Saturday, April 01, 2006

Q12 A9: Whether what is seen in God by those who see the Divine essence, is seen through any similitude?

No. Those who see the divine essence see what they see in God not by any likeness, but by the divine essence itself united to their intellect because all things are seen in God as in an intelligible mirror.

That is, the cognitive faculty is assimilated not by likenesses (i.e., similitudes or ideas) but by the object itself (i.e., by His own essence).