61. This is the angelic concept of person, so angels never pay attention to what someone's body is doing, but rather to the intent from which the body is acting. They call this the essential person, together with the intellect to the extent that it is acting in unison with the intent. ¹

Voetnoten:

3619. 'Rebekah said to Isaac' means the Lord's perception from Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving, from the representation of 'Rebekah' as the Divine Truth of the Lord's Divine Rational, and from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Divine Good of that Rational, all dealt with already. And because Divine Good is Essential Being (Esse) in itself, and Divine Truth the Life springing from that Being - and the Lord as a consequence of this is primarily the Lord by virtue of Divine Good - the words stating that the Lord's perception comes from Divine Truth are therefore used here. Perception from the Divine Truth of the Rational flows from the area of the understanding, whereas perception from Divine Good flows from that of the will. Yet perception from the understanding does not belong to the understanding but to the will flowing into it, for the understanding is nothing else than the external form which the will is given. Such is the nature of the understanding when it is joined to the will. But until it has been so joined the understanding seems to exist by itself, and the will by itself, though all that actually happens is that the external separates itself from the internal. For when the understanding inwardly desires and thinks something, it is the end in view originating in the will that constitutes its life and governs the thinking there. The reason the understanding receives its life from the end in view is that the end a person has in view is his life, see 1909, 3570. This shows to some extent what is meant in the representative sense by any ordinary human being's perception from truth, and what is meant in the highest sense by the Lord's Perception from Divine Truth.

5002. 'To be with her' means lest it should thereby be made one with it. This is clear from the meaning of 'being with someone' as existing joined more closely or united together. The reason 'being' means existing united is that the actual being (esse) of a thing is good, and all good flows from love, love being essentially a spiritual togetherness or oneness. This explains why in the highest sense the Lord is called 'Being' (Esse), or Jehovah; for all good flowing from love or spiritual togetherness is derived from Him. Because the love that is derived from Him and returned to Him through the acceptance of it, and also mutual love, make heaven one, heaven is therefore called a marriage, which gives it its 'being'. One would be able to say the same of the Church if love and charity existed there as its essential being. Therefore where no togetherness or unity exists, the Church has no 'being', for unless something were present there to unite its members or make them one, the Church would disintegrate and cease to exist.

[2] The same happens to civil society if everyone there is out only for himself and nobody, except for his own purposes, takes any interest in anyone else. Without laws to unite its members, and without any fears for loss of gain, position, reputation, or life, society would fall completely to pieces. Therefore the 'being' of such a society in which everyone is out for himself consists in its members being joined or united together, but at a purely external level. Internally that society does not have any 'being'. Consequently in the next life people like this are confined to hell, where in a similar way they are kept in check by external restraints, especially by fears. But as often as those restraints are eased, one individual hastens to destroy another, there being nothing he wants to do more than to destroy another completely. It is different in heaven, where love to the Lord and mutual love deriving from that love join its members together at an internal level. When external restraints are removed there, angels become even more closely joined to one another. And being thereby drawn nearer to the Divine Being (Esse) coming to them from the Lord, they are filled deeper still with affection, and from this with a sense of freedom, and as a consequence with feelings of blessedness, happiness, and joy.