g., that "by the natural light of reason
God can be known with certainty, by means of created things" (Vatican
Council), and proclaiming that "all the saints in Heaven have seen and
do see the Divine Essence by direct intuition and face to face in such
wise that nothing created intervenes as an object of vision; ... that
the Divine Essence presents itself to their immediate gaze, unveiled,
clearly and openly; that in this vision they enjoy the Divine Essence,
and in virtue of this vision and this enjoyment they are truly blessed
and possess eternal life and eternal rest." (Benedict XII, Cath.
Encycl., VII, 171.)
It is interesting to see how Dante's Master, St. Thomas Aquinas,
demonstrates the proposition that the beatitude of man consists in the
vision of the Divine Essence. With his usual lucidity of thought he
writes: "The last and perfect happiness of man cannot be otherwise than
in the vision of the Divine Essence. In evidence of this statement two
points are to be considered: first, that man is not perfectly happy so
long as there remains anything for him to desire and seek; secondly,
that the perfection of every power is determined by the nature of its
object. Now the object of the intellect is the essence of a thing; hence
the intellect attains to perfection so far as it knows the Essence of
what is before it.
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