The Light Of Heaven

Dominae Eximiae Et Merito Praestantissimae, atque in Christi Caritate Honorandae Filiae Italicae, Augustinus Episcopus, In Domino Salutem Non solum litteris tuis, verum etiam ipso referente qui pertulit, comperi multum te flagitare litteras meas, credentem quod ex eis consolationem habere plurimam possis. Tu itaque videris quid exinde capias, ego tamen eas negare vel differre non debui. Consoletur autem te fides et spes tua, et ipsa caritas quae diffunditur in cordibus piorum per Spiritum sanctum, cuius nunc aliquid pro pignore accepimus, ut ipsam plenitudinem desiderare noverimus. Non enim te desolatam putare debes, cum in interiore homine habeas praesentem Christum per fidem in corde tuo; aut sic te contristari oportet, quemadmodum gentes quae spem non habent, cum veracissima promissione speremus nos de hac vita, unde migraturi quosdam nostros migrantes non amisimus, sed praemisimus, ad eam vitam esse venturos, ubi nobis erunt quanto notiores, tanto utique cariores, et sine timore ullius discessionis amabiles. Hic autem etsi coniux tuus, cuius abscessu vidua diceris, tibi notissimus erat, sibi tamen notior erat quam tibi. Et unde hoc, cum tu eius corporalem faciem videres, quam ipse utique non videbat, nisi quia notitia nostri certior intus est, ubi nemo scit quae sunt hominis, nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est: sed cum venerit Dominus, et illuminaverit abscondita tenebrarum, et manifestaverit cogitationes cordis, tunc nihil latebit proximum in proximo, nec erit quod suis quisque aperiat, abscondat alienis, ubi nullus erit alienus. Lux vero ipsa, qua illuminabuntur haec omnia quae modo in cordibus reconduntur, qualis aut quanta sit, quis lingua proferat, quis saltem infirma mente contingat? Profecto lux illa Deus ipse est, quoniam Deus lux est, et tenebrae in eo non sunt ullae; sed lux mentium purgatarum, non istorum corporis oculorum. Erit ergo tunc mens idonea quae illam lucem videat, quod nunc nondum est. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, ex Epistula XCII, Italica Source: Migne PL 33.316

To the Noble and Rightly Distinguished, and in the Love of Christ a Daughter Worthy of Honour, Lady Italica, Bishop Augustine Sends Greeting in the Lord. Not only by your letter, but also by the statements of him who brought it to me, I have learned that you have zealously requested a letter from me, believing that you might acquire from it much consolation. You will see what you may gain from that, I however felt that I should neither refuse nor delay. May your faith and hope console you, and that love which is diffused in the hearts of the pious by the Holy Spirit, 1 of which we now receive a portion as a pledge, so that we may learn to desire its fullness. For you should not consider yourself desolate while you have Christ dwelling within your heart by faith, nor should you sorrow as those folk who have no hope, when by a most sure promise we have hope in this life that we have not lost those who have gone away earlier than ourselves to the country where we shall come, in which they shall be more beloved to us as they shall be better known, and where without any fear of separation we shall love. Even if your husband, by whose passing you are now a widow, was most well known to you, yet he was better known to himself than to you. And how so, when you looked on his face, which he himself did not see, unless because the inner knowledge which we have of ourselves is more certain, since no man 'knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in man.' 2 But when the Lord comes, 'who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the thoughts of the hearts,' 3 then nothing shall be hidden in any one from his neighbour, nor shall there be anything which any one might reveal to his own, but hide from strangers, for there shall be no stranger there. But that light which shall illuminate all those things yet hidden in the heart, what tongue could tell its nature and greatness? Who can with our weak minds even approach it? Truly that Light is God Himself, because 'God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all,' 4 but He is the light of purified minds, not of these bodily eyes. And thus then the mind shall be able to see that light which now it cannot. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from Letter 92, to Italica 1 Rom 5.5 2 1 Cor 2.11 3 1 Cor 4.5 4 1 Jn 1.5