Salesian Literature

Chapter 9:  The union of the saints with God in heaven

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Love triumphant, as practised by the saints in heaven, consists in utter, unchanging, eternal union of soul with God.  now for a description of that union…

 

The better, more pleasing, the things that come within the range of senses, the more eagerly, enthusiastically, those senses try to enjoy them.  The more beautiful something is, bright and attractive, the more eagerly, attentively, the eye looks at it.  The sweeter the voice or the music, the more it captivates the ear.  Each object, in other words, exerts powerful but pleasing pressure on the sense to which it appeals.

 

The strength of this pressure varies in proportion to the object’s merits – as long as the object is commensurate with the capacity of the sense to enjoy it.  The eye is greatly attracted by light, yet it cannot bear too great a brilliance, cannot stare at the sun.  Music – however beautiful – if it is too loud, annoys and hurts the ear.  The intellect’s target is truth: the discovery and knowledge of the truth of things completely satisfies the mind; and the more satisfying the truth, the more cheerfully and attentively the mind sets about examining it.

 

Think of the pleasure that philosophers of old derived from their great knowledge of nature’s wondrous truths.  They knew no delights to compare with their beloved philosophy, that is certain; some were even willing to sacrifice honours, riches, country, for its enjoyment.  One individual calmly plucked out his eyes; this is recorded of Democritus[1], who deprived himself for ever of the light of the senses, to allow himself more freedom to reflect on truth in the light of the spirit.  So entrancing is knowledge of the truth!

 

Once you lift the mind above the natural light of reason, however; once it begins to see the sacred truths of faith – heaven knows the bliss it finds! The human heart leaps with joy at the sound of the bridegrooms voice: never was honey, all human knowledge, so sweet to its taste (Ps. 118:103).

 

God has left his mark on all that he has made, so that any knowledge of him we may gain through creatures is like discovering his footprints; compared to that, faith is the vision of his face.  As yet, we do not see him in the full light of glory, but only through the mists of dawn – as happened to Jacob across the ford of Jaboc (Gen. 32:24-30).  Although he only saw the angel – with whom he wrestled –in the dim light of daybreak, he was so delighted that he could not resist exclaiming: I have seen God face to face, and my life was not forfeit.

 

How it gladdens the heart, this light of faith! It furnishes knowledge beyond all questioning – not only the story of the origin of everything God has made, and how to treat it; but also the eternal birth of God’s supreme Word, in whom and through whom all things came into being (Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16), who is the only God with the Father and Holy Spirit, peerless, most worthy of adoration, blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

 

“Plato, for all his learning, never knew this,” wrote St. Jerome to Paulinus: “Demosthenes, for all his eloquence remained unaware of it.”  Meat most appetizing are thy promises, sang David; never was honey so sweet to my taste (Ps. 118:103).  Were not our hearts burning within us when he spoke to us on the road? (Lk. 24:32) declared those happy pilgrims from Emmaus; they were referring to the sparks of love struck from their hearts by the word of faith.

 

If God’s truths have such power to charm when set before us in the dim light of faith, what will they do as we contemplate them in the noonday light of glory?

 

“Never”, the compelling charm of it will force us to cry, “never would it have entered our minds – the thought of seeing such entrancing truths!  We believed, of course, all that we were told of your glory, great city of God (Ps. 86:2), but we could have no idea of the fathomless depths of your delights.”

 

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[1]  A Greek philosoher (490 BC) who held an atomic theory.

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