Wednesday 11 January 2023

The human being is internally tied to the light and the truth

 




It is a fundamental matter of the Chilean writer Nona Fernandez (in her novel "Voyager") that what we are is actually the result of an infinite history of moral, affective, spiritual and flesh ties that originated from the beginning of the cosmos up to the present. And Fernandez treats the subject quite well, I have to admit it, even though sometimes slows down the pace of her novel because of too long details she's giving.

Her issue is consequential and makes us think about the story of Genesis, that at the beginning of the universe, there is the Creation and Creation is related to light. As a result of this, it can be said that our origin is from light. The human being is a compound being because what is indistinct is not compound, and light (fiat lux) was what separated what was indistinct (terra autem erat inanis et vacua, et tenebrae super faciem abyssi, et spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas) to make it distinct (et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona et divisit Deus lucem ac tenebras. Appellavitque Deus lucem Diem et tenebras Noctem. Factumque est vespere et mane).
So, the human being has an origin of light because the light is the cause of distinction.
The same Apostle Paul confirms this, that we are sons of light: Omnes enim vos filii lucis estis, et filii diei; non sumus noctis neque tenebrarum.
Light and truth are tied. The search for light is the search for truth and vice versa.
In each human being, there is light and truth and the thirst for truth and light is harboured in each being. But the majority of human beings are structurally incapable of looking into themselves and into the inner light, because they are more structured to live in darkness and lies, and they choose it.
And this causes the total arrival of darkness since, when the human being abandons the path of light or of God's love, is condemned to darkness, as Saint Augustine points out: scientia creaturae in comparatione scientiae Creatoris quodam modo vesperascit, itemque lucescit et mane fit, cum et ipsa refertur ad laudem dilectionemque Creatoris; nec in noctem vergitur, ubi non Creator creaturae dilectione relinquitur [1]

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[1] The knowledge of the human being in comparison with the knowledge of the Creator tends to become darkness [vesperascit]. But it converts into dawn and morning [i.e. light] when the very knowledge of the human being becomes praise and love towards the Creator: it [never] becomes night when the Creator is not abandoned by his love for the human being . (From Civitate Dei, XI. 7)

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