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.

6256. 'And the eyes of Israel were weak' means his obscurity of discernment. This is clear from the meaning of 'the eyes' as the sight of the understanding, dealt with in 2701, 4087, 4379, 4403-4421, also meant by 'seeing', as above in 6249; from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good within the natural, dealt with above in 6253; and from the meaning of 'being weak', when used in reference to the eyes, as obscurity, thus obscurity of discernment. The reason Why Israel's discernment had become obscure when he blessed Joseph's sons was that he had reached the final phase of his representation, though a more general reason is that an obscurity of perception exists in the spiritual good which 'Israel' represents; for that good comes from the natural, in which inferior natural light predominates, not superior heavenly light in which spiritual and celestial good from the rational dwells. Such is the nature of the external man, also called the natural man. When the expression 'spiritual good from the natural' is used, people whose good is such are meant. They are those who belong to the Lord's spiritual Church, which also is why 'Israel' represents that Church, 4286; and compared with celestial people, members of that Church, who are spiritual people, live in obscurity, see 2708, 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3246, 4402. And since they live in obscurity they also put the truth of faith in the first place, even as Israel did here, in that he made Ephraim take precedence over Manasseh.

[2] The reason why spiritual people believe that the truth of faith takes precedence is that it is by means of truth that they are led on to good, 2954; and while they are being led to it they have no perception of good because good flows from within into an affection for truth, and so does not enter their discernment until they have been regenerated. This also explains why they call the good deeds of charity the fruits of faith, though little concern is shown for such fruits by those who suppose that faith alone without good works saves a person, even in the final hour when he dies, irrespective of the life he had led before that. This way of thinking is clearly an obscurity of discernment regarding goodness and truth. But be that as it may, those who make faith take precedence over charity on doctrinal grounds and yet lead a charitable life are people who belong to the Lord's spiritual Church and are saved. For in life they make the good of charity take precedence, but in doctrine the truth of faith.