Nothing And Something

Ait propheta, de homine generaliter loquens: Omnes, inquit, gentes quasi non sint, sic sunt coram eo, videlicet qui vere est, ac per se, et in se, non in alio ante se, vel supra se: et quasi nihil et inane reputatae sunt, tanquam de nihilo et inani. Ergo, qui se existimat aliquid esse, cum nihil sit, ipse se seducit. Taceamus itaque aliquid quaerere, cum nihil simus; quaerere quod vere est, cum vere omnino non simus. Ad omnium enim differentiam dictum est: Ego sum qui sum, ut dicere possit omne quod id non est: Ego sum qui non sum: aut non sum qui sum. Eia quo profecimus, fratres? Aliquid quaerentes, invenimus nihil. Deum quaerentes, nosmetipsos perdidimus. Cum enim tenuissima rimula interlucere coepit de nonnihilo aliquid, magno jam nobis lumine claruit, quam de nihilo nihil simus. Domine, vere in lumine tuo videbimus lumen tuum, et tenebras nostras. Isaac Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XIX, In Sexagisma III Source: Migne PL 194.1756 a-b

The Prophet spoke concerning men in general, saying: 'All the peoples are as nothing, so they are before Me,' 1 certainly He who truly is, through Himself, and in Himself, not in another before Him, or above Him. 'And as nothing and an emptiness they are reputed,' 1 as from nothing and from emptiness. Therefore, he who judges himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself. And so let us be silent in the seeking of something, when we are nothing, the seeking of what truly is, when truly we are not anything. To distinguish Himself from everything He has said: 'I am He who is,' 2 that everything that is not Him might say: 'I am what is not,' or 'I am not He who is.' And how, considering this, have we advanced, brothers? Seeking something, we have found nothing. Seeking God, we have lost ourselves. But when light begins to shine through the tiniest chink, from nothing there is something, and now He enlightens us with a great light, that we are nothing from nothing. O Lord, truly 'in your light we shall see your light,' and our darkness. 3 Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 19, On Sexagisma, 3 1 1 Isai 40.17 2 Exod 3.14 3 Ps 35.10