and gratification of their mutual affection; but neither is there anything on earth more bitter or tormenting to the heart than love, because it can never be fully satisfied. If the beloved object is away, the heart is tormented by desire and longing; if the loved one is present, there is a fear of losing him, or of his suffering some accident; if he is always before the eyes, either the progress of age, causing his appearance to change, or the fact of having his company always takes away much from the first fervor and happiness. Oh, how different it will be with the love of the elect for their God, and of God for His elect! To love always and burn in the fire of love, and always be loved most perfectly by the Person whom one loves; to love always and always have the loved One present; to love always and be always united with the loved One; to love always and always possess with the Beloved all that one can wish for and desire; to love always and he always certain that for all eternity that love will never bring weariness; to love always, and since the Beloved is unchangeable, never to suffer a change in that love,—oh, what bliss! what joy!

The joy that arises from this O eternal vision of my God! O eternal love of my God! O eternal joy of my Lord! what am I to think and say of thee? is indescribable. To no purpose do I strain every effort either to understand thee, or to speak of thee worthily to my hearers, or else I might fare as did St. Augustine. He tells us of himself that at the instance of his friend Severus, he undertook to write a short description of the joys of heaven; but the sublimity of the subject frightened him, and he asked advice from St. Jerome. Augustine was at Hippo at the time, and was actually on the point of inditing the letter to St. Jerome, when behold, he became suddenly aware of a most delicious perfume in the room, and saw a beautiful, brilliant light, far surpassing that of the sun, in the midst of which appeared St. Jerome, who had died that very day and hour. “While,” says Augustine, “I was actually writing the first words of salutation to Jerome, an indescribable light, such as had never been seen in our times, and could not at all be pictured by any words of ours, along with an ineffable and unknown fragrance composed of all perfumes, entered the cell in which I was.” Augustine was amazed at this, and quite ravished out of himself. Meanwhile a clear voice was heard coming out of the light and thus addressing him: “Augustine, what dost thou seek? Dost thou think to put the vast ocean into a small cup, or to hold the earth in the hollow of thy hand? Will thy eye see what no mortal ever beheld? or thy ear perceive sounds that never penetrated mortal ears? Or dost thou imagine that thou canst conceive what no human heart ever understood or thought of? What end could there be to what is infinite? What measure to that which is immense?” The voice continued to explain to him that it is impossible to describe the happiness of the glory of heaven, and concluded thus: “Do not attempt the impossible. Do not seek here what cannot be found unless in that place which you are now, to your own great happiness, striving to reach. Let your endeavor be so to live here that you may have in eternity what you now wish to understand in some degree.” So far St. Jerome to Augustine; while the latter was so enraptured with the light and the delicious perfume, that he says: “So great is the bliss of eternal light that if one could not remain in it any longer than the space of one day, yet for the sake of enjoying it for that short time one would have just reason for despising innumerable years of this life, though filled with all imaginable delights, riches, and temporal goods.” O eternal vision of my God! O eternal joy of my Lord! how incomprehensible is the happiness you make in heaven! Suffice it now for us to know that you are the same vision, the same love, tbe same joy with which the infinitely happy God sees, loves, and enjoys Himself!

Until we possess it in heaven. When we shall one clay possess you in the city of God it shall be with us as it was with the queen of Saba when she saw Solomon seated on his throne of glory, and heard the words of wisdom he uttered. “And when the queen of Saba,” says the Scripture, “saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had built, and the meat of his table, and the apartments of his servants, and their apparel,…she had no longer any spirit in her,” and almost fainted through wonder. At last, when she somewhat recovered herself, she said to the king: “The report is true which I heard in my own country concerning thy words and concerning thy wisdom. And I did not believe them that told me, till I came myself and saw with my own eyes, and have found that the half hath not been told me: thy wisdom and thy works exceed the fame which I heard. Blessed are thy men, and blessed are thy servants who stand before thee always and hear thy wisdom.”^[15] With much greater wonder, O Lord! and if Thou didst not strengthen me with the help of the supernatural light of glory, with a far greater faintness of spirit, even to annihilation, should I think and say when I see Thee for the first time in the kingdom of heaven: “Thy wisdom and Thy works exceed the fame which I heard.” O God of glory! I have been told on earth great and wonderful things of the joys and delights of Thy palace; much have I heard of the wealth of Thy court, of the glory of Thy eternal kingdom; but, O God of majesty! all that I have heard is nothing compared to what I now see with my own eyes and experience in the vision of Thyself! “Blessed are Thy men who stand before Thee always!” More than blessed are they who rule and rejoice with Thee forever! More than blessed am I, too, who am now in the number of those who possess this infinite joy in and with Thee for eternity!

Hence the servants of God were When I consider all this, my dear brethren, I am not surprised that holy servants of God here on earth long so ardently and always sighing for it. with so many sighs and tears for the knowledge and vision of always God. Reason enough have SS. Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, Cyprian, and Bernard, whose writings are filled with the expression of that desire. “O my God! I can speak only of what is in my heart, and of what I am always thinking of.”^[16] “Wretched man that I am in being without Thee, in not seeing Thee!”^[17] “To live without Thee is death to me; to die for Thee is my life!”^[18] “O joy above all joys! O joy surpassing every joy! outside of which there is no joy, when shall I enter into thee to see my God, who dwells in thee?”^[19] “How long shall I be miserably cast about by the waves of this mortality of mine, calling to Thee, my God, and Thou wilt not hear?”^[20] “Hear me, O Lord! calling out to Thee from this vast ocean, and bring me to the haven of eternal happiness!”^[21] O vision of my God! O knowledge of my God! thou alone art the object of my desires, the end of all my sighs and longings! Let me lose all else if I can only gain thee; if I possess thee alone I am rich enough! O divine countenance! when shall I behold thee? “As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters,” sighs forth David, filled with a similar longing, “so my soul panteth after Thee, O God! My soul hath thirsted after the strong, living God: when shall I come and appear before the face of God?”^[22] When shall that happy time come? There is nothing on this earth that can give me pleasure. I have been a shepherd, and liave asked Thee for strength to slay the lions and bears that attacked my flock; I thought I was fortunate enough when I obtained that favor from Thee; I did obtain it, but I am not satisfied with it. I wished to engage in combat with a huge giant and to overthrow him, and I succeeded in doing so. As a reward I was promised the daughter of an earthly king in marriage; again I thought my desires were all satisfied, but not yet had I found what could fully content me. At last the crown was placed on my head; now I am a rich, powerful king seated on a throne, but I am not on that account happier or more pleased, nor shall I ever be so until I come and appear before Thy face, O God! Then Thou wilt make my joy complete. Ah, when is that to happen? “When shall I come and appear before the face of God?”

The folly of men in having such little desire for heaven. All these sighs, longings, and desires on the part of the servants of God do not surprise me. What does excite my astonishment is our own blindness and stupidity, which can never be sufficiently deplored, inasmuch as we have such little desire for this supreme good, and squander our affections and love on trifles and baubles, on mere fancies and curious conceits, on dreams and shadows, on a momentary lust, on a breath of worldly honor, on a piece of money or land, on the perishable beauty of a mortal creature; these things we almost fall down before and worship, while we neglect the supreme, infinite, immense good, that alone can satiate our hearts and make us happy; and we think as little of it as if we wished to refuse credence to those who remind us of it and to, the divine promises!

Exhortation and resolution never to offend God. Ah, dear Christians, whatever we do in this world, let us above all see that we so live as once to possess our God in eternity! Better were it for ns never to have been born than to fail in this one object, our everlasting happiness. We all wish to go to heaven, do we not? Ah, truly, that is our hope, nor is there one who desires another fate. Courage, then; we shall all go to heaven, every one of us that is here present; so let each one imagine and believe certainly as far as he himself is concerned. But let each one say to himself: I will be happy forever; I will see my God, love my God, eternally rejoice in my God; shall I then, I ask, offend and trample under foot that God of infinite beauty, whom I believe that I shall behold, whom I know to be and to have been always worthy of being loved above all things with the whole heart? Shall I not now serve Him with all my strength, and fulfil His holy will in all things? Shall I have to say to myself, to my own shame, when I see my God in eternity: see how the good God has prepared for me, in preference to so many millions who are burning in hell, this endless joy and glory in His own house, in heaven, in His company; and during my life I have done so little for it all! I have so often offended and angered Him! No! such shall now be our resolution, that shall never be the case again. My greatest sorrow is that it has ever happened.

And to rejoice even now in the hope of heaven hereafter. I hope and trust to see my God forever in heaven; therefore I will enjoy a foretaste of this happiness already on earth as far as may be, and shall constantly keep myself in the presence of God, and offer np all my actions by the good intention for His sake and in His honor. I hope and trust to love God forever in heaven; therefore 1 will now at once begin with this love, and in this life I will love God with all my heart above all things, and in future no pleasure, no gain, no mortal, no creature shall have such value in my sight as to withdraw me from the love of my God by sin. I hope and trust to come to heaven and rejoice there forever with God; therefore I will now seek my only consolation and joy in my Lord and God. That is what Christ promised to His disciples and in their persons to us all. They came to Him exulting and told Him how they had cast out demons, and forced them by their word to leave the bodies of the possessed; “but yet,” said Our Lord, “rejoice not in this, that spirits are subject unto you;” that is not a matter for you to make so much of: “but rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven.”^[23] That is an advantage that may well cause you to rejoice with good reason: that your names are written in the Book of Life among the elect to eternal glory. Dear Christians, this is said to us also. If we have received special gifts of nature from God, that is nothing for us to rejoice at; if we are rich in temporal goods, high in honors before the world, that is nothing to rejoice at; if we are comely of person and beloved by many, and find much pleasure in earthly things, that is no reason for us to rejoice. Ah, these things are far too vile to be the cause of true joy! If there is one who is made happy by them, there are hundreds whom they have brought to damnation. For one reason alone shall we rejoice in the Lord, namely, the hope we have of being in the number of the elect. If we have to live in all sorts of misery, to endure crosses and trials, poverty, trouble, and persecution, that is no reason why we should be sad or ill at ease; if there is one in hell on account of such things, there are hundreds in heaven who have reached there by the rugged way of the cross. This hope alone can fill us with true joy; this alone can give us courage and delight us in this life above all joys, that our names are written in the Book of Life, that we shall see our God forever in heaven, love Him, and rejoice with Him forever. Christians, let us serve this God here on earth that this hope of ours may one day be realized. Amen.

