32. Love and faith are first called 'the great lights', then love is called 'the greater light' and faith 'the lesser light'. In reference to love it is said that it will have dominion over the day, and in reference to faith that it will have dominion over the night. Because these are arcana and have become hidden, especially at this end of an epoch, in the Lord's Divine mercy let the whole subject be opened up. The reason they have become hidden, especially at this present end of an epoch, is that now is the close of the age, when love is almost non-existent, and consequently faith too, just as the Lord Himself foretold in the Gospels with these words,

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

Here 'the sun' is used to mean love, which is 'darkened', 'the moon' faith which does not give its light, 'the stars' cognitions of faith which fall from heaven, and which are the various 'powers of the heavens'. The Most Ancient Church acknowledged no other faith than love itself; celestial angels as well do not know what faith is except faith which stems from love. Love pervades the whole of heaven, for in the heavens no other life is found except the life that belongs to love. This is the source of all happiness in heaven, a happiness so great that no aspect of it can be described or in any way captured in human concepts. People in whom this love is present love the Lord wholeheartedly. Yet they realize, say, and perceive that all love, thus all life, which belongs exclusively to love, and so all happiness, come from the Lord and nowhere else, and that they derive not one trace of love, life, and happiness from themselves. The Lord's being the source of all love was again represented by the greater light, that is, the sun, at the Transfiguration, for His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as the light, Matthew 17:2. What is inmost is meant by His face, and what emanates from the inmost by His garments. Thus His Divinity is meant by the sun or love, and His Humanity by the light or wisdom coming from love.

1521. CHAPTER 13

THE LIGHT IN WHICH ANGELS ARE LIVING

Many experiences have made it quite clear to me that spirits and angels possess all of the senses except taste, and that these are far keener and more perfect than man's ever are. Not only do angels see and form relationships with one another, experiencing as they do so supreme happiness resulting from mutual love; there are also more things which they see in their world than man can ever believe. The world of spirits and the heavens are full of representative phenomena like those seen by the prophets, and so many in number that if a person's sight were opened to behold them just for a few hours he would inevitably be dumbfounded. The light in heaven is such as to be unbelievably superior to the light in the physical world at midday. Yet no light from this world reaches those who are in heaven since they are above or within the sphere where that light shines; instead they have Light from the Lord, who is their Sun. To angels even the midday light of the world is like pitch darkness, and when they are allowed to peer at the light, it is as though they were peering into sheer darkness, as I have been given to know from experience. From this it becomes clear how different the light of heaven is from the light of the world.