The Relation we bear to the Wisdom of the Father, the Son of His

The philosopher and early defender of women’s rights, Mary Astell, proclaimed with reverence: “The Relation we bear to the Wisdom of the Father, the Son of His Love, gives us indeed a dignity which otherwise we have no pretence to. It makes us something, something considerable even in God’s Eyes.” In these words she lifts the human soul from dust to glory, declaring that our true dignity does not arise from wealth, birth, or beauty, but from our relation to the eternal Wisdom—Christ, the Son of Love. Without this divine bond, we are but fleeting shadows; with it, we are made radiant, precious in the sight of God.

The origin of this teaching rests in Astell’s Christian philosophy, written in an age when women were denied education and regarded as lesser in intellect and worth. She sought to show that every soul, man or woman, bears infinite value because of its union with divine Wisdom. In Christ, all human beings receive a share in God’s love, and thus attain a greatness they could never claim by earthly means. To remind her readers of this was to strike at the very roots of pride and oppression.

History itself echoes her truth in the life of Saint Augustine. Once a restless seeker, wandering in desires and ambitions, Augustine confessed that he found no peace until he was bound to the eternal Wisdom in Christ. When he discovered that his dignity lay not in his rhetorical skill, nor in his earthly honor, but in God’s love, his life was transformed. He became not merely a man of words, but a vessel of truth, “something considerable” in the eyes of God and of the Church.

The ancients understood that man without God is frail. The Greeks spoke of hubris, the arrogance of mortals who thought themselves divine, and how the gods struck them down. But the Christian vision, voiced by Astell, reveals a higher mystery: that by uniting ourselves with the Son of Love, we are lifted not by pride, but by grace. The dignity of the human soul is not self-made—it is bestowed, an inheritance drawn from the eternal Wisdom of the Father.

Therefore, O children of tomorrow, remember this: your worth is not measured by the standards of the world, nor by titles, nor by fleeting praise. Your dignity comes from your relation to the divine Wisdom, who clothes you in love and makes you precious in the sight of the Eternal. Walk not in despair, for you are more than dust; nor in arrogance, for it is not your own doing. Instead, walk humbly and boldly in the truth that through the Son of Love, you are “something considerable, even in God’s Eyes.”