“The heavens,” it is said, “declare the glory of God.” When this Psalm is read, it occurs to one that not so much the material elements as the heavenly merits seem to offer praise worthy of God … Look at the holy relics at my right hand and at my left, see men of heavenly conversation, behold the trophies of a heavenly mind. These are the heavens which declare the glory of God, these are His handiwork which the firmament proclaims. For not worldly enticements, but the grace of the divine working, raised them to the firmament of the most sacred Passion, and long before by the testimony of their character and virtues bore witness of them, that they continued steadfast against the dangers of this world.
Paul was a heaven, when he said: “Our conversation is in heaven.” James and John were heavens, and then were called “sons of thunder”; and John, being as it were a heaven, saw the Word with God. The Lord Jesus Himself was a heaven of perpetual light, when He was declaring the glory of God, that glory which no man had seen before. And therefore He said: “No man hath seen God at any time, except the only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
“Day,” it is said, “unto day uttereth speech.” Behold the true days, where no darkness of night intervenes. Behold the days full of life and eternal brightness, which uttered the word of God, not in speech which passes away, but in their inmost heart, by constancy in confession, and perseverance in their witness.
“Day unto day uttereth the word;” soul unto soul, life unto life, resurrection unto resurrection; “and night unto night showeth knowledge;” that is, flesh unto flesh, they, that is, whose passion has shown to all the true knowledge of the faith. Good are these nights, bright nights, not without stars: “For as star differeth from star in brightness, so too is the resurrection of the dead.”
References
- Ambrose. Select Works and Letters. NPNF 2/10:437-438. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Accessed December 4, 2024. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf210/npnf210.v.viii.html