Faith, as the theologians say, is a supernatural habitus of the soul, all at once certain and obscure. The reason for its obscurity is that it inclines us to believe truths revealed by God Himself, truths that exceed the natural light [of our intellect] and exceed the scope of the entirety of human understanding. . . . The brilliance of the sun sometimes dazzles us and blinds us. Thus is it with the light of faith, which by its intensity infinitely surpasses the light of our own understanding. . . . It is precisely because faith produces an obscure night in the soul that it illuminates, “Et nox illuminatio me in deliciis meis. [And the night will be my illumination in my delights” (Ps. 139:11, Vulgate 138:11). The night of faith ought thus to be our guide in the delights of contemplation and of union with God. The object that it manifests to us here below is the Holy Trinity whom wewill contemplate without veil in eternity.
- St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel