" (XXIV, 17.) Moses on the mountain saw the Lord in the midst
of fire, and on another mountain Christ, "the brightness of his Father's
glory was transfigured before his apostles and his face did shine as the
Sun and his garments became shining or glittering." (Matt., XVII, 2.)
Small wonder then that the Nicaean creed declares that Christ is "God of
God, Light of light." Not only with God, but with His saints is the idea
of visible light intimately associated. The prophet Daniel tells us
that "They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament, and they that instruct many unto justice, as stars to all
eternity." (XII, 3.) And it is Christ Himself who says: "Then shall the
just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt., XIII,
43.)
In using such a subtle, dazzling element as light so generally and in
such countless varieties throughout his Paradiso, Dante is exposed to
the danger of palling his readers with brightness and making them lose
interest in things glorious and supernal. But the genius of the man
saves the artist. By a conception of matchless beauty he binds the light
of heaven to the human, making the smile in the eye of his beloved
guide, Beatrice, express his own personal heaven, in the light that
enters his mind and the ardor which quickens his heart.
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