MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA.TREATISE III. 8. THE MOVEMENTS OF THE ANGELS.

CORREGGIO 

Nativity (Holy Night) 

1528-30

MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA.

TREATISE III. 

8. THE MOVEMENTS OF THE ANGELS. 

I. Some of the heavenly spirits have the special function of being the messengers of God. This is signified by the word Angel, and Scripture tells us of their being sent to execute the decrees of God and to convey revelations and graces to men. Jacob saw them in vision ascending and descending constantly between heaven and earth. They are spoken of in Scripture as having wings, and so we represent them in pictures : this figure represents to us the instantaneous promptitude with which they obey the commands of God. In a sense we may say that the angels move from place to place, and we may speak of the rapidity of their flight. But this is speaking according to the material conditions of our lives. In reality the angels are not subject to the laws of space and to the three dimensions of length, breadth and thickness. They do not pass through intervening spaces, nor, strictly, do they pass from place to place. They become present here or there by acting or appearing in such a place or places. As forces are more immaterial they move with greater velocity. Sound is rapid ; light, electricity and nerve impulsions