Eyes such as angels see with; Angels: Day 288

Didymus was a famous theologian who had been blind since childhood. The historian Socrates Scholasticus recounts his many accomplishments,  and then tells us about a famous piece of  advice St. Anthony gave to this  illustrious scholar.

About the same period God brought into observation another faithful per- son, deeming it worthy that through him faith might be shown: this was Didymus, a most admirable and eloquent man, instructed in all the learning of the age in which he flourished. At a very early age, when he had scarcely acquired the first elements of learning, he was attacked by a disease in the eyes that deprived him of sight. But God compensated him for the loss of corporeal vision by giving him a sharper intel- lect. For what he could not learn by seeing, he was enabled to acquire through the sense of hearing; so that being from his childhood endowed with excellent abilities, he soon far surpassed his youthful companions who possessed the keenest sight.

He made himself master of the principles of grammar and rhetoric with astonishing ease; and went on from there to philosophical studies, dialectics, arith- metic, music, and the various other departments of knowledge to which his at- tention was directed. He so treasured up in his mind these branches of science, that he was prepared with the utmost readiness to enter into a discussion of these subjects with those who had become familiar with them by reading books.

It is said that after Anthony had conversed for some time with this Didymus, long before the reign of Valens, when he came from the desert to Alexandria on account of the Arians, perceiving the learning and intelligence of the man, he said to him, “Didymus, do not let the loss of your bodily eyes distress you: for you are deprived only of such eyes as are the common possession of gnats and flies. Rather rejoice that you have eyes such as angels see with, by which the Deity him- self is discerned, and his light comprehended.”

–Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, 4.25

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do I make a real effort to use my angelic vision—the intelligence God gave me—for the purposes for which he meant it to be used?

CLOSING PRAYER

Guardian Angel, teach me to use the intelligence I share with you for the right ends, and lead me ever closer to the angelic vision of God.

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