MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA.TREATISE III 6. THINGS UNKNOWN TO THE ANGELS.
St. Andrew Avellino, C
MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA.
TREATISE III
6. THINGS UNKNOWN TO THE ANGELS.
I. God alone is omniscient. Every creature is finite, and
feels this in its intelligence ; so the knowledge of the angels,
extensive as it is, is subject to limitations. God alone, for
instance, holds the wonderful power of reading futurity.
His future acts, and the future acts of the liberty of man
are known to Him alone. Our Lord tells us that the date
of the day of judgment is unknown even to the angels in
heaven ; many other things must also be hidden from them,
including probably the ultimate destiny of individual men.
So far as they know such things, we must suppose that they
are revealed to them specially by God, when the knowledge
is necessary for our utility and for their service. It is surmised that after their creation and before their trial they
did not fully know what the result would be in the way of
reward or punishment. As to affairs on earth their natural
powers would often enable them to conjecture truly as to
future events, proceeding as men do from past experience
and the knowledge of antecedent causes. We may safely
assume that the bad angels would be less likely to receive
any knowledge of the future from God, and they could only
form a judgment about it from their observation of natural
laws. Do not be astonished that God has imposed limitations on your knowledge and curiosity. Accept them humbly,
and do not be so arrogant as to suppose that you ought to
share with God in His omniscience.
II. The angels cannot read the secrets of our hearts, and
still less can the evil spirits do so. They may indeed dis
cover them, as our fellow-men do, by the indications which
we give either consciously or unconsciously, but not other
wise. God has given us complete mastery over our wills
and thoughts. He alone, the absolute Lord of all, has the
power and right to penetrate into the secret recesses of our
interior : according to the words, " Thou alone knowest the
hearts of the children of men" (2 Par. vi. 30). If we keep
our determinations strictly to ourselves, no one is able to
intrude within our domain. The knowledge of thoughts, like
the knowledge of the future, is peculiarly the sign of divine
power. As God has allowed no other but Himself to penetrate into the domain of your thoughts, you in like manner
should exercise your dominion by preventing any other from
ruling there but God. He has made it your sanctuary ; do
you make it also His.
III. The angels are further unable fully to sound the
deeps of the perfections of God and His great mysteries.
Even to them His judgments are incomprehensible and
His ways unsearchable; and no one but the Spirit of God
knoweth the things of God (Rom. xi. 33 ; 1 Cor. ii. 11). The
angelic intelligence, vast as it is, is, still, as incapable as
ours of taking in infinity ; and it is no more than a small
mirror held up to reflect the whole expanse of the heavens.
It may be that the whole of the revelation made to man was
not known beforehand to the angels, and that they only
learnt of certain of the mysteries of God when they were
made known by Our Lord Jesus Christ. From Scripture
we learn that at least the evil spirits did not know of the
Divinity of Jesus, inasmuch as they tempted Him so as to
ascertain in what sense He was the Son of God. There
remains much for the good angels yet to learn concerning
the infinite abysses of wonder in the Divinity. For them,
as for us, there is an inexhaustible store from which they
will be satiated in ever-increasing measure for all eternity.
Life for them and for us will be an unending progress in
new activities and new attainments of intellect and will.
You have to open that path of progress while living here.
Sin stunts and destroys your spiritual activities, and cuts
you off from future progress.
MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES BELLORD, D.D
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