You've Got the Power!
"The Dignity of Man"
Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola
"At last, it seems to me that I have understood why man is the most fortunate living thing worthy of all admiration and precisely what rank is his lot in the universal chain of being, a rank to be envied not only by the brutes, but even by the stars and by the minds beyond this world. It is a matter past faith and extraordinary! Why should it not be so? For it is upon this account that man is justly considered and called a great miracle and a truly admirable being....
God the Father, the supreme Architect, had already built this cosmic home, which we behold, this most majestic temple of divinity, in accordance with the laws of a mysterious wisdom. He had adorned the region above the heavens with intelligences, had quickened the celestial spheres with eternal souls and had filled the vile and filthy parts of the lower world with a multitude of animals of every kind. But when the work was completed, the Maker kept wishing that there were someone who could love its beauty, who could admire its vastness. On that account, when everything was completed, as Moses and Timaeus both testify, He finally took thought of creating man.
...At last, the Supreme Artisan ordained that the creature to whom He could give nothing properly his own should share in whatever He had assigned individually to the other creatures. He therefore accepted man as a work of indeterminate nature, and placing him in the center of the world, addressed him thus:
“’O Adam, we have given you neither a place nor a form nor any ability exclusively your own, so that according to your wishes and your judgment, you may have and possess whatever place, form, or abilities you desire. The nature of all other beings is limited and constrained in accordance with the laws prescribed by us. Constrained by no limits, in accordance with your own free will, in whose hands we have placed you; you shall independently determine the bounds of your own name. We have placed you at the world's center, from where you may more easily observe whatever is in the world. We have made you neither celestial nor terrestrial, neither mortal or immortal, so that with honor and freedom of choice, as though the maker and molder of yourself, you may fashion yourself in whatever form you prefer. You shall have the power to degenerate into the inferior forms of life, which are brutish; you shall have the power, through your soul's judgment, to rise to the superior orders, which are divine.’"
O supreme generosity of God the Father! O highest and most admirable felicity of man to whom it is granted to have whatever he chooses, to be whatever he wills! .... Whatever seeds each man cultivates will mature and bear their own fruit in him; if vegetative, he will be like a plant; if sensitive, he will become like a brute; if rational, he will become a celestial being; if intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God.... Who would not admire this our chameleon?...
But why do we reiterate these things? To the end that from the moment we are born into the condition of being able to become whatever we choose, we should be particularly certain that it may never be said of us that, although born to a privileged position, we failed to realize it and became like brutes and mindless beasts of burden...
No comments:
Post a Comment