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.

2935. 'Let him give me the cave of Machpelah [which is his]' means the obscurity of faith [that was theirs]. This is clear from the meaning of 'a cave' as obscurity, dealt with in 2463, and from the meaning of 'Machpelah' as faith which is enveloped in obscurity. The reason 'a cave' means obscurity is that it is a place filled with darkness. When reference is made to a mountain cave - as in Genesis 19:30, where it is said that Lot lived in a mountain cave - obscurity as regards good is meant, but when reference is made to the cave in the field of Machpelah obscurity as regards truth is meant. Here, because the expression 'the cave of Machpelah' is used - Machpelah being the field at the end of which the cave was situated - an obscurity as regards truth, or what amounts to the same, as regards faith is meant. From this it is also evident that Machpelah is faith which is enveloped in obscurity.

[2] Those who are being regenerated and becoming spiritual are very much in obscurity as regards truth. With them good from the Lord is indeed flowing in, but truth less so. Consequently a parallelism and correspondence exists with man between the Lord and good, but not between Him and truth, see 1832. The chief reason for this is that men do not know what good is, and if they did know they would still not believe it at heart. And as long as their good is enveloped in obscurity, so too is their truth, for it is from good that all truth springs. Or to be more explicit, the idea that the Lord is Good itself, and that everything which in itself is a manifestation of love to Him and of charity towards the neighbour is good, and that everything which declares and confirms this is truth, they do not know except in an extremely obscure way. Indeed they even entertain doubts, and allow reasonings to enter in against those considerations. And as long as their state is such, the light of truth from the Lord cannot flow in. Indeed they think of the Lord as they do of another human being and not of Him as God; and they model their idea of love to Him on some worldly kind of love. What genuine affection that stems from charity towards the neighbour is they scarcely know at all, or even what charity is and what the neighbour is. Yet these are essentials. From this one may recognize the great obscurity in which spiritual people are and which is all the greater before regeneration has taken place, which state is the subject here.