Thomas Aquinas, on Ps 8:5

“What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest hi?”

“But there follows concerning man in comparison to the angels, to whom man is found to be close. "You have diminished him." In the angels the image of God is found through a simple intuition of truth, without inquiry; but in man through discursive reasoning; and therefore in man it is somewhat diminished. Hence it is that men are called angels: Mal. 2: "They shall seek the law from his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts." Man is also corruptible, but only slightly; because at some time man in the fatherland will know all things without discursive reasoning; and he will be incorruptible in body: 1 Cor. 15: "This corruptible body must put on incorruption." Next he shows the clemency of God toward man by comparison with man himself, when he says "with glory and honor," etc. To be crowned belongs to kings. God made man as the king of lower things, and there is "glory," namely the brightness of the divine image: and this is a certain crown of man: 1 Cor. 11: "Man is the image and glory of God": Ps. 4: "The light of your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us." But he is honored who is not subject to anything. For man is subject to no natural bodily creature as regards his soul, neither in his coming into being nor in his progress: not in his coming into being, because he is not produced by a creature, and he acts freely; nor does he perish with the body; and in this the honor of man consists; and therefore it says in Wis. 2: "Nor did they judge the honor of holy souls," etc., up to "he made him": Ps. 48: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand," etc. The second is the passion. "You diminished him" on account of the passion. Heb. 2: "Him who was made a little lower than the angels," etc. In the Hebrew it reads: "And you diminish him a little from God": because he was joined to God in the unity of person; but diminished on account of the passibility he assumed. The third is the benefit of the resurrection in the honor shown to the apostles, which he enumerates through the passion: Phil. 2: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow," etc. Jn. 5: "That all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father."”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.