CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER FIVE
CONTEMPLATING THE DIVINE UNITY
THROUGH ITS PRIMARY NAME
WHICH IS BEING
1. We can contemplate God not only outside us and within us but also above us: outside through his vestiges, within through his image and above through the light which shines upon our minds,
which is the light of Eternal Truth, since "our mind itself is formed immediately by Truth itself." 2
Those who have become practiced in the first way have already entered the court before the tabernacle; those practiced in the second way have entered the sanctuary; and those practiced in the third way enter with the high priest into the Holy of Holies where the Cherubim of glory stand over the ark overshadowing the Mercy Seat. 3
By these Cherubim we understand the two modes or stages of contemplating the invisible and eternal things of God: one is concerned with the essential attributes of God and the other with those proper to the Persons.
2. The first method 1.
Cf. Ps. 4:7.
Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus 83, q.
51, no.
2, 4.
Cf. Exod. 25:10-22; 26:33-35; Heb. 9:2-5.
THE SOULSJOURNEY INTO GOD
fixes the gaze primarily and principally on Being itself, saying that God's primary name is He who is The second method fixes the gaze on the Good itself, saying that this is God's primary name.
The first looks chiefly to the Old Testament, which proclaims most of all the unity of the divine essence.
Hence Moses was told:
I am who am. b The second method looks to the New Testament which determines the plurality of Persons by baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
. 6
Therefore, Christ our Teacher, wishing to raise to evangelical perfection the youth who had observed the Law, attributed to God principally and exclusively the name of goodness.
For he says:
No one is good but God alone . 7
Damascene, therefore, following Moses, says that He who is is God's primary name; Dionysius, following Christ, says that the Good is God's primary name . 8
Exod.
3:14.
Ibid.
Matt. 28:19.
7. Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19.
8. John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa , I, 9; Dionysius, De divinis nominibus , III,
1; IV, 1.
ST. BONAVENTURE
Let him who wishes to contemplate the invisible things of God in the unity of his essence fix his attention first on being itself, and let him see that being itself is so certain in itself that it cannot be thought not to be. For pure being occurs only in full flight from nonbeing just as nothing is in full flight from being.
Therefore, just as absolute nothing has nothing of being or its attributes, so contrariwise being itself has nothing of nonbeing either in act or potency, either in objective truth or in our estimation. Since nonbeing is the privation of being, it does not come into our understanding except through being; but being does not come to us through something else because everything which is understood is understood as nonbeing or being in potency or being in act.
If, therefore, nonbeing can be understood only through being and being in potency only through being in act, and if being signifies the pure act of being, then being is what first comes into the intellect and this being is pure act. But this is not particular being, which is limited because mixed with potency; nor is it analogous being because that has only a minimum of actuality because it has only a minimum of being.
It remains that the being in question must be divine Being.
Strange, then, is the blindness of the intellect, which does not consider that which it sees first and without which it can know nothing. The eye, concentrating on various differences of color, does not see the very light by which it sees other things; and if it does see this light, it does not advert to it. In the same way, the mind's eye, concentrating on particular and universal being, does not advert to being itself, which is beyond every genus, even though it comes to our minds first and through it we know other things. Hence it is most truly apparent that u as the eye of the bat is in regard to light so is the eye of our mind in regard to the most evident things of nature." 9 Thus our mind, accustomed to the darkness of beings and the images of 9.
Aristotle, Metaph.
I minor (II), t.
1, c.
1 (993b 9-11).
THE SOULSJOURNEY INTO GOD
the things of sense, when it glimpses the light of the supreme Being, seems to itself to see nothing. It does not realize that this very darkness is the supreme illumination of our mind (cf. Ps.
138:1 1), just as when the eye sees pure light, it seems to itself to see nothing.
Behold, then, if you can, purest being itself and you will realize that it cannot be thought of as received from another.
From this, it must necessarily be thought of as absolutely first since it cannot come from nothing or from something. For what exists of itself, if being itself does not exist of itself and by itself?
It will also appear to you as completely lacking nonbeing and therefore as never beginning nor ceasing, but rather eternal.
It will also appear to you as having in itself nothing but being itself and hence as not composite but utterly simple. It will appear to you as having no potentiality since every potential being has in some way something of nonbeing; and hence it will appear as supremely actual.
It will appear as having no possibility for defect and hence as most perfect.
