Whether in the Present State of Life the Contemplative Life Can Reach
to the Vision of the Divine Essence?
Objection 1: It would seem that in the present state of life the
contemplative life can reach to the vision of the Divine essence.
For, as stated in Gen. 32:30, Jacob said: "I have seen God face to
face, and my soul has been saved." Now the vision of God's face is
the vision of the Divine essence. Therefore it would seem that in the
present life one may come, by means of contemplation, to see God in
His essence.
Obj. 2: Further, Gregory says (Moral. vi, 37) that "contemplative men
withdraw within themselves in order to explore spiritual things, nor
do they ever carry with them the shadows of things corporeal, or if
these follow them they prudently drive them away: but being desirous
of seeing the incomprehensible light, they suppress all the images of
their limited comprehension, and through longing to reach what is
above them, they overcome that which they are." Now man is not
hindered from seeing the Divine essence, which is the
incomprehensible light, save by the necessity of turning to corporeal
phantasms. Therefore it would seem that the contemplation of the
present life can extend to the vision of the incomprehensible light
in its essence.
Obj. 3: Further, Gregory says (Dial. ii, 35): "All creatures are
small to the soul that sees its Creator: wherefore when the man of
God," the blessed Benedict, to wit, "saw a fiery globe in the tower
and angels returning to heaven, without doubt he could only see such
things by the light of God." Now the blessed Benedict was still in
this life. Therefore the contemplation of the present life can extend
to the vision of the essence of God.
_On the contrary,_ Gregory says (Hom. xiv in Ezech.): "As long as we
live in this mortal flesh, no one reaches such a height of
contemplation as to fix the eyes of his mind on the ray itself of
incomprehensible light."
_I answer that,_ As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xii, 27), "no one
seeing God lives this mortal life wherein the bodily senses have
their play: and unless in some way he depart this life, whether by
going altogether out of his body, or by withdrawing from his carnal
senses, he is not caught up into that vision." This has been
carefully discussed above (Q. 175, AA. 4, 5), where we spoke of
rapture, and in the First Part (Q. 12, A. 2), where we treated of the
vision of God.
Accordingly we must state that one may be in this life in two ways.
First, with regard to act, that is to say by actually making use of
the bodily senses, and thus contemplation in the present life can
nowise attain to the vision of God's essence. Secondly, one may be in
this life potentially and not with regard to act, that is to say,
when the soul is united to the mortal body as its form, yet so as to
make use neither of the bodily senses, nor even of the imagination,
as happens in rapture; and in this way the contemplation of the
present life can attain to the vision of the Divine essence.
Consequently the highest degree of contemplation in the present life
is that which Paul had in rapture, whereby he was in a middle state
between the present life and the life to come.
Reply Obj. 1: As Dionysius says (Ep. i ad Caium. Monach.), "if anyone
seeing God, understood what he saw, he saw not God Himself, but
something belonging to God." And Gregory says (Hom. xiv in Ezech.):
"By no means is God seen now in His glory; but the soul sees
something of lower degree, and is thereby refreshed so that
afterwards it may attain to the glory of vision." Accordingly the
words of Jacob, "I saw God face to face" do not imply that he saw
God's essence, but that he saw some shape [*Cf. I, Q. 12, A. 11, ad
1], imaginary of course, wherein God spoke to him. Or, "since we know
a man by his face, by the face of God he signified his knowledge of
Him," according to a gloss of Gregory on the same passage.
Reply Obj. 2: In the present state of life human contemplation is
impossible without phantasms, because it is connatural to man to see
the intelligible species in the phantasms, as the Philosopher states
(De Anima iii, 7). Yet intellectual knowledge does not consist in the
phantasms themselves, but in our contemplating in them the purity of
the intelligible truth: and this not only in natural knowledge, but
also in that which we obtain by revelation. For Dionysius says (Coel.
Hier. i) that "the Divine glory shows us the angelic hierarchies
under certain symbolic figures, and by its power we are brought back
to the single ray of light," i.e. to the simple knowledge of the
intelligible truth. It is in this sense that we must understand the
statement of Gregory that "contemplatives do not carry along with
them the shadows of things corporeal," since their contemplation is
not fixed on them, but on the consideration of the intelligible truth.
Reply Obj. 3: By these words Gregory does not imply that the blessed
Benedict, in that vision, saw God in His essence, but he wishes to
show that because "all creatures are small to him that sees God," it
follows that all things can easily be seen through the enlightenment
of the Divine light. Wherefore he adds: "For however little he may
see of the Creator's light, all created things become petty to him."
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