Spiritual bodies, Angels: Day 046

Spiritual bodies

St. Augustine speculates that angels have a kind of spiritual body that adapts itself  to various forms. But he’s always  careful to distinguish what he himself believes from what everyone is required to believe.

Do angels have bodies adapted to their duties and their swift motions from place to place, or are they only spirits?

If we say that they have bodies, we are met by the passage, “Who makest thy angels spirits” (Ps. 104:4). But if we say that they have no bodies, we are met by the still greater difficulty in explaining how, if they have no bodily form, it is written that they appeared to human senses, allowed their feet to be washed, and ate and drank what was provided for them. It seems to involve us in less difficulty if we say that angels are called “spirits” in the same way that human beings are called “souls”—as when it says (in Genesis) that a certain number of “souls” went down with Jacob into Egypt, not mentioning that they had bodies as well—than if we suppose that angels did all these things when they had no bodily form.

But whether angels have bodies or not, and whether or not anyone can show how they could do all these things without bodies, still it is certain that, in the city of the holy in which those of the human race who have been redeemed are united forever to thousands of angels, voices that come from organs of speech will give expression to thoughts of minds in which nothing is hidden. For in that divine fellowship it will not be possible for any thought in one being to remain concealed from another, but there will be complete harmony and oneness of heart in the praise of God. And this will be spoken not just from the spirit but through the spiritual body as its instrument. At least this is what I believe. –St. Augustine, Letter 95

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

In Heaven there will be “complete harmony and oneness of heart” among both people and angels. But how can I work toward that goal while I’m still here on earth?

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, purify me from all deceit and hypocrisy, and unite me with your holy angels and all my brothers and sisters by the bond of peace and love.

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