Treated like an angel; Angels: Day 338

Treated like an angel; Angels: Day 338 June 26, 2017

angels_tertullianAngels were treated like humans when they visited us, says Tertullian—eating, drinking, even having their feet washed.  So it should not strike us as impossible that humans, after the resurrection, will be treated like angels.

Our Lord puts an effective end to this discussion by declaring that they “are like angels in Heaven” (Matt. 22:30). “Like” in that we will not marry, because we will not die; like, too, of course, in that we will not have to yield to any other similar necessity of our bodily state.

The angels, too, were sometimes “like” human beings, in that they ate and drank, and allowed their feet to be washed. They had clothed themselves in hu- man form without losing their own proper nature.

So if angels, when they became human, allowed themselves to be treated as if they were flesh without any change in the substance of their spirit, then why shouldn’t humans, in the same way, be treated like spiritual beings? When they have become “like angels,” they will no longer be exposed to the usual demands of the flesh in their angelic dress—no more than the angels were exposed to the demands of the spirit when they were encompassed in human form. We will not cease to exist in the flesh because we cease to be assailed by the usual wants of the flesh, just as the angels did not cease to be spiritual beings when their spiritual qualities had been suspended. –Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 62

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

How much do I allow the demands of the flesh to get in the way of my acting more like an angel?

CLOSING PRAYER

Purify my flesh from all pollution, Lord, and remove every shameful and foolish thoughfrom me, so that I may live the blissful life of your angels in Heaven


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