On Dignity/Worthiness
LXXXIV. On Dignity/Worthiness
1. God is worthy of the greatest honour,
so sinners, therefore, who do Him dishonour in any respect
commit evil.
2. Whoever loves gold or his relatives
more than he does God, <Who> is worthy of every compliment,
does great dishonour to Him.
3. God is worthy of being loved more fondly
than anything that can be created,
<so> whoever fails to love Him the most commits great folly.
4. God is so worthy of being praised
that He has created in us the freedom
whereby to honour His great dignity.
5. When I consider that God is worthy of great honour
and I recall the great dishonour
we do unto Him, I become very fearful.
6. Since God is so very worthy
of being served and honoured,
whoever dishonours Him is committing a great sin.
7. Whoever fails to honour God or cause Him to be honoured
by himself or by others cannot exonerate himself
from transgression and sin.
8. God is <sufficiently> worthy to forgive,
to give and to judge,
since He is worthy of creating.
9. One of God’s Dignities is worth more in Him
than it is in <everything> that He has created.
Why, then, do we dishonour Him?[1]
10. Whoever fails to love God more for the sake of God <Himself>[2]
than because he fears Him,
is dishonouring God’s dignity.
[1] The word dignitat (in the form here of una dignitat) would seem to refer to the Lullian “Dignities” or set of universal and convertible onto-theo-logical principles and attributes of God common to the three monotheisms.
[2] The phrase per sa amor (lit. “for the love of Him”) carries the sense in both Old Catalan and in English of “for His sake.”