Finally, it will appear as having no diversity and hence as supremely one.
Therefore that being which is pure being and simple being and absolute being is Primary Being, eternal, utterly simple, most actual, most perfect and supremely one.
. These things are so certain that their opposites cannot be conceived by a man who understands being itself, and one of these necessarily implies the other.
For since being exists without qualification, it is without qualification first.
Since it is without qualification first, it is not made by another, nor could it be made by itself; therefore it is eternal. Likewise, since it is first and eternal, it is not made from other things; therefore it is utterly simple. Also, since it is first, eternal and utterly simple, there is in it no potency mixed with its actuality; therefore it is most actual. Also, since it is first, eternal, utterly simple and most actual, it is most perfect; it lacks absolutely nothing, nor can any addition be made to it. Since it is first, eternal, utterly simple, most actual and most perfect, it is su-
ST. BONAVENTURE
premely one. What is said with all-embracing superabundance is said of all things. But "what is said through superabundance unqualifiedly can be applied to only one thing." 10 Hence, if God is called primary being, eternal, utterly simple, most actual, and most perfect, it is impossible that he be thought not to be or to be
, therefore, Israel, your God is one God . 11 If you see this in the pure simplicity of your mind, you will somehow be bathed in the brilliance of eternal light. other than unique. Hear 7.
But you have something here to lift you up in wonder, for Being itself is first and last; it is eternal and most present; it is utterly simple and the greatest; it is most actual and most unchangeable; it is most perfect and most immense; it is supremely one and yet all-inclusive.
If you wonder at this with a pure mind, you will be flooded with a greater light when you see further that it is last because it is first.
For because it is first, it does all things for itself; and therefore it must necessarily be the ultimate end, the beginning and the consummation, the Alpha and the Omega. 12
It is most present precisely because it is eternal.
For because it is eternal, it does not flow from another, 10.
Aristotle, Topica , V, c.
5 (134b 23-24).
11.
Deut.
6:4; the text in Deuteronomy reads: "Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord."
12.
Apoc.
1:8, 21:6, 22:13.
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nor of itself cease to be, nor pass from one state into another; therefore it has neither past nor future, but only present being.
It is greatest precisely because it is utterly simple.
For because it is utterly simple in essence, it is greatest in power, because the more power is unified, the more it is infinite.
It is unchangeable precisely because it is most actual.
For because it is most actual, it is pure act; and what is pure act can acquire nothing new, can lose nothing it already has; hence it cannot be changed.
It is immense precisely because it is most perfect.
For because it is most perfect, nothing can be thought beyond it better, nobler or more worthy, hence nothing greater; and such a being is immense.
It is all-inclusive precisely because it is supremely one.
For what is supremely one is the universal principle of all multiplicity; hence it is the universal efficient, exemplary and final cause of all things as uthe cause of being, the basis of understanding and the order of living" 13
13.
Augustine, De civitate Dei , VIII, 4.
ST. BONAVENTURE
It is, therefore, all-inclusive not as the essence of all things, but as the supremely excellent and most universal and most sufficient cause of all essences, whose power is supremely infinite and multiple in its efficacy because it is supremely unified in its essence.
8. Once again reflecting upon these things, let us say that because the most pure and absolute Being, which is being without qualification, is the first and the last, it is, therefore, the origin and consummating end of all things.
Because it is eternal and most present, it therefore encompasses and enters all duration as if it were at one and the same time its center and circumference.
Because it is utterly simple and the greatest, it is, therefore, totally within all things and totally outside them and thus u is an intelligible sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." 14
Because it is most actual and unchangeable, therefore "while remaining stable, it gives motion to all things." 15
Because it is most perfect and immense, it is, therefore, within all things, but not enclosed; outside all things, but not excluded; 14.
Alan of Lille, Regulae theologicae , reg.
15.
Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae , III, metr. 9.
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above all things, but not aloof; below all things, but not debased.
Finally, because it is supremely one and all-inclusive, it is, therefore,
all in all , although all things are many and it is itself only one, and this is so because, through its most simple unity, most serene truth and most sincere goodness, there is in it all power, all exemplarity and all communicability.
Consequently, , through him and in him from him
are all things ; for he is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good, and to see him perfectly is to be blessed, as was said to Moses:
I will show you all good .
16.
1 Cor.
15:28.
17. Rom.
11:36.
18.
Exod. 33:19.