Desire for the vision of God

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

On Friday of the First Week of Advent our Church invites us to first read and reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Isaia( 19: 16-25) entitled “The future conversion of Egypt and Assyria”. Our treasure, which follows, is from the Proslogian by Saint Anselm, bishop.

Saint Anselm was born in 1033 or 1034 at Aoste in what is now north-western Italy. A religious man even from his youth, he left home at the age of 23 to travel through France and Burgundy, before joining the abbey of Bec in Normandy at the age of 27. Three years later, he was unanimously elected abbot of the monastery, a remarkable honor for one so young. Under Anselm's direction, Bec became famous as a center of learning, attracting students from as far away as Italy. Anselm was also notable for the pains he took to keep the abbey independent of outside control, both secular and ecclesiastical.

He received the title “Father of Scholasticism” for his attempt to analyze and illumine the truths of faith through the aid of reason. Considered an original and independent thinker, Anselm was admired for his patience, gentleness, and teaching skill. Under his leadership, the Abbey of Bec became a monastic school, influential in philosophical and theological studies. During these years, at the community’s request, Anselm began publishing his theological works, comparable to those of Saint Augustine. His best-known work is the book Cur Deus Homo (“Why God Became Man”).

His care and concern extended to the very poorest people. Opposing the slave trade, Anselm obtained from the national council at Westminster the passage of a resolution prohibiting the sale of human beings.

The Proslogion (Latin for Address or Discourse; the title was chosen because it is written in the form of a prayer addressed to God) is a book written by St. Anselm. It is of great significance in the history of philosophy, mainly because of the proof of God's existence. It is usually considered the first ever ontological argument that seeks to prove God's existence based on reason alone rather than on observation of the world around us. It can be summarized like this:

1. God is defined as that than which nothing greater can be thought.

2. Even a fool, who denies the existence of God, understands the phrase "that than which nothing greater can be thought".

3. Whatever is understood exists in the intellect.

4. Therefore, that than which nothing greater can be thought exists in the intellect.

5. To exist in reality is greater than to exist in the intellect.

6. If that than which nothing greater can be thought existed in the intellect but not in reality, it would be possible to think of something greater, namely an equivalent being which also exists in reality. But this is clearly absurd.

7. Therefore, that than which nothing greater can be thought exists in reality as well as in the intellect.

Anselm then spends the rest of the Proslogion proving that that than which nothing greater can be thought would have to have the attributes traditionally ascribed to God, including omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.

Isaiah, one of the greatest of the prophets, appeared at a critical moment in Israel’s history. The Northern Kingdom collapsed, under the hammerlike blows of Assyria, in 722/721 B.C., and in 701 Jerusalem itself saw the army of Sennacherib drawn up before its walls. In the year that Uzziah, king of Judah, died, Isaiah received his call to the prophetic office in the Temple of Jerusalem.

The vision of the Lord enthroned in glory stamps an indelible character on Isaiah’s ministry and provides a key to the understanding of his message. The majesty, holiness and glory of the Lord took possession of his spirit and, at the same time, he gained a new awareness of human pettiness and sinfulness. The enormous abyss between God’s sovereign holiness and human sinfulness overwhelmed the prophet. Only the purifying coal of the seraphim could cleanse his lips and prepare him for acceptance of the call: “Here I am, send me!”

The ministry of Isaiah extended from the death of Uzziah in 742 B.C. to Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C., and it may have continued even longer, until after the death of Hezekiah in 687 B.C. Later legend (the Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah) claims that Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, executed Isaiah by having him sawed in two. During this long ministry, the prophet returned again and again to the same themes, and there are indications that he may have sometimes re-edited his older prophecies to fit new occasions.