On Paternity
V. On Paternity
1. O God the Father, who art glorious!
You have God the Son, with Whom You are mighty
in breathing forth the Holy Spirit from <You> both.
2. God is the Father in terms of <His> substantiality,
<Who> understands His great power
in generating the Son from His deity.
3. God is the Father of God the Son,
on Whom he has bestowed His being
and Whom He has caused to be my <very own> God.
4. God is the Father in terms of <His> singularity,
so that a single infinity
may suffice for a single Paternity.
5. God is the Father in terms of <His> generating,
<Who> understands that He is as powerful
as is His power in terms of <its> existence.
6. God is the Father in terms of <His act of> originating[1]
whereby He bestows being rather than receives it from another;
which is why He understands Himself as the Father.
7. God is the Father as substantially
as He is the Father relatively,
and, therefore, He is the Father in the absence of any accident.
8. Were God to be the Father in virtue of relation alone,
in the absence of deifying, we could say that He is not
as great a Father as <He is> in virtue of creation.
9. Through creation, O God, You are my Father,
but through sinning I am not Your son:
let us make Your son cry out for mercy, then.
10. If you are a worthy, wise and virtuous Father,
I am your foolish, wicked and vice-ridden son,
who cries out to You, O just and merciful Father.
[1] Començar/comensar, lit. “to begin” is the infinitive of començament/comensament (“beginning/origin/principle”), which forms the first member of the triad of principles from the Red Triangle of Llull’s Figure T, namely, Beginning/Middle/End. The reader should note that these principles possess not only their literal, temporal senses but also those relating to philosophy/theology (i.e. Beginning = principle; Middle = medium; End = eschatological end) and to causality (i.e. Beginning = origin; Middle = means; End = purpose/teleological goal). Cf. Ch. XCIX.