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.

1442. 'As far as the oak-grove of Moreh' means a first perception. This too becomes clear from the sequence of events. It is clear that as soon as Jehovah appeared to the Lord in His celestial things the Lord had attained perception. Celestial things are the source of all perception. What perception is has been stated and shown already in 104, 202, 371, 483, 495, 503, 521, 536, 865. When anyone attains to celestial things he acquires perception from the Lord. All who have become celestial people, such as members of the Most Ancient Church, have acquired perception, as shown already in 125, 597, 607, 784, 895. All who become spiritual people, however, that is, who acquire charity from the Lord, have something akin to perception, namely the voice of conscience, strong or weak, in the measure that the celestial things of charity exist with such persons. This is how it is with the celestial things of charity, for it is in these alone that the Lord is present, and in these that He manifests Himself to man. How much more must this have applied to the Lord, who from infancy moved closer to Jehovah, and was joined and united to Him so that they were one?