2367. The implications of 'the shadow of the roof' meaning within a general obscure [perception of that good] are that with man, even one who is regenerate, the perception of good and truth lies in obscurity, the more so with him whose worship is external, who is represented here by Lot. When a person is engrossed in bodily things, that is, during his lifetime, his affections, like his perceptions, are very general and therefore very obscure, however much he imagines that they are not so. There are myriads upon myriads of parts to each tiny affection, as there are to each idea comprising his perception, which to him appears to be a simple entity. This in the Lord's Divine mercy will be shown when the subject of affections and ideas is reached. Man is sometimes able, when he reflects, to examine and describe a few of the things within him; but countless, indeed limitless, things lie unseen which neither do nor can enter his awareness as long as he is living in the body but which do become visible once bodily and worldly things have been put away.
[2] This becomes quite clear from the fact that a person with whom the good that flows from love and charity exists, on crossing over into the next life, passes from an obscure into a clearer life, as if from a kind of night into day. And to the extent he has entered the Lord's heaven the clearer is the light until he reaches the light in which angels live, whose light of intelligence and wisdom lies beyond description. The inferior light in which man lives is in comparison like darkness. This is why it is said here that they came under the shadow of his roof, the meaning of which is that those represented by Lot dwell in their general [perception]. That is to say, they know very little about the Lord's Divinity and His Holiness but they nevertheless acknowledge and believe that His Divinity and His Holiness do exist and that they reside within the good of charity, that is, among those in whom that good is present.
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