Seeing God

Beati mundo corde quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt.   Appetitivum est omnibus, velle videre quod amant. Ideo post caetera sequitur congrue: Beati mundi corde, etc. Soli enim munidcordes Deum videbunt, et solo mundo corde videbitur Deus. Sed quid, rogo, fratres, tot, tandiu, et tantis egimus, si nondum cor mundavimus? Si mundavimus ad virtutem, mundandum est ad veritatem; si mundavimus ad diligendum, mundandum est ad videndum. Sanavimus quidem claudum, sed illuminandus est caecus. Duo enim sunt poenalia filiis Adam, ignorantia et difficultas, quarum altera oculos rationis claudit, altera quasi pedes animae ligat affectum. Communes passiones Propheta deplorans: Dereliquit me, inquit, virtus mea, et lumen oculorum meorum non est mecum. Virtus in affectu formatur, vel potius affectus ipse in virtute formatur. Rationi quidem veritas monstratur, sed ad ipsam videndam ab ipsa illustratur. Dominus itaque dum oculos mentis ad videndam veritatem purgat, quasi caecum illuminat. Unde et de munditia cordis sermo sequens texitur, non ut mundetur a vitiis, quae perversi amoris, sive inordinati affectus nomine censentur, sed a phantasiis, quae per corporeos sensus imbibuntur, et intus in imaginatione versantur, et tanquam nubeculae interpositae claritatem nobis solis occulunt, vel per ipsum solare corpus notius luminis fontem, ab ipso omnino remotae, nobis intercludunt, vel ad minus acumen obtundunt. Sicut enim in hoc visibile coelum si cui pervolandi facultas adforet, terra ei deserenda esset, et aquae, quae superiores esse feruntur quam terra: illae etiam leviores, quae mirabili arte suspenduntur, et nubes fiunt; sic nimirum qui ad pure incorporeum cernendum aciem mentis erigit, non solum omne corpus, vel corporis similitudinem, sed etiam cogitationum universam volubilitatem transcendat, necesse est. Quid miramini? Cum omnes has quas diximus nubes, vigilantia mentis et cordis puritate, imo postmanente omni cogitatione, pertransieritis, apparebit tandem nubes clara, nubes lucida, non jam turbida, non densa, non jam ignorantiae, sed sapientiae nubes. Tenebrae enim sunt in lumine, et multo magis in multo lumine: quod ipsam lucem, cum ingreditur suam incomprehensibilitatem, suam inaccessibilitatem, in qua habitat, suam denique pacem, quae exuperat omnem sensum, suscipiat ab oculis nostris: ut deinceps revelatione potius quam contemplatione de ea quid quam discatis, sicut sancti apostoli viris, qui astiterunt juxta illos in vestibus albis. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, In festo omnium sanctorum, Sermo IV Source: Migne PL 194. 1701

'Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.' 1 It is the desire of everyone that they wish to see what they love. Therefore after the others it rightly follows: 'Blessed are the pure in heart.' Only those who are pure in heart see God and only in the pure heart is God seen. But what, I ask, brothers, have we done so much, so many times, for so long, if we do not yet have a pure heart? If we have been cleansed to virtue, there is cleanliness to truth, if we are cleansed to loving, we are cleansed for seeing. Certainly we have healed lameness, but to be enlightened is for the blind. Two are the punishments given to the sons of Adam, ignorance and difficulty, one of which closes the eye of reason, the other which binds the feet of the soul. The common passions the Prophet deplores, saying, 'My strength has forsaken me, and the light of my eyes is not with me.' 2 Virtue is formed in disposition, or rather the disposition in virtue is formed. Truth is revealed to reason but for the seeing of it by truth it is lit. Thus the Lord, while he washes the eyes of the mind for the seeing of truth, also enlightens the blind man. Whence even concerning purity of heart the following word is given, not that there may be a cleansing from fault, which is reckoned by perverse love or inordinate passion, but from phantasies, which imbued by the corporeal senses, whirl within the imagination, and as clouds before the sun obscure it to us, as when that more notable fount of light is cut off by a body from it utterly remote, even when it covers it by the least part. For even in this visible heaven, if the power of elevation is acquired, by which the earth is forsaken, even water borne above the earth, a thing so light by wondrous art suspended, becomes clouds, and so indeed he who would direct the acuity of the mind to pure incorporeal discernment, must transcend not only every body, or likeness of body, but even every tribulation of thought. Why wonder? When you pass through all these clouds we have spoken of, with the vigilance of the mind and the purity of the heart passing beyond every thought, then shall appear at last bright clouds, sunlit clouds, not now turbid, nor dark, not clouds of ignorance, but of wisdom. And yet still dark they are in the light, and much more dark the more light there is, that light that when one enters is incomprehensible, inaccessible, in which He dwells, and then His peace, which exceeds every understanding, shall be grasped by our eyes, and then shall be revelation rather than the contemplation by which you learn these things, as was with the holy Apostles, when men in white robes stood by them. 3 Isaac of Stella, from the Fourth Sermon for the Feast of All Saints 1 Mt 5.8 2 Ps 37.11 3 Act 1.10