Know God Through His Works
The World: O foolish one, but for what do you have eyes? Is it not to gaze upon my pleasant and most beautiful light? Or perhaps you do not see these two great luminaries which almighty God gave to me: one to light the day, the other to light the night? And this for no other reason than to light your eyes and let you gaze upon my priceless beauties and go about your affairs. So how could I not be desired? Consider, thoughtless one: when the sun’s light is covered by clouds or mist, you say the weather is dark and sad, and your own mood sours along with it; and when the night is moonless and you find yourself weary from the road, how great is your fear of meeting some danger, and how great would be your joy and gladness if it lit your way even a little, so you might know where you are going? What is more, rash one, go and ask the blind man how great is the sweetness of my light, and what he would not give to obtain it; ask him, and he will tell you the sweetness of my light, and so you too will learn to desire me as I deserve to be desired, and to love me and thank me.
You Should Use the Gifts Given to You for Good, Not for Evil
The Wise Man: Almighty God did not make only these luminaries — He made one more. These two He made to light man above the head, and the third within the head. The outer two He created (as you yourself said) to light my eyes, so that, gazing upon them, I might know Him who made them, and knowing Him, never forget Him; and just as they light my eye continually, so He might be continually glorified by me. But He never created them, as you claimed, so that, gazing upon you, I should fall in love with your vanities (for foolish is anyone who loves something in vain). And the luminary within the head is my reason, with which the Giver of light, God, has illumined me, so that I might reckon (since His works are so beautiful, so choice, so full of light) how much more luminous, more beautiful, and more radiant He Himself must be; and is this difference not like that between darkness and light? For thus John also proclaims that „God is light, and the world is darkness” (John 3:19). You, then, being darkness, how could I not hate you, and He, being light, how could I not love Him? And how mad would be the one who loved darkness more than light! Indeed, he would be madder than you. So, knowing that He is more beautiful and more full of light, it is fitting that I reckon your light as darkness, mist, and midnight without light; that I praise and glorify Him, worship and love Him; and that I disdain, despise, hate, and revile you — for the light is His, and He is the true light, while yours is corruptible, and you are the dangerous darkness.
The World counts two luminaries and believes she has said everything. The Wise Man shows her that her count is incomplete: there is a third, which she cannot show because it is not outside, but within — reason, illumined by God. Here lies the whole difference between how the World and how the Wise Man read the very same works.
The Book of Wisdom states plainly what the beauties of creation are for: „For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator” (Wis. 13:5). This is not a ban on delighting in the sun and moon, but a disclosure of what that delight is for: the outward eye sees created light in order to awaken the mind to reckon — if the thing made is this beautiful, how much more beautiful must its Maker be? This is exactly the Wise Man’s argument: „since His works are so beautiful… how much more luminous He Himself must be.” It is the same road the Apostle Paul points to — from the things made, toward the invisible power and Godhead of the Maker (Rom. 1:20) — except the same text also shows at once the one who goes astray on this road: the one who „worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25). This is exactly the World’s mistake: she stops at the beauty of creation as at a destination, not as an arrow pointing further on.
This is why the Wise Man speaks of the third luminary — the one within the head. The Holy Fathers call this power of the soul the *nous*, the inner eye, by which man can turn toward God just as the bodily eye turns toward the sun. Abba Evagrius and Saint Macarius the Great speak of this light of the mind as the place where man meets God — darkened by the passions, but never fully extinguished. The two outer luminaries serve the body; the third serves salvation — and precisely for this it is more precious, even though the World cannot point to it with her finger.
The title of this point — „you should use the gifts given to you for good, not for evil” — does not condemn the gifts; it shows that any gift can be turned inside out. The sun and moon, used as a step toward the Maker, are good; the same lights, loved for their own sake, become an occasion for idolatry (Rom. 1:21-23). This is the secret the World hides when she demands to be loved „as I deserve to be desired”: she demands that the gift be loved in place of the Giver — that is, she demands precisely the reversal the Apostle condemns.
The word „God is light, and the world is darkness” (John 3:19) does not separate two equal things — it names a judgment: the light came, and men loved darkness more, because their deeds were evil. This is the choice the Wise Man makes openly, without hesitation: he does not hate God’s gifts; he hates the darkness in the World’s heart, which demands to be loved in place of the true Light. Whoever sees the third luminary can no longer mistake the sun’s borrowed brightness for the Light that has no one to borrow from — for the light is His, from the very beginning.
