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← Pseudo-Augustine Soliloquia animae ad Deum (Meditations of the Soul to God)/Book 1 · Soliloquia animae ad Deum
Chapter 8PsAug.1.8

Quando aequalis. Quatenus creatura dignissima. Quale beneficium posse filium Dei fieri. Haec nobis capacitas ex mera gratia.

A Little Less Than the Angels

The soul reflects on being created only a little less than the angels, the present darkness of hope versus the future clarity of sight, and the promise that the faithful will be made equal to the angels and sons of God through Christ.

And you created me only a little less than the angels, because I received from you, along with them, a shared capacity for knowing you.✦ But I did say 'only a little less,' for they already possess the blessed knowledge of you through direct sight, while I have it only through hope; they see face to face, but I see through a mirror, darkly; they have it fully, but I have it only in part.✦ But when what is perfect has come, what is partial will be set aside, when we see your face now revealed.✦ What now will keep us from being only a little less than the angels — those whom you, Lord, will crown with the hope that is adorned with glory, with glory and honor; those whom you will honor as your closest friends, indeed make equal to the angels in every way and on the same level? Surely your own truth says this as well: 'For they are equal to the angels, and they are sons of God' (Luke 20:36).✦ XX, 36). Why shouldn't they be sons of God, if they will be equal to the angels?✦ Truly they will be sons of God, because the Son of Man was made the Son of God.

Man Above the Angels Through the Incarnation

The soul boldly declares that man is not merely equal to the angels but higher, because the eternal Word became flesh, and through this union man becomes God—a dignity no angel shares.

So as I consider this, I have the confidence to say: man is not a little less than the angels — not merely equal to the angels, but higher than the angels, because God became man and man became God, which is not true of any angel.✦1 And I will say that on account of this, man is the most worthy creature — because the Word, which was in the beginning, God with God; the Word through which God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light (Gen.✦✦2 I, 3) — I mean the angelic nature. The Word through which God created all things in the beginning: that same Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory (John✦✦3 I, 1, 14).✦4 See the glory in which I glory — when I glory in it with a sound mind!5 See the joy in which I rejoice — when I rejoice in it with a sound mind! Lord my God, you are the life and the whole glory of my soul.6

The Rational Creature Made for Divine Sonship

The soul confesses that through Christ, the only-begotten Word, rational creatures receive the power to become sons of God—a capacity given to humans alone because they are made in God's image and endowed with reason.

I confess, then, Lord my God, that since you created me capable of reason, you made me in a certain way equal to the angels: because I can be perfected through your Word, so that I may come to the equality of angels, so that I may receive adoption as a son through your only-begotten Word, Lord, through your beloved Son, in whom you were well pleased, through the man who is joined to you, consubstantial and coeternal — Jesus Christ, the only Lord and our redeemer, our light and our consoler, our advocate before you, and the light of our eyes, who is the life and savior of us, and our only hope; who loved us more than himself, through whom we have confidence stored up and firm hope before you, and access to come to you; since he gave the power to become sons of God to those who believe in his name (Ibid.✦ , 12).✦ I will render praise to your name, Lord, who by creating me made me in your image and likeness (Gen.✦ I, 27), you made me capable of receiving so great a glory that I can become a son of God.✦ This trees certainly cannot do, nor stones, nor in general all things that move, or grow in the air, or in the sea, or on the earth: because he did not give them the power to become sons of God through your Word, because they do not have reason; for this power consists in reason, through which we come to know God. But he gave this to human beings, whom he created as rational creatures in his image and likeness.✦ And I, Lord, through your grace, am certainly a human being: and I can be your son through grace, which they cannot be.

Wonder at Being Singled Out

The soul marvels in prayer that among all creatures made from nothing and without prior merit, God chose to make the rational creature capable of divine sonship, and rejects any thought of self-exaltation.

Whence is this to me, Lord, highest truth, true summit and beginning of all creatures — whence is this to me, Lord, that I can be made your son, something they cannot? For you, remaining in eternity, created all things at once. At once you created human beings and beasts, stones and the green things of the earth. No merits went before, no grace preceded any of them; for it was by your goodness alone that you created all things, and all creatures were equal in merits — because there were no merits in any of them. And so how has your goodness shown itself more in this creature of yours, which you made rational, than in all the others that are without reason? Why am I not like all the others, or why are all the others not like me, or why am I alone while they are as I am? What merits of mine, what grace of yours, that you would create me capable of being made a son of God — something you would deny to all of them? Far be it from me, Lord, to think this of myself.

Grace Alone, and a Prayer of Thanksgiving

The soul concludes by attributing everything to God's grace alone and asks for the grace to render thanks for so great a gift.

Your grace alone, your goodness alone has done this: that I might share in his sweetness. That grace, then, by which you created me from nothing — that grace I ask you, Lord, give to me, so that I may render thanks to you for this.

Read the original Latin

Et paulo minus me parem creasti Angelis, quia rationem te cognoscendi cum ipsis a te communem accepi. Sed paulo minus utique dixi; nam illi tuam felicem notitiam jam habent per speciem, ego vero per spem; illi facie ad faciem, ego per speculum in aenigmate; illi plene, ego autem ex parte. Sed cum venerit quod perfectum est, evacuabitur quod ex parte est, quando jam revelata facie tuam faciem videbimus. Quid jam prohibebit nos non esse minores paulo minus ab Angelis, quos tu, Domine, corona spei, quae ornata est gloria, gloria et honore coronaveris; quos tu nimis quasi amicos tuos honorificaveris, imo per omnia pares et aequales Angelis feceris? Nempe et hoc veritas tua dicit: aequales enim sunt Angelis, et filii Dei sunt (Luc. XX, 36). Quidni filii Dei sunt, si pares erunt Angelis? Vere quidem erunt filii Dei, quia filius hominis factus est Filius Dei.

