Joy of the Elect in the Beatific Vision.
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is indescribable.
To no purpose do I strain every effort either to understand thee, or to speak of thee worthily to my hearers, or else I might fare as did St. Augustine. He tells us of himself that at the instance of his friend Severus, he undertook to write a short description of the joys of heaven; but the sublimity of the subject frightened him, and he asked advice from St. Jerome. Augustine was at Hippo at the time, and was actually on the point of inditing the letter to St. Jerome, when behold, he became suddenly aware of a most delicious perfume in the room, and saw a beautiful, brilliant light, far surpassing that of the sun, in the midst of which appeared St. Jerome, who had died that very day and hour. “While,” says Augustine, “I was actually writing the first words of salutation to Jerome, an indescribable light, such as had never been seen in our times, and could not at all be pictured by any words of ours, along with an ineffable and unknown fragrance composed of all perfumes, entered the cell in which I was.” Augustine was amazed at this, and quite ravished out of himself. Meanwhile a clear voice was heard coming out of the light and thus addressing him: “Augustine, what dost thou seek? Dost thou think to put the vast ocean into a small cup, or to hold the earth in the hollow of thy hand? Will thy eye see what no mortal ever beheld? or thy ear perceive sounds that never penetrated mortal ears? Or dost thou imagine that thou canst conceive what no human heart ever understood or thought of? What end could there be to what is infinite? What measure to that which is immense?” The voice continued to explain to him that it is impossible to describe the happiness of the glory of heaven, and concluded thus: “Do not attempt the impossible. Do not seek here what cannot be found unless in that place which you are now, to your own great happiness, striving to reach. Let your endeavor be so to live here that you may have in eternity what you now wish to understand in some degree.” So far St. Jerome to Augustine; while the latter was so enraptured with the light and the delicious perfume, that he says: “So great is the bliss of eternal light that if one could not remain in it any longer than the space of one day, yet for the sake of enjoying it for that short time one would have just reason for despising innumerable years of this life, though filled with all imaginable delights, riches, and temporal goods.” O eternal vision of my God! O eternal joy of my Lord! how incomprehensible is the happiness you make in heaven! Suffice it now
