Chapter 16
351 | Text and Translation Chapter 16 That this is the inaccessible light which he inhabits Truly, lord, this is the inaccessible light in which you dwell. For truly there is nothing else that can penetrate it so as to look upon you there. Truly, therefore, I do not see it, since it is too much for me; and yet whatever I see, I see by means of it—just as an eye that is weak sees what it sees by the light of the sun, which it cannot look at in the sun itself. My understanding is not up to it. It shines too brilliantly;
I grasp it not. Nor may the eye of my soul direct itself to it for long.
It is dazzled by its splendor, overcome by its vastness, overwhelmed by its immensity, confused by its extent.
O supreme and inaccessible light, O whole and blessed truth!
How far you are from me, who am so near to you!
How distant you are from my sight, whose sight I am so present to!
You are wholly present everywhere, and I do not see you.
In you I move and in you I am, and yet I cannot approach you.
You are within me and around me, and I do not experience you.
3521 PROSLOGION
CAPITULUM XVII
Quod in Deo sit harmonia, odor, sapor, lenitas, pulchritudo suo ineffabili modo Adhuc lates, Domine, animam meam in luce et beatitudine tua, et idcirco versatur illa adhuc in tenebris et miseria sua.
Circumspicit enim — et non videt pulchritudinem tuam.
Auscultat — et non audit harmoniam tuam.
Olfacit — et non percipit odorem tuum.
Gustat — et non cognoscit saporem tuum.
Palpat — et non sentit lenitatem tuam.
Habes enim haec, Domine Deus, in te tuo ineffabili modo, qui ea dedisti rebus a te creatis suo sensibili modo; sed obriguerunt, sed obstupuerunt, sed obstructi sunt sensus animae meae vetusto languore peccati.