Keep speculation in bounds, Angels: Day 048

Keep speculation in bounds

There are many things we can try to know about angels, says St. Augustine, but we can never know for sure. It can be good to speculate, but we have to admit it frankly when we just don’t know the answer.

How is life arranged there in that blessed heavenly fellowship? What differ- ences are there in rank among the angels? They’re all called by the generic name “angels,” as we read in the letter to the Hebrews: “But to what angel has he ever said,

‘Sit at my right hand’?” This phrase shows clearly that they’re all “angels,” with no exceptions. But there are archangels, too. Should we call these archangels “powers,” so that the line, “Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his powers” (Ps. 148:2) means the same as, “Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his archangels”? What differ- ences does it imply when the Apostle seems to take in the entire heavenly city with four names: “whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Authorities” (Col. 1:16)?

If anyone can answer those questions, go ahead. As far as I’m concerned, I confess that I don’t know anything about it. I’m not even sure of the answer to another question: whether the sun, the moon, and all the stars belong to that same heavenly fellowship, though they do seem to be nothing more than glowing bodies that don’t feel or understand.

And aside from all that, who can explain what kind of bodies the angels had when they appeared to people, so that they could be not only seen but also touched? And also, how do they bring certain visions—not by physical stimulation but by spiri- tual force—to the eyes of the mind—not the physical eyes, but the spiritual eyes? How do they speak something, not to the ears, as if they were outside us, but from right inside the human soul—since they are present there as well?

To ask questions like these, and to guess the answers as well as we can, is not just useless speculation—as long as we keep the argument moderate, and we avoid the mistake of thinking we know what we don’t know. –St. Augustine, Enchiridion, chapter 15

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do I indulge my curiosity for the sake of my vanity? Do I ask for the help of the angels in becoming a more sincere seeker of truth?

CLOSING PRAYER

Holy Guardian Angel, help me to know God and to know his creation, not for the sake of pride or domination, but for love. In this way may my knowledge be like you.

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