Lumen Fidei - page 39

39
in which our eyes grow accustomed to peering
into the depths. Easter morning thus passes from
John who, standing in the early morning dark-
ness before the empty tomb, “saw and believed”
(Jn 20:8), to Mary Magdalene who, after seeing
Jesus (cf. Jn 20:14) and wanting to cling to him,
is asked to contemplate him as he ascends to the
Father, and finally to her full confession before
the disciples: “I have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:18).
How does one attain this synthesis between
hearing and seeing? It becomes possible through
the person of Christ himself, who can be seen
and heard. He is the Word made flesh, whose
glory we have seen (cf. Jn 1:14). The light of
faith is the light of a countenance in which the
Father is seen. In the Fourth Gospel, the truth
which faith attains is the revelation of the Father
in the Son, in his flesh and in his earthly deeds,
a truth which can be defined as the “light-filled
life” of Jesus.24 This means that faith-knowledge
does not direct our gaze to a purely inward truth.
The truth which faith discloses to us is a truth
centred on an encounter with Christ, on the con-
templation of his life and on the awareness of
his presence. Saint Thomas Aquinas speaks of
the Apostles’ oculata fides — a faith which sees! —
in the presence of the body of the Risen Lord.25
With their own eyes they saw the risen Jesus and
24 Cf. H. Schlier , Meditationen über den Johanneischen Begriff
der Wahrheit, in Besinnung auf das Neue Testament. Exegetische Auf-
sätze und Vorträge 2, Freiburg, Basel, Wien, 1959, 272.
25 Cf. S. Th. III, q. 55, a. 2, ad 1.