- Feb 5, 2002
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It has been a long time since I’ve read St. Gregory of Nyssa, but when I saw this video in an x-tweet, something jumped to mind.
If memory serves, Gregory described our experience of the Beatific Vision as a spiral.
I had to think about that for a while, but it makes sense.
Consider that in the Beatific we will always be striving to see the Triune God and be in union. That implies an eternal rising toward, motion toward God, the ultimate reditus,or rather, proodos. One might describe that motion vector as a ray, since we are moving out of ourselves towards God.
However, we are made in God’s image and likeness. Hence, as we behold God we will be learning, coming to understand more about ourselves, considering ourselves in relation to God. One might describe that motion vector as a circle, since we are being introspective.
These two dynamic motions, the ray and circle, are going on at the same time. See where I’m going with this? That would make a spiral.
I’ve sometimes marveled at the fact that which each new technological advance, we find something more to the Mystery which is so alluring and also at times frightening. For example, photography shows us that the Shroud of Turin is a negative image. Supercolliders show us subatomic particles while space telescopes show us so many stars even in just one degree of the sky in one direction that we can’t count them, and that’s only seeing just so far.
Did God make the universe so huge to give us some idea of what “eternity” is? What “all-mighty” might be?
Continued below.
If memory serves, Gregory described our experience of the Beatific Vision as a spiral.
I had to think about that for a while, but it makes sense.
Consider that in the Beatific we will always be striving to see the Triune God and be in union. That implies an eternal rising toward, motion toward God, the ultimate reditus,or rather, proodos. One might describe that motion vector as a ray, since we are moving out of ourselves towards God.
However, we are made in God’s image and likeness. Hence, as we behold God we will be learning, coming to understand more about ourselves, considering ourselves in relation to God. One might describe that motion vector as a circle, since we are being introspective.
These two dynamic motions, the ray and circle, are going on at the same time. See where I’m going with this? That would make a spiral.
I’ve sometimes marveled at the fact that which each new technological advance, we find something more to the Mystery which is so alluring and also at times frightening. For example, photography shows us that the Shroud of Turin is a negative image. Supercolliders show us subatomic particles while space telescopes show us so many stars even in just one degree of the sky in one direction that we can’t count them, and that’s only seeing just so far.
Did God make the universe so huge to give us some idea of what “eternity” is? What “all-mighty” might be?
Continued below.
