consists in the intuitive vision of the Divine Essence (visio Dei intuitiva), as opposed to the purely abstractive and analogical knowledge which man has of God here below. St. Paul describes the difference between these two kinds of knowledge as follows: “Now we see in a mirror, obscurely; but then [we shall see] face to face. Now I know in part; then shall I know fully, even as I have been fully known [by God].”5 As the Divine Essence subsists in three distinct Persons, the beatific vision involves
Page 30