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Chapter 8PsAugSoliloquia.1.8

Caput 8. Quando aequalis. Quatenus creatura dignissima. Quale beneficium posse filium Dei fieri. Haec nobis capacitas ex mera gratia.

Hope of Angelic Equality

The soul acknowledges its current state of partial knowledge and hope, yet rejoices in the promise of being crowned with glory and becoming a child of God, equal to the angels.

And you made me nearly equal to the angels, because from you I received, along with them, a shared capacity to know you. But I did say "a little less," of course; for they already have your blessed knowledge by sight, while I have it by hope; they face to face, I through a mirror in a riddle; they fully, but I only in part.1 But when what is perfect comes, what is partial will pass away — when, with unveiled face, we will see your face. What then will keep us from no longer being a little less than the angels — us whom you, Lord, will crown with the crown of hope, which is adorned with glory, whom you will crown with glory and honor, whom you will honor beyond measure as your friends, indeed make in every way peers and equals of the angels?2 Indeed, your truth says this too: for they are equal to the angels, and they are children of God (Luke 20:36). Why wouldn't they be children of God, if they will be peers of the angels? They will truly be children of God, because the Son of Man has been made the Son of God.3

Higher Than the Angels Through the Incarnation

The soul proclaims that because the Word became flesh, a human being is more worthy than the angels, and this truth is the source of its sound glory and joy.

So as I consider this, I have the confidence to say: A human being is not a little lower than the angels—not merely equal to the angels, but higher than the angels—because man is God, and God is man, not an angel. And for this reason I will say that the human being is the most worthy of creatures, because the Word who was in the beginning God with God—the Word through which God said, "Let there be light," and light was made (Gen.✦✦ 1:3)—namely 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✦✦✦4 1:1, 14). Look: this is the glory I glory in when I glory soundly.5 Look: this is the joy I rejoice in when I rejoice soundly, Lord my God, the whole life and glory of my soul.

Created for Divine Sonship

The soul thanks God for creating it rational and in his image, thereby making it capable of the great glory of becoming a child of God, a gift denied to all irrational creatures.

So I confess, Lord my God: when you created me capable of reason, you created me in some way equal to the angels—because I can be perfected through your Word, so that I might come to equality with the angels, so that I might receive adoption as children through your only-begotten Word, Lord, through your beloved Son, in whom you are well pleased, through the man united to you, consubstantial with you and coeternal, Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Redeemer, our enlightener and comforter, our advocate before you, and the light of our eyes, who is our life and Savior, and our only hope; who loved us more than himself, through whom we have confidence and firm hope stored up with you, and access to you; because he has given power to become children of God to those who believe in his name (Ibid. , 12).✦ I will give praise to your name, Lord—you who, by creating me in your image and likeness (Gen. 1:27), made me capable of receiving such great glory, that I might become a child of God.✦ This, certainly, trees cannot do; stones cannot; nor, in general, can all things that move or grow in the air, or in the sea, or on the earth—because your Word did not give them the power to become children of God, because they don't have reason; for this power too rests in reason, through which we know God.✦ But he gave this to human beings, whom he created as rational beings in his image and likeness. And I, for my part, Lord, through your grace, am a human being; and through grace I can become your child—which they cannot.✦

All of Grace: Gratitude for the Gift

The soul humbly recognizes that its capacity for divine sonship comes from God's sheer goodness, not from any merits, and begs for the grace to give thanks for this gratuitous gift.

How does this come to me, Lord—highest Truth, true Summit, and beginning of all creatures? How does this come to me, Lord: that I can become your son, which they cannot? For you, who remain forever, created all things at once. At once you created human beings and beasts, stones and the green things of the earth. Merits did not come first; no grace of theirs went before: because you created everything by your goodness alone, and all creatures were equal in merits, since none of them had any merits.6 And so then, how did your goodness appear more in this creature of yours, whom you made rational, than in all the others that are without reason? Why am I not like all those others, or why aren't all those others like me, or why am I alone just like them too? What merits of mine, what grace of mine, that you would create me capable of becoming a son of God — something you denied to all of them?7 Far be it from me, Lord, that I should think this. Only your grace, only your goodness, did this, so that I might share in its sweetness.8 So then, that grace by which you created me from nothing — give me that grace, I beg you, Lord, so that I may give you thanks for this.9

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. ↩John.1.1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  2. ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
  3. ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
  4. ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
  5. ↩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.
  6. ↩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.
  7. ↩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.
  8. ↩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.
  9. ↩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.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩per speciem rendered as 'by sight' (beatific vision), contrasted with per spem 'by hope'.
  2. 2 ↩Parsed 'corona spei, quae ornata est gloria, gloria et honore coronaveris' as crowning with the crown of hope adorned with glory, then crowning with glory and honor (Psalm cadence).
  3. 3 ↩Latin contrasts lowercase filius hominis with capitalized Filius Dei; rendered as the christological claim that grounds human adoptive sonship, in line with the chapter's Incarnation theme.
  4. 4 ↩angelica scilicet natura is taken as clarifying 'lux' in the Genesis citation (intellectual/angelic light), a reading common in Augustinian tradition; the apposition could also be heard more loosely as naming what the creating Word also made.
  5. 5 ↩sanum is taken as an adverbial accusative: 'soundly' / 'in a sound way', not 'a sound thing'.
  6. 6 ↩Rendered 'nulla eorum antecessit gratia' as 'no grace of theirs went ahead' (gratia as nominative subject). Alternative: 'grace preceded none of them.'
  7. 7 ↩'mea gratia' is the speaker's ironic claim to personal desert/favor, not a settled affirmation of possessing grace.
  8. 8 ↩ejus may refer to the grace/goodness just named (its sweetness) or, less immediately, to God (His sweetness); the nearer feminine antecedents favor the former.
  9. 9 ↩Latin plays on gratia / gratiam / gratias (grace / grace / thanks). English keeps grace for the gift and thanks for referam gratias, per lexeme policy.

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