October 12 -- Adult Ed Course on the Angels, Session 2: Angels at their creation and fall

Session 2 of our adult ed series on the angels

Objectives for Session 2: Angels at their creation and fall

1) Review what follows from the fact that angels are immaterial, pure spiritual beings

2) Consider the ways in which an angel, though perfect in himself, could possibly fall

3) Consider the wonderful obedience of the good angels

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A Course on the Angels: Session 2, Angels at their Creation and Fall

Fr Ryan Erlenbush

I. Review of last session – leaving being our imagination

A. Angels have no bodies, they are incorporeal and immaterial

B. Angels are each their own species, and the perfection of that species

C. Angels are not outside of time, but they are not restricted to continuous material time
D. There are many angels

II. Completion of what was not covered last session

VII. Are there many angels?

A. Diversity among material things, compared to diversity among spiritual realities

B. Perfection in the multitude of the angels

C. The witness of Scripture

D. That the “choirs” are not to strictly “classify” the angels – each is its own order

VIII. The life of grace in the angels

A. As rational creatures, they are called by God to the life of grace

B. By God’s grace, many further truths are revealed to them

C. The angels and men are to make up one society in the life of grace

III. The Angelic Life: 12 points about the angels from Anscar Vonier

1. Angels have a beginning, but they cannot perish; they remain everlastingly the same

2. Angels are not subject to the laws of time, but have a duration measure of their own

3. Angels are completely superior to space, so that they could never be subject to its laws

4. Angelic power on the material world is exerted directly through the will

5. Angelic life has two faculties only, intellect and will

6. In the sphere of nature an angel cannot err, either in intellect or will

7. An angel never goes back on a decision once taken

8. The angelic mind starts with fulness of knowledge, it is not, like the human mind, subject to gradual development

9. An angel may directly influence another created intellect, but he cannot act directly on another created will

10. Angels have free will; they are capable of love and hatred

11. Angels know material things and individual things

12. Angels do not know the future; they do not know the secret thoughts of other rational creatures; they do not know the mysteries of grace, unless such things be revealed freely, either by God or by the other rational creatures

IV. The Angels at their Creation

A. God creates all things immediately, without the assistance of the angels

B. The angels were created in the state of grace, but not in heavenly glory

1. There is the “Empyrean heaven” which is above earth

2. There is the “Heaven of the Blessed Trinity” which is heavenly glory

C. Although created in the state of grace, the angels had a choice. They underwent a test

1. First thought: Self-consciousness

2. Second thought: to cooperate or reject grace

3. Either fly to heaven, or fall to hell

V. The Fall of the Wicked Angels

A. How could an angel fall from heaven?

B. How many angels fell?

1. Did more angels remain faithful?

2. Did angels fall from each of the hierarchies?

C. Was Lucifer the leader?

1. Was Lucifer the greatest of the angels?

2. What was his sin?

D. What was the pride of the fallen angels?

E. Will hell last forever?

VI. The Salvation of the Good Angels

A. The proportionate glory of the good angels

1. Grace given in proportion to their nature

2. Glory given in proportion to grace

B. In what did the perseverance of the good angels consist?

“There is, however, one aspect of angelic sanctity which we might almost call its moral side: it is expressed generally as the obedience of the angels – more truly it might be called their “order”; that the spirits keep the order in which they were created, carry out the missions which are entrusted to them, that all their mighty activities are an unceasing dependence on God’s will; above all, that they accept the kingship of a nature lower than their own. They have not rebelled against the exaltation of the human nature in Christ Jesus, and the Catholic Church never ceases to speak of the Mother of God as Queen of the angles. This observance of the order established by God is the true angelic virtue, the one thing in which they might fail; it might even be called their temptation, and if the temptation be overcome, it is their victory. […] Fidelity to God over a great, a mightily debated issue seems to be an essential portion of angelic sanctity.” (Anscar Vonier)

C. The Beatific Vision and the Angels

D. The Angels and the Mystical Body of Christ

1. The angels and Jesus in his humanity

2. The angels and the Blessed Mother

3. The angels and the saints together in heaven

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A Course on the Angels: Session 2, Angels at their creation and fall

Fr Ryan Erlenbush

II. Completion of what was not covered last session:

(VII.) Are there many angels?

A. Diversity among material things, compared to diversity among spiritual realities

There is a greater diversity between difference substances than many individuals of one substance. An ant and a horse, compared to one million ants.

Furthermore, greater diversity is possible among spiritual realities, even as the diversity of thoughts is far greater than the diversity of material objects (compare thinking about a piece of clay).

B. Perfection in the multitude of the angels

There is a perfection in the multitude of angels that doesn’t exist by multiplying material things. Each angel shows forth another aspect of God’s perfection.

C. The witness of Scripture

Daniel 7:10, “Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.”

Revelation 5:11, “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the ancients; and the number of them was thousands of thousands.”

