Problema de veritatis et pacis tē syzygia

May it be a great and certain consolation to us that, although the vital spirit is eventually extinguished like a lamp when the suitable, pure, and feeding moisture—both nutritional and radical—fails, Truth and Peace nevertheless never fail, nor do they ever abandon the pious man, according to this pronouncement of our Apostle: Therefore we do not lose heart; but even if our external man is being destroyed, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16.

For what light and heat are in the Sun, that is what Truth and Peace are in the reborn man.

For what else would you say Truth is, but a ray of the most illustrious Sun of Justice, who is JESUS CHRIST; which, scattered into the heart of the elect man, dispels the shadows of ignorance and brings the light of faith, which is the acknowledgment of truth. Therefore, He Himself pronounced with the clearest voice concerning Himself: I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12.

But just as light is a natural consolation—as Curtius said—and there was certainly no lack of reason why the Greeks of old, when a light was brought in, would say, "The light is good"; so Truth is a spiritual consolation. And as we must pray with the Psalmist: O Jehovah, send out your light and your truth; let them lead me (Psalm 43:3), so when a better hope of things shines forth, one should not say that Euripidean line: "Would that your light and mine were shared," but rather this divine utterance must be repeated: Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart (Psalm 97:11). Likewise: Jehovah is my light; whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 72:1.

Augustine says: "Light is the queen of the eyes; the day is an image of life, but the night is an image of death." I, for my part, will not less correctly say: "Truth is the queen of the Christian mind; its splendor is the image of life (because one lives by faith); the deprivation of it is a ghost of death."