Another introduction to the same sermon for the fourth Sunday of Advent.

Text.

Videbit omnis caro salutare Dei.—Luke iii. 6.

"And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

Introduction.

That is finally what shall constitute the perfect happiness of the elect soul in heaven, that it will behold its God and Saviour, not merely in His human nature, but in all the beauty, infinity, and immensity of the divinity, etc. Continues as above.

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1. Vado ad eum qui misit me.—John xvi. 5.
2. Vado parare vobis locum.—Ibid. 2.
3. Domine, bonum est nos hic esse.—Matt. xvii. 4.
4. Videmus nunc per speculum in ænigmate.—I. Cor. xiii. 12.
5. Videbimus eum sicuti est.—I. John iii. 2.
6. Hæc est autem vita æterna: ut cognoscant te, solum Deum verum, et quem misisti, Jesum Christum.—Ibid. xvii. 3.
7. Si enro inveni gratiam in conspectu tuo, ostende mihi faciem tuam, ut sciam te, et inveniam gratiam ante oculos tuos. Ego ostendam omne bonum tibi. Non poteris videre faciem meam; non enim videbit me homo, et vivet.—Exod. xxxiii. 13, 19, 20.
8. Civitas non eget sole, neque luna, ut luceant in ea; nam claritas Dei illuminavit eam.—Apoc. xxi. 23.
9. Apud te est fons vitæ, et in lumine tuo videbimus lumen.—Ps. xxxv. 10.
10. Scimus, quoniam cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus: quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est.—I. John iii. 2.
11. Quotquot ibi sunt, dii sunt: omnes cognoscunt Deum sine errore, vident sine fine, laudant sine fatigatione, amant sine fastidio. Semper vident, et semper videre desiderant: tam desiderabilis est ad videndum. Semper amant, semper amare desiderant: tam dulcis est ad amandum.—S. Aug. l. de anima et spiritu.
12. Manebit quidem substantia, sed in alia forma, alia gloria, alia potentia, quando veniam et apparebo ante faciem Dei.
13. Ego dixi: dii estis, et filii Excelsi omnes.—Ps. lxxxi. 6.
14. Tu eris super domum meam, et ad tui oris imperium cunctus populus obediet: uno tantum regni solio te præcedam.—Gen. xli. 40.
15. Videns autem regina Saba omnem sapientiam Solomonis, et domum quam ædificaverat, et cibos mensæ ejus, et habitacula servorum, et ordines ministrantium, vestesque eorum…non habebat ultra spiritum. Dixitque ad regem: Verus est sermo quem audivi in terra mea super sermonibus tuis, et super sapientia tua; et non credebam narrantibus mihi, donec ipsa veni, et vidi oculis meis, et probavi quod media pars mihi nuntiata non fuerit: major est sapientia et opera tua, quam rumor quem audivi. Beati viri tui, et beati servi tui qui stant coram te semper, et audiunt sapientiam tuam.—III. Kings x. 4–8.
16. Solum quod mihi est cordi loquar.
17. Miserum me, quod to careo! miserum me, quod te non video!
18. Sine te vivere mihi mori est; pro te mori mihi vivere est!
19. O gaudium super gaudium! gaudium vincens omne gaudium, extra quod non est gaudium, quando intrabo in te, ut videam Deum meum, qui habitat in te?
20. Quamdiu miser jactabor in fluctibus mortalitatis meæ, clamans ad te Domine, et non exaudis?
21. Audi clamantem Domine de hoc mari magno, et adduc me ad portum felicitatis æternæ!
22. Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum; ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus. Sitivit anima mea ad Deum fortem vivum; quando veniam et apparebo ante faciem Dei?—Ps. xli. 2, 3.
23. In hoc nolite gaudere, quia sipitus vobis subjiciuntur; gaudete autem, quod nomina vestra scripta sunt in cœlis.—Luke x. 20.