D. That the “choirs” are not to strictly “classify” the angels – each is its own order

“The secrets which are revealed to us in those traditional names [of the angelic hierarchies] are just the few hints given to us of the glorious variety in God’s spiritual world. To make of those names categories and exclusive partitions would be contrary to the intentions of the Spirit who whispered the great secrets. We are expected to multiply, not to divide, in our thoughts of the heavenly citizens. We should not divide them into classes, but we should be ready for endless varieties of spiritual splendours. […] Did we know more clearly, then we should really see that every angel is in himself an order.” (Anscar Vonier)

(VIII.) The life of grace in the angels

A. As rational creatures, they are called by God to the life of grace

B. By God’s grace, many further truths are revealed to them

C. The angels and men are to make up one society in the life of grace

III. The Angelic Life: 12 points about the angels from Anscar Vonier

“Our theology concerns itself with the general angelic features, not with their special attributes, and we know no more about the highest angel than about the lowest; we give them the generic attributes which belong to all finite spiritual substances, the human soul alone excepted.” (Vonier)

1. Angels have a beginning, but they cannot perish; they remain everlastingly the same.

They were created by God’s omnipotence out of nothingness. All created in the same moment. A perfect substance, unalterable in his essence, but only changes of thought and will.

2. Angels are not subject to the laws of time, but have a duration measure of their own

Angelic time is a measure of thought. The poem of Cardinal Newman “Dream of Gerontius”

3. Angels are completely superior to space, so that they could never be subject to its laws

Angels are present in a place by acting on that place. But they do not truly move from place to place – they are simply in a place, then in another.

4. Angelic power on the material world is exerted directly through the will

5. Angelic life has two faculties only, intellect and will

Angels cannot be said to have imagination, passion, sentiment. Angels are pure from all sensuality not through virtue, but through nature.

6. In the sphere of nature an angel cannot err, either in intellect or will

There cannot be in an angel any source of sin or error within his own sphere of existence, but he may sin and err in the mysteries of grace, as those mysteries are above him.

7. An angel never goes back on a decision once taken

Vacillation of purpose in man comes from a predominance of the sentimental element over the intellectual element. With spirits, as may easily be perceived, there could be no such source of weakness, no such hesitancy of purpose.

8. The angelic mind starts with fulness of knowledge, it is not, like the human mind, subject to gradual development

The profoundest difference between spirit intellect and human intellect. A spirit starts his existence fully endowed with all knowledge -he applies his knowledge to new objects, but he does not acquire ideas that were not infused into him by the Creator in the very making of him.

9. An angel may directly influence another created intellect, but he cannot act directly on another created will

10. Angels have free will; they are capable of love and hatred

11. Angels know material things and individual things

The future free acts of created rational beings are not knowable to a created intellect. For the same reasons which make it impossible for a spirit to act directly on the will of any rational creature we may say that the secret thoughts of the heart of man or the mind of a spirit are hidden, unless freely revealed by the one who thinks the thought. And how much more the mysteries of the mind of God!

IV. The Angels at their Creation

A. God creates all things immediately, without the assistance of the angels

B. The angels were created in the state of grace, but not in heavenly glory

1. There is the “Empyrean heaven” which is above earth

2. There is the “Heaven of the Blessed Trinity” which is heavenly glory

C. Although created in the state of grace, the angels had a choice. They underwent a test

1. First thought: Self-consciousness

But, oh, how many earth-years could correspond to this single angelic thought!

2. Second thought: to cooperate or reject grace

3. Either fly to heaven, or fall to hell

V. The Fall of the Wicked Angels

A. How could an angel fall from heaven? In relation to things above him

B. How many angels fell? Revelation indicates 1/3

1. Did more angels remain faithful? 2/3 remained faithful

2. Did angels fall from each of the hierarchies? Yes

C. Was Lucifer the leader?

1. Was Lucifer the greatest of the angels? Yes, and among the seraphim

2. What was his sin?

“Thy pride dragged thee to hell. How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, that didst arise as the morning? Thou that sadist in thy heart, I will climb into heaven; beyond the stars I will make my throne. I will be like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:12)

“Proud was that angel, and on that account envious: by that same pride was he led to turn from God and exalt himself; and by that very tyrannical habit he chose rather to lord it over subjects than to serve.” (St Augustine)

D. What was the pride of the fallen angels? “I will be like the Most High”

1. That he desired to be God? Truly in his essence to be a deity? No, for this is an irrational desire.

2. That he desired to be as god to the lesser angels and creation. Yes, he desired to rule over them without being subject to God’s order. And the lesser fallen angels consent to be ruled by Satan so as to have a certain liberty from God’s order.

3. And perhaps moreover: In a rejection of the Incarnation, that a lesser nature (man) should be exalted to be united to God himself in the Person of the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ.

E. Will hell last forever? Remember, hell was created for the fallen angles first, not for men

Cardinal Cajetan argued that, in death, the human soul becomes something like the angelic soul – as the pure spirit has a judgment that is immutable so to the judgment of the separated human soul is immutable. Because we are now living on earth and in terrestrial time, after making a choice we can learn something new and successively change our will. The angels however, have an intuitive knowledge, see reality in all its aspects, and can learn nothing new – thus they can never change their will. So it is with the separated soul after death, having chosen for either good or evil in the last moment of life, it can never alter this choice. Having freely chosen for either good or evil, the separated soul immutably fixes itself in this choice.