Hoc itaque consideranti mihi fiducia est dicere, Non homo minor paulo minus est ab Angelis, non utique tantum aequalis Angelis; sed superior Angelis: quia homo Deus, et Deus homo, non angelus. Et dicam propter hoc hominem esse creaturam dignissimam quia Verbum quod erat in principio Deus apud Deum; Verbum per quod Deus dixit, Fiat lux, et facta est lux (Gen. I, 3), angelica scilicet natura, Verbum per quod Deus creavit omnia in principio, idem Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis, et vidimus gloriam ejus (Joan. I, 1, 14). Ecce gloria per quam glorior, quando sanum glorior. Ecce gaudium per quod gaudeo, quando sanum gaudeo, Domine Deus meus, vita et gloria tota animae meae.

Confiteor ergo, Domine Deus meus, cum me creasti rationis capacem, Angelis quodam modo parem creasti: quia perfici possum per Verbum tuum, ut veniam ad aequalitatem Angelorum, ut habeam adoptionem filiorum per unigenitum Verbum tuum, Domine, per Filium tuum dilectum, in quo tibi bene complacuit, per virum cohaerentem et consubstantialem tibi et coaeternum Jesum Christum, unicum Dominum et redemptorem nostrum, illuminatorem et consolatorem nostrum, advocatum nostrum apud te, et lumen oculorum nostrorum, qui est vita et salvator noster, et spes unica nostra; qui nos dilexit magis quam se, per quem habemus fiduciam repositam et firmam spem apud te, et accessum veniendi ad te; quoniam dedit potestatem filios Dei fieri his qui credunt in nomine ejus (Ibid. , 12). Laudem tribuam nomini tuo, Domine, qui me ad imaginem et similitudinem tuam creando (Gen. I, 27), tantae gloriae fecisti me fore susceptibilem, ut possim filius Dei fieri. Hoc utique non possunt arbores, non possunt lapides, non generaliter omnia quae moventur, vel crescunt in aere, vel in mari, vel in terra: quia non dedit eis potestatem Verbum tuum filios Dei fieri, quia rationem non habent; nam et haec potestas in ratione consistit, per quam cognoscimus Deum. Dedit autem hanc hominibus, quos creavit rationabiles ad imaginem et similitudinem suam. Et ego utique, Domine, per tuam gratiam, homo sum: et filius tuus esse possum per gratiam, quod illi non possunt.

Unde hoc mihi, Domine, veritas summa, veraque summitas, et principium omnium creaturarum; unde hoc mihi, Domine, ut possim filius tuus fieri, quod illi non possunt? Tu enim manens in aeternum omnia creasti simul. Simul creasti homines et jumenta, lapides et virentia terrae. Non praecesserunt merita, nulla eorum antecessit gratia: quia omnia tua tantum bonitate creasti, et pares omnes creaturae fuere in meritis, quia omnium nulla fuere merita. Et unde ergo magis tua bonitas in hac tua creatura, quam fecisti rationalem, quam in omnibus aliis quae sunt sine ratione, apparuit? Quare non ego sicut omnes illae, aut cur non omnes illae sicut ego, aut ego solus sicut et illae? Quae mea merita, quae mea gratia, ut me filium Dei posse fieri susceptibilem creares, quod illis omnibus denegares? Absit, Domine, ut hoc sentiam.

Tua tantum gratia, tua tantum bonitas hoc fecit, ut essem particeps dulcedinis ejus. Illa igitur gratia qua me de nihilo creasti, illam, quaeso, Domine, da mihi gratiam, ut tibi de hoc referam gratias.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.8.5 — What is man that you remember him, and the son of Adam that you visit him?
  2. ↩1Cor.13.12 — For now we see in a mirror, dimly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
  3. ↩1Cor.13.10 — But when the complete comes, the partial will be done away.
  4. ↩Luke.20.36 — For they can no longer die, for they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
  5. ↩Luke.20.36 — For they can no longer die, for they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
  6. ↩Luke.20.36 — For they can no longer die, for they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
  7. ↩John.1.1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  8. ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
  9. ↩John.1.14 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
  10. ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
  11. ↩John.1.1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  12. ↩John.1.12 — But to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God—to those who believed in his name.
  13. ↩John.1.12 — But to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God—to those who believed in his name.
  14. ↩Gen.1.26 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
  15. ↩Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
  16. ↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.27 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The clause 'homo Deus, et Deus homo' is a dense Christological formulation: God became man (the Incarnation) and man participates in the divine nature (deification/theosis). The translation preserves both senses.
  2. 2 ↩The phrase 'Verbum quod erat in principio Deus apud Deum' echoes John 1:1 ('In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum'). The citation marker is incomplete in the source text.
  3. 3 ↩The citation 'I, 3' refers to Genesis 1:3. The sentence continues into John 1:14, cited in the next segment.
  4. 4 ↩Citation marker completing the Johannine reference: John 1:1 and 1:14.
  5. 5 ↩'Sanum glorior' — the adverbial/adjectival use of 'sanum' is ambiguous. It likely means 'soundly, with a healthy/right understanding' — i.e., glorying in this truth with spiritual clarity rather than empty pride.
  6. 6 ↩'Sanum gaudeo' — same ambiguity as in s5. Rendered as 'with a sound mind' to convey rejoicing with spiritual health and right understanding.

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