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Our happiness will never be found in another person or in an angel, says St. Augustine. Proud angels and proud people will be glad to have us put our hope in them, but the truly holy push us forward toward God.
For if we find our happiness complete in one another, we stop short along the road, and place our hope of happiness in a person or an angel.
Now the proud person and the proud angel arrogate this to themselves, and are glad to have the hope of others fixed upon them. But, on the contrary, the holy man and the holy angel, even when we are weary and anxious to stay with them and rest in them, set themselves to build up our energies with the provision they have received from God for us or for themselves; and then urge us thus refreshed to go on our way towards God, in the enjoyment of whom we find our common happiness.
For even the Apostle exclaims, “Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor. 1:13), and again: “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7). And the angel admonishes the man who is about to worship him, that he should rather worship Him who is his Master, and under whom he himself is a fellow- servant (Rev. 19:10). –St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 1.33
IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
The holy angels always strive to lead me beyond themselves to their Creator. Do I do the same? Do the people who know me move on toward God?
CLOSING PRAYER
Holy angels who surround me, teach me to imitate you in humility, so that all who know me may be led toward their Creator.
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