Chapter V.
The duration and frequency of annual storms are determined by the proximity or distance of the atmosphere: which is adapted to Christ, the Synagogue, and the Church. Why are shadows longer in winter and shorter in summer; and various other things of this kind. Finally, how the same luminaries are present every day.
20. We have said many things, we do not want to say more; lest anyone think that the things which are used by us to refute and examine their assertions have been assumed. For the things which we laughed at as boys, can we, as old men, recall them? Now let us direct our pen to the remaining things according to the reading.
There are, he says, lights in the signs, and in the seasons, and in the days, and in the years. We have spoken about the signs. But what are the seasons, if not the changes of winter, spring, summer, and autumn? Therefore, in these seasons, either the transit of the sun is faster, or slower. For it dazzles with its rays in some, while it inflames with its heat in others. Thus, when the sun lingers in the southern parts, it is winter for us. For when the sun is further away, the earth freezes with frost, is tightened by cold, and the abundant shadow of the night covers the earth, so that the spaces of the night are much longer than those of the day. From this arises the reason that an excessive force of snow and rain is brought about by winter winds. But when it returns from the southern regions and rises above the earth, it equalizes the times of night and day. And the more it adds delays to its courses, the more it gradually reduces the temperature of this air and brings back the mildness of the breezes, which, nurturing all things, compels them to be born again, so that the earth may bear fruit, and the seeds, released from the furrows, may revive, and the trees may grow, and the succession of annual offspring may be propagated for the perpetuation of their species, whether on land or in water. But when it rises towards the summer solstice in the North, it extends the daylight hours and shortens the nights. And so, the more it is constantly connected to and mixed with this air, the more it vaporizes the air itself, and dries up the moisture of the earth, causing the seeds to grow, and the fruits of the forests to mature as if into strong juices. Then, because it is more intense, it casts smaller shadows at noon, since it illuminates this place from above.
22. And so the Synagogue says in the Song of Songs: Tell me, O Christ, whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you rest at noon, lest I become adorned with the flocks of your companions (Cant. I, 6). Why not rather whom you love? But the Synagogue loved, the Church loves, and never changes her affection towards her Christ. Where, she says, do you feed, where do you rest at noon. I desire to follow you as a foster child, whom I held tightly before as if joined, and to seek your flocks, for I have lost mine. You pasture at midday, that is, in the place of the Church, where justice shines forth, where judgment shines like noonday, where shadow is not seen, where the days are longer, so that the sun of righteousness may linger there longer, like in the summer months. Finally, the day of the Lord is not short, but great; for it is written: Until the great day of the Lord comes (Joel. II, 31). And Jacob also says: All the days of my life that I have lived are short and miserable (Gen. XLVII, 9). For the light is an uncertain evil. Therefore, the short days are days of uncertain and shady light: the great days are without shade, as many have experienced in some warmer places and have learned by example. So, the synagogue, in its short and miserable days, which Jacob often represents in his own person, had a lot of shade, which did not see the sun of righteousness, but saw it shining not from above his head, but from the south, when it was winter for him. But the Church is said: Winter is gone, it has departed for itself, flowers have been seen on the earth, the time of harvest has come. (Song of Solomon, II, 11). Before the coming of Christ there was winter, after the coming of Christ there are the flowers of spring, and the harvest of summer. Therefore, seeing Him shining from the south and from the conversion of the Gentiles, they are overshadowed. But the people of the Gentiles, who were in confusion, the Gentiles who sat in darkness, saw a great light, those who sat in the region of the shadow of death, a light has arisen for them. Great light of divinity, which no shadow of death interrupts. And therefore it illuminates from above, as it is written, as Zacharias says: In which the rising sun from on high has visited us: to illuminate those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death (Luke 1:78-79). There is indeed a shadow of salvation, not of death, as it is written: Protect me under the shadow of your wings (Psalm 17:8). It is a shadow indeed, because of the body; a shadow, because of the cross, but a shadow of salvation, because in it there was forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the dead.
23. Therefore, we can take an example: because winter days are short, but they have longer shadows; summer days are longer, but they have shorter shadows. Also, the shadow is shorter at noon than at the beginning or end of the day; and this is the case with us in the western part. However, there are those who, for two days of the entire year, have no shadow in the southern parts, because they are illuminated from all sides by the sun above their heads, hence they are called 'ἄσκιοι' in Greek. Many people also report that the sun appears to rise from the deep, shining through a narrow opening in a well. They are said to be in the Southern Hemisphere, called 'ἀμφίσκιοι', because they cast a shadow on both sides. The shadow is behind those who walk towards the rising sun; for example, if you travel east in the morning. If you go against the midday sun, it is in the south; if you go towards the setting sun, it is in the west. Therefore, the sun is visible to you from three directions: from the east, from the south, and from the west. In the morning and evening, it is behind you, and at noon, it is also to the side. But the sun is never in the north, and therefore, if you direct your shadow towards the north, whether in the morning, evening, or noon, it cannot be behind you. For there are only those positioned around the south in this region of the earth that we inhabit, who seem to cast a shadow towards the southern region. However, this is said to happen in the peak of summer, when the sun is directed towards the North. Afterwards, autumn receives us, indeed breaking the intensity of the summer: but with the heat temporarily relaxed and dissipated, through the mildness of moderate weather, without deceit and harm, it delivers us to the wintry blasts.
He says that they also exist for the sake of the days. Not in order to make the days, but so that they may have dominion in them, so that the rising sun may illuminate the day with abundant grace, so that it may have the power to mark its course throughout the entire day. This is how some understand what the prophet says: 'The sun to have dominion over the day, the moon and the stars to have dominion over the night' (Psalm 135:8). For they carry the light around. The sun and the moon are also ordered by years: the moon completes its course in 354 days, according to the Jews, with a few additional days; according to the Romans, it is celebrated twice in the sixth month once every five years with the addition of one day. The solstice year is also when the sun, having completed its circuit through all the signs, returns to the point where it began its course. For it is said that it completes a full cycle of the entire space each year.