Wait for the angels to sort us out; Angels: Day 339

Wait for the angels to sort us out; Angels: Day 339 June 27, 2017

angels_origenSpeaking of  Jesus’ parable of the net, Origen explains that the promised sorting-out cannot happen till the end of time. Meanwhile, we should not be surprised to find evil lurking even in the Church.

“Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Matt. 13:47-50). From this it does not follow, as some suppose, that human beings who are saved in Christ are superior even to the holy angels; for how can those who are cast by the holy angels into vessels be compared with those who cast them into vessels, seeing that they have been put under the authority of the angels?

While I say this, I am not ignorant that those who will be saved in Christ surpass some angels—namely, those who have not been entrusted with this of- fice—but not all of them. For we read, “things into which angels long to look” (1

Pet. 1:12), where it does not say “all angels.”  And we know also this: “we are to

judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:3), where it does not say “all angels.”

Now since these things are written about the net and about those in the net, I

say that anyone who desires that, before the consummation of the age, and before the coming of the angels to separate the wicked from among the righteous, there should be no evil persons of every kind in the net, seems not to have understood the Scripture, and to desire the impossible. So let us not be surprised if, before the separating of the wicked from among the righteous by the angels who are sent forth for this purpose, we see our gatherings also filled with wicked persons. And would that those who will be cast into the furnace of fire may not be greater in number than the righteous! –Origen, Commentary on Matthew,  10.13

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

When I hear of scandals in the Church, does it give me more patience if I remember the parable of the net and that pride and wickedness were found even among the angels themselves?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, you have founded your holy Catholic Church on the rock of faith, so that the gates of hell may not prevail against it: deliver it from all heresy and scandals, and from the demons who work iniquity, keeping it till the fullness of time.


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