Quod homo ad imaginem sui Creatoris conditus, et beatitudinis capax sit.
Humanity's Unique Capacity for Blessedness
God created humanity not merely with existence or beauty but with a unique capacity for blessedness, a gift reserved for the rational creature alone.
To humanity, therefore, in the very creation of the universe, God gave not only existence — nor, as with the other creatures, merely the goodness of being — nor merely to be something beautiful or ordered, but beyond all this, to be something blessed. But just as no creature exists from itself, nor is beautiful or good from itself, but from him who supremely is, who is supremely good and beautiful — and so the goodness of all good things, the beauty of all beautiful things, the cause of all existing things — neither, in the same way, is any creature blessed from itself, but from him who is supremely blessed, and through this, the blessedness of all the blessed. Only a rational creature is capable of this blessedness.
Clinging to God: The Soul's Proper Good
The rational soul, made in God's image, finds its peculiar good in clinging to its Creator, as the Psalmist testifies.
For that creature, having been made in the image of its Creator, is fitted to cling to him whose image it is — which is the good peculiar to a rational creature alone, as holy David says: 'But for me, to cling to God is good' (Ps. 72).
Memory, Knowledge, and Love: The Soul's Threefold Participation
God implanted in the mind three powers — memory, knowledge, and love — by which the soul shares in divine eternity, wisdom, and sweetness.
This clinging is clearly not of the flesh but of the mind, in which the Author of all natures has implanted three things by which the mind becomes a sharer in divine eternity, a partaker of wisdom, and a taster of sweetness. These three — I mean memory, knowledge, and love, or will. Memory is indeed capable of eternity, knowledge of wisdom, love of sweetness.
The Trinitarian Image and the Origin of Blessedness
In memory, knowledge, and love the soul bears the image of the Trinity, holding God without forgetting, knowing without error, and loving without rival — and from this, blessed.
In these three powers, man was created in the image of the Trinity: he held God in memory without forgetting, recognized him in knowledge without error, and embraced him in love without desire for anything else. From this, blessed.1
Read the original Latin
Homini ergo in ipsa universitatis creatione dedit non solum esse, nec, ut caeteris, bonum tantum esse: nec solum pulchrum aut ordinatum quid esse, sed insuper beatum quid esse. Sed, quemadmodum nulla creatura nec a seipsa est, nec a seipsa pulchra, aut bona est; sed ab ipso qui summe est, qui summe bonus et pulcher est: et ideo bonitas bonorum omnium, pulchritudo pulchrorum omnium, causa omnium existentium: ita nec a seipsa beata est; sed ab ipso qui summe beatus est, ac per hoc beatitudo beatorum omnium. Hujus beatitudinis sola rationalis creatura capax est. Ipsa quippe ad imaginem sui Creatoris condita, idonea est illi adhaerere, cujus est imago: quod solum rationalis creaturae bonum est, ut ait sanctus David: Mihi autem adhaerere Deo bonum est (Psal. lxxii). Adhaesio plane ista non carnis, sed mentis est, in qua tria quaedam naturarum auctor inseruit, quibus divinae aeternitatis compos efficitur, particeps sapientiae, dulcedinis degustator. Tria haec memoriam dico, scientiam, amorem, sive voluntatem. Aeternitatis quippe capax est memoria, sapientiae scientia, dulcedinis amor.
In his tribus ad imaginem Trinitatis conditus homo, Deum quem memoria retinebat sine oblivione, scientia agnoscebat sine errore; amore complectebatur sine alterius rei cupiditate. Hinc beatus.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin is extremely terse — two words. The rendering preserves the abrupt, aphoristic quality of the source. A fuller paraphrase ('This is the source of his blessedness') would be smoother but would add what the text does not say.
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
Reorder one love at a time, daily
Use the study map with the free Chosen Portion app's daily readings to work through Aelred at a sustainable pace.
Aelred wrote the Mirror as a rule for daily interior discipline in community, and Chosen Portion carries that discipline forward as a short ordered reading each day.
- All 3 books and 102 chapters mapped into 4 weekly themes with page-level pointers
- Aelred's choice-motion-fruit test, turned into a one-page self-examination worksheet
- 16 discussion questions ready for personal journaling or a 4-session small group