Job 11:17
No matter what knowledge of God we can gain by observing or reflecting on Him, He is far better than how we perceive Him. Say we wanted to acquaint someone who couldn’t bear a spark of light or the flame of a very small lamp with the brightness and splendor of the sun. Wouldn’t it be necessary to tell him that the sun’s splendor was unspeakably and incalculably more glorious than all the light he had already seen?
In the same way, our knowledge of God is restrained by flesh and blood. Due to our participation in material things, our minds are dull in their attempts to understand spiritual things, although our understanding hardly compares to a spark or lamp. However, among all intelligent, spiritual beings, God is superior to all others—so unspeakably and incalculably superior. Even the purest and brightest human understanding can’t comprehend His nature.
—Origen
Readings taken from Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers
No matter what knowledge of God we can gain by observing or reflecting on Him, He is far better than how we perceive Him. Say we wanted to acquaint someone who couldn’t bear a spark of light or the flame of a very small lamp with the brightness and splendor of the sun. Wouldn’t it be necessary to tell him that the sun’s splendor was unspeakably and incalculably more glorious than all the light he had already seen?
In the same way, our knowledge of God is restrained by flesh and blood. Due to our participation in material things, our minds are dull in their attempts to understand spiritual things, although our understanding hardly compares to a spark or lamp. However, among all intelligent, spiritual beings, God is superior to all others—so unspeakably and incalculably superior. Even the purest and brightest human understanding can’t comprehend His nature.
—Origen
Readings taken from Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers
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