Summa summae S. Thomae sive compendium theologiae

I suppose that a mere man, by the ordinary law, cannot in this mortal life see God as he is in himself¹, according to that verse of Exod., XXXIII, 20: Man shall not see me, and live. The reason is that the natural knowledge of man as a wayfarer is only of sensible and material things, or at least through species drawn from sensible things. But by such knowledge God cannot be seen as he is in himself, since he is neither sensible nor material, nor is he seen through a species, as we shall say below.

I say: Man as a wayfarer, living in the flesh, but not using the senses of the flesh, can, by the extraordinary power of God, and beyond the common order of things, be raised up to the clear vision of his essence, and it is probable that this was granted to Moses and Paul².

The first part is common and certain; for although the intellect, in this state, depends on the senses in its knowledge, this dependence is nevertheless not so necessary to it that it cannot be released from it by the extraordinary power of God, since it is of the same intrinsic power in the body as separated from the body, in which state it does not depend on the senses — and this is established as a fact in the soul of Christ, who was at once a wayfarer and a comprehensor.

The second part is from Augustine, Epist. 147³, to Paulina, de videndo Deo, ch. 3, and bk. XII in Genesim ad litteram, ch. 27, and of the places of the Author cited in the margin, among which are numbered Ambrose, Basil, and others, against several other holy Fathers.

It is proved from Scripture, 1° concerning Moses, Num., XII, 2, when Mary and Aaron, having spoken against the Lord, said: Hath the Lord spoken by Moses only? hath he not also spoken to us in like manner? But God, wishing to show that Moses, above the rest, had been endowed with the singular privilege of seeing him, says to them, ibid., 6-8: Hear my words. If there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream. But it is not so with my servant Moses;... for I speak to him mouth to mouth, and plainly, and not by riddles and figures doth he see the Lord.

On this passage, then, with SS. Augustine and Thomas we chiefly insist, and not on others, e.g., Exodi, XXXIII, 11, where it is said that Moses saw God face to face, because we know that this and similar passages about Moses, as also about the other Prophets, of whom the same thing is related, are understood by the Fathers of a certain eminent knowledge of God and familiarity with him⁴. But this cited passage can nowhere be understood in this way, or in any other sense foreign to ours. For unless you understand it of clear vision, Moses would already have seen God by riddles and figures, and so you would not save the sense of Scripture, which says that Moses saw God, not by riddles and figures.

2° Concerning St. Paul. The Apostle himself, II ad Cor., XII, 2-4, says thus of himself: I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not, or out of the body, I know not: God knoweth), caught up in this way even to the third heaven. And I know such a man, that he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak.

These unspeakable things, says St. Thomas⁵, are those which pertain to the vision of the blessed, which exceeds the state of the way, according to that verse of Isaiae, LXIV, 4: Eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee. And surely, if St. Paul had not seen the divine essence, the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, but had known them only through faith, could he have uttered them?

From these things, therefore, I argue thus.

Those things which depend on the free will of God can become known to us from no other source than sacred Scripture, through which the divine will is manifested to us. But the sacred Scriptures, as is evident, taken in their natural and literal sense, openly hand down that Moses and Paul saw God, and this involves no repugnance or incongruity, since all concede that it is possible. Therefore.

It is confirmed by a fitting reason of SS. Augustine and Thomas⁶. As Moses was the first teacher of the Jews, so Paul was the first teacher of the Gentiles. It was fitting, therefore, that they should see the divine essence, and be eyewitnesses of the mysteries, so that they might the better and more solidly teach these things to the Jews and the Gentiles.

Whatever can be objected from Scripture and the Fathers must be understood according to the ordinary law of God, or of comprehensive vision.