§163Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is".47 So faith is already the beginning of eternal life: When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us…

§1023Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they "see him as he is," face to face:596 By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism …

§1720The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man: - the coming of the Kingdom of God;16 - the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"17 - entering into the joy of the Lord;18 - entering into God's rest:19 There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise. Behold what will be…

1. At all times indeed, but especially then when I reflect upon the achievements of the saints, it comes over me to feel despondency concerning my own condition, because we have not even in dreams experienced the things among which those men spent their whole lives, not paying the penalty of sins, but always doing rightly and yet always afflicted. For consider, I beseech you, E…

Chapter 29.—Of the Beatific Vision. And now let us consider, with such ability as God may vouchsafe, how the saints shall be employed when they are clothed in immortal and spiritual bodies, and when the flesh shall live no longer in a fleshly but a spiritual fashion. And indeed, to tell the truth, I am at a loss to understand the nature of that employment, or, shall I rather sa…

1. Jesus Comes to Capernaum. Statements of the Four Evangelists Regarding This. After this John 2:12-25 He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and there they abode not many days. And the passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and He found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers…

He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. Chapter 1. He, Now Given to Divine Things, and Yet Entangled by the Lusts of Love, Consults Si…

Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and me…

He continues his explanation of the first Chapter of Genesis according to the Septuagint, and by its assistance he argues, especially, concerning the double heaven, and the formless matter out of which the whole world may have been created; afterwards of the interpretations of others not disallowed, and sets forth at great length the sense of the Holy Scripture. Chapter 1 .— Th…

Can any created intellect see the essence of God? Is the essence of God seen by the intellect through any created image? Can the essence of God be seen by the corporeal eye? Is any created intellectual substance sufficient by its own natural powers to see the essence of God? Does the created intellect need any created light in order to see the essence of God? Of those who see G…

What kind of law is it? i.e. is it a written law or is it instilled in the heart? Its efficacy, i.e. does it justify? Its beginning: should it have been given at the beginning of the world? Its end: i.e. will it last until the end, or will another law take its place? Article 1. Whether the New Law is a written law? Objection 1. It would seem that the New Law is a written law. F…

Is the object of faith the First Truth? Is the object of faith something complex or incomplex, i.e. is it a thing or a proposition? Can anything false come under faith? Can the object of faith be anything seen? Can it be anything known? Should the things to be believed be divided into a certain number of articles? These articles: are they of faith for all times? The number of a…

Faith is the first movement of the soul toward God and the foundation on which all knowledge is built. Clement rejects the charge that Christian faith is irrational credulity. Every system of knowledge begins with first principles that must be accepted before reasoning can begin — and faith is precisely this kind of foundational assent. Faith is the substance of things hoped fo…