The Catholic Book Blogger
Tatian tells us that both humans and angels were created through the Word, and that both were created with free will. Therefore it is just that the good are praised and the evil punished, because both good and evil acts come from the free choices of God’s creatures.
The heavenly Word, a spirit that comes from the Father, a Word from the power of the word, in imitation of the Father who begot him made human beings an image of immortality, so that, as God is incorruptible, humanity, which shares a part of God, would also have the immortal principle.
The Word also was the Framer of the angels, before the creation of humanity.
Each of these two kinds of creatures was made free to act as it pleased—not that they had the nature of good, which (again) belongs to God alone, but is per- fected in creatures through freedom of choice. So those who are bad are justly punished, because they became depraved by their own fault. But the just deserve to be praised for the good things they have done, since, by exercising their free choice, they did not go against the will of God.
This is the way things are both for angels and for human beings. –Tatian, Address to the Greeks, 7
IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Do the things I’ve done today deserve more praise or blame? Why did I choose those things, and could I have chosen better? Did I remember to ask my guardian angels for help in making those choices?
CLOSING PRAYER
Lord, I entreat from you a messenger of peace, a faithful guide, and a guardian of my soul and body.
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