Caput 20. Quod omnia serviunt homini ut homo serviat Creatori.
All Things Serve Man That Man May Serve God
God has placed all creation under humanity's feet, establishing a hierarchy where outward things serve the body, the body serves the soul, and the soul serves God alone, ultimately enjoying the unseen heavenly goods prepared for those who love Him.
You have put all things under the feet of human beings (Ps. VIII, 8); so that human beings alone might be wholly subject to you; and so that the whole human being might be yours, humankind has been given dominion over all that is yours. Indeed, you created all outward things for the body, the body itself for the soul, and the soul for you—so that it might be free for you alone and love you alone, possessing you for its consolation, and all lower things for its service.1 For whatever is held within the circuit of the heavens is lower than the human soul, which was made to possess the supreme Good above it and, by possessing that Good, to become blessed; if it clings to that Good, rising above the necessities of every lower and changeable thing, it will rejoice in the eternity of immortality, with serenity, in that highest majesty whose likeness it bears.2 Then it will enjoy those finest goods in the house of the Lord, compared with which everything we see here is counted as nothing. Those are the things eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they risen into the human heart—the things God has prepared for those who love him (Isai. LXIV, 4; 1 Cor. II, 9).✦
God's Gifts to the Soul and Body
The soul receives God's gifts daily, and the body is endowed with senses, animals, fruits, and medicines, all reflecting God's mercy and intimate knowledge of our frail frame.
And these things, Lord, you will give to the soul. With these, too, you gladden the souls of your servants every day—you who love souls. Why should I marvel at these things, Lord my God? For you honor your image, and your likeness after which they were created.3 For even to our body, though it is still perishable and lowly, you gave—so that it might see—the brightness of the sky through the hand of your tireless servants, the sun and the moon, who by your command continually serve your children day and night; so that it might breathe, you bestowed the purity of the air; so that it might hear, the varieties of sounds; so that it might smell, the sweetness of scents; so that it might taste, the qualities of flavors; and so that it might touch, you gave the solid bulk of all bodily things.4 You gave beasts of burden as helps for its needs; you also provided the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, and the fruits of the earth for refreshment. You created medicines from the earth for each of its particular corruptions, and you prepared particular consolations that meet each particular ill; for you are merciful and compassionate, and you know our frame—you, our Potter—and we are all like clay in your hand.
Read the original Latin
Omnia sub pedibus hominum subjecisti (Psal. VIII, 8); ut solus homo totus tibi subjiceretur; et ut tuus esset totus homo, super omnia tua dominatus est homo. Exteriora nempe pro corpore cuncta creasti, ipsum vero corpus pro anima, animam vero pro te; ut tibi soli vacaret, et te solum amaret, possidens te ad solatium, inferiora vero omnia ad servitium. Quidquid enim coeli ambitu continetur, inferius ab anima humana est, quae facta est ut summum bonum superius possideret, cujus possessione beata fieret; cui si adhaeserit, cunctarum mutabilitatum inferiorum necessitudines supergrediens, illius summae majestatis, cujus aemulatur speciem, aeternitate immortalitatis cum serenitate gaudebit. Tunc vero illis bonis optimis fruetur in domo Domini, quorum comparatione cuncta quae hic cernimus, velut nihilum computantur. Illa sunt quae oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascenderunt, quae praeparavit Deus diligentibus se (Isai. LXIV, 4; I Cor. II, 9).
Et haec quidem, Domine, daturus es animae. His etiam quotidie laetificas animas servorum tuorum, qui amas animas. Quid miror haec, Domine Deus meus? Imaginem quippe tuam honorificas, et similitudinem tuam ad quam creatae sunt. Nam et corpori nostro, licet adhuc corruptibili et ignobili, ut videret, dedisti claritatem coeli per manum ministrorum tuorum indefessorum, solis et lunae, qui praecepto tuo jugiter die ac nocte deserviunt filiis tuis; ut spiraret, largitus es aeris puritatem; ut audiret, sonorum varietates; ut odoraret, odorum suavitates; ut gustaret, saporum qualitates; ut contrectaret, dedisti corpulentorum omnium grossitates. Adjumenta suis necessitatibus dedisti jumenta; volucres quoque coeli et pisces maris, et fructus terrae ad reficiendum impendisti. Medicinas de terra propter singulas quasque suas corruptelas creasti, singula solatia singulis malis obviantia praeparasti; quoniam es misericors et miserator, et novisti figmentum nostrum figulus noster, et nos omnes quasi lutum in manu tua.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.64.4;1Cor.2.9 — You meet those who rejoice and do righteousness; in your ways they remember you. But behold, you were angry, and we sinned — in those ways we have been for long, and can we be saved? 1Cor.2.9 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him.
Notes
- 1 ↩vacaret rendered as 'be free for' (devote leisure/attention to), not mere emptiness; anima kept as 'soul' per lexeme policy.
- 2 ↩aemulatur speciem rendered 'whose likeness it bears' (image/emulation of the divine majesty); necessitudines as 'necessities' (binding constraints of mutable lower things).
- 3 ↩creatae sunt is feminine plural and most naturally refers back to animas (souls) in the preceding sentence.
- 4 ↩corpulentorum ... grossitates rendered as 'the solid bulk of all bodily things'—the tactile gift of material mass/solidity rather than mere 'fatness.'
Pseudo-Augustine Soliloquia animae ad Deum (Meditations of the Soul to God) companion
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