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Chapter 8CanticoEsp.1.8

Canción V

The Question and the Creatures' Answer

The soul asks the creatures, and they answer by testifying that God created all things with ease, leaving traces of His beauty and grace.

Pouring out a thousand graces, he hurried through these groves, and as he went, he looked at them, and just by his appearance, he left them clothed in his beauty. Explanation In this song, the creatures answer the soul, and that answer—as Saint Augustine also says in the same passage—is the testimony they give within themselves of God's greatness and excellence to the soul that asks them about it through contemplation. So the substance of this song is that God created all things with great ease and speed, and in them left some trace of who he was, not only by bringing them into being from nothing, but even more by giving them countless graces and virtues, and by adorning them with the wonderful order and unfailing interdependence they have with one another—and that he did all this through his wisdom, through whom he created them, which is the Word, his only-begotten Son. So it says this:

Pouring Out a Thousand Graces

The first line is explained: the thousand graces represent the vast multitude of creatures endowed with divine gifts.

Pouring out a thousand graces. By the thousand graces she says he was pouring out, she means the countless multitude of creatures. That's why she uses the greatest number, a thousand, to make clear how many they are—creatures she calls graces because of the many graces he endowed them with, graces he poured out, that is, by populating the whole world.1

The Hastened Passing

The second line unfolds: God's passing through the groves signifies the creation of the elements, and the haste points to the greater mystery of the Incarnation.

He passed through these thickets in haste. To pass through the groves means to create the elements—which here he calls groves—through which he says he was passing, pouring out a thousand graces. He did this because he adorned them with all the creatures that are graceful; and beyond that, he poured the thousand graces into them, giving them the power to take part in the generation and preservation of them all. And he says that he passed because the creatures are like a track of God's passing, by which his greatness, power, wisdom, and other divine virtues are traced. And he says this passing was in haste because the creatures are God's lesser works, which he made as if in passing. The greater works—in which he showed himself most and on which he most dwelled—were those of the Incarnation of the Word and the mysteries of the Christian faith. Compared with those, all the rest were made as if in passing and with haste.23

Clothed in the Beauty of the Son

The third line leads to a deep reflection: through the image of the Son, God bestows natural and supernatural beauty on all creatures, culminating in the Incarnation and Resurrection.

And as he went, looking upon them, with only his form he left them clothed in his beauty.✦4 As Saint Paul says, the Son of God is the radiance of his glory and the image of his substance: “Who is the radiance of his glory and the image of his substance.”✦ So you should know that God looked on all things with this image of his Son alone, and that look gave them their natural being, communicating many natural graces and gifts to them and making them complete and perfect, as Genesis says in these words: “God looked upon all the things he had made, and they were very good.”5 His looking on them as very good was making them very good in the Word, his Son; and by looking on them he not only communicated to them being and natural graces, as we have said, but also, with this image of his Son alone, left them clothed in beauty, communicating to them supernatural being—which was when he became man, raising him into the beauty of God, and consequently all creatures in him, because he had united himself with the nature of them all in man. For this reason the Son of God himself said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself”; that is, “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will raise all things to myself.” And so, in this lifting up of the incarnation of his Son and of the glory of his resurrection according to the flesh, the Father not only beautified the creatures in part, but we can say he left them altogether clothed in beauty and dignity.✦6

Read the original Spanish

Mil gracias derramando Pasó por estos sotos con presura, Y yéndolos mirando, Con sola su figura Vestidos los dejó de su hermosura.

DECLARACIÓN

En esta canción responden las criaturas al alma, la cual respuesta, como también dice San Agustín en aquel mismo lugar, es el testimonio que dan en sí de la grandeza y excelencia de Dios al alma que por la consideración se lo pregunta; y así, en esta canción lo que se contiene en sustancia es que Dios crió todas las cosas con gran facilidad y brevedad, y en ellas dejó algún rastro de quien él era, no sólo dándoles el ser de nada, más aún, dotándolas de inumerables gracias y virtudes, y hermoseándolas con el admirable orden y dependencia indeficiente que tienen unas de otras, y esto todo haciéndolo con su sabiduría, por quien las crió, que es el Verbo, su unigénito Hijo. Dice, pues, así:

Mil gracias derramando.

Por estas mil gracias que dice iba derramando se entiende la multitud de criaturas innumerable, que por eso pone aquí el número mayor, que es mil, para dar a entender la multitud de ellas, a las cuales llama gracias por las muchas gracias de que dotó a las criaturas, las cuales derramó, es a saber, todo el mundo poblando.

Pasó por estos sotos con presura.

Pasar por los sotos es criar los elementos, que aquí llama sotos, por los cuales dice que pasaba derramando mil gracias, porque los adornaba de todas las criaturas que son graciosas, y allende de eso, en ellas derramaba las mil gracias, dándoles virtud para poder concurrir con la generación y conservación de todas ellas, y dice que pasó, porque las criaturas son como un rastro del paso de Dios, por el cual se rastrea su grandeza, potencia y sabiduría, y otras virtudes divinas, y dice que este paso fue con presura, porque las criaturas son las obras menores de Dios, que las hizo como de paso; porque las mayores, en que más se mostró y en que él más reparaba, eran las de la encarnación del Verbo y misterios de la fe cristiana, en cuya comparación todas las más eran hechas como de paso y con apresuramiento.

Y yéndoles mirando, Con sola su figura Vestidos los dejó de su hermosura.

Según dice san Pablo, el Hijo de Dios es resplandor de su gloria y figura de su sustancia: Qui cum sit splendor gloriae, et figura substantiae ejus. Es, pues, de saber que con sola esta figura de su Hijo miró Dios todas las cosas, que fue darles el ser natural, comunicándoles muchas gracias y dones naturales, haciéndolas acabadas y perfectas, según se dice en el Génesis por estas palabras: Vidit Deus cuncta, quae fecerat, et erant valde bona; «Miró Dios todas las cosas que había hecho, y eran mucho buenas». El mirarlas mucho buenas era hacerlas mucho buenas en el Verbo, su Hijo; y no sólo les comunicó el ser y gracias naturales, como habemos dicho, mirándolas, mas también con sola esta figura de su Hijo las dejó vestidas de hermosura, comunicándoles el ser sobrenatural; lo cual fue cuando se hizo hombre, ensalzándole en hermosura de Dios, y por consiguiente a todas las criaturas en él, por haberse unido con la naturaleza de todas ellas en el hombre. Por lo cual dijo el mismo Hijo de Dios: Et ego si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad me ipsum; esto es: Si yo fuere ensalzado de la tierra, levantaré a mí todas las cosas; y así, en este levantamiento de la encarnación de su Hijo y de la gloria de su resurrección según la carne, no solamente hermoseó el Padre las criaturas en parte, mas podemos decir que del todo las dejó vestidas de hermosura y dignidad.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Heb.1.3 — He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's own being, and he upholds all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
  2. ↩Heb.1.3 — He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's own being, and he upholds all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
  3. ↩John.12.32 — And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩gracias carries a double sense here: the creatures themselves are called “graces,” and they are so named because God endowed them with many graces.
  2. 2 ↩graciosas carries a grace/beauty play with mil gracias: rendered "graceful" for the creatures' loveliness, while gracias is kept as theological "graces."
  3. 3 ↩concurrir con: scholastic sense of secondary causes cooperating; rendered "take part in" rather than bare "concur with."
  4. 4 ↩figura is kept as "figure" to preserve the hymn's link to Heb 1:3 (figura substantiae), which the following commentary develops as the Son's image by which God looks on and clothes creatures.
  5. 5 ↩Spanish "miró" (looked) renders Latin "vidit" (saw/looked); kept "looked" to preserve San Juan's link between God's creative gaze and the poem's "mirando".
  6. 6 ↩San Juan glosses Latin "traham" (I will draw) with Spanish "levantaré" (I will raise/lift). Both senses are kept: "draw" for the Latin citation, "raise" for his Spanish explanation.

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