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And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
Matthew 2:4
Christmas Gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh
作者: New Christian Bible Study Staff
In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.
The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.
These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.
In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.
Heaven and Hell＃122
122. To the angels the sun of the world appears like a dense darkness opposite to the sun of heaven, and the moon like a darkness opposite to the moon of heaven, and this constantly; and for the reason that the world's fieriness corresponds to the love of self, and the light from it corresponds to what is false from that love; and the love of self is the direct opposite of the Divine love; and what is false from that love is the direct opposite of the Divine truth; and the opposite of the Divine love and the Divine truth is to the angels thick darkness. Therefore, in the Word, to worship the sun and moon of this world and bow down to them, signifies to love self and the falsities that spring from the love of self, and it is said that such would be cut off. (Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 16:3-5; Jeremiah 8:1, 2; Ezekiel 8:15, 16, 18; Revelation 16:8; Matthew 13:6). 1
脚注:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] The sun of the world is not seen by the angels, but in its place something dark behind, opposite to the sun of heaven or the Lord (Arcana Coelestia 7078, 9755).
In the opposite sense the sun signifies the love of self (2441); and in this sense "to worship the sun" signifies to worship what is contrary to heavenly love or to the Lord (2441, 10584).
To those in the hells the sun of heaven is thick darkness (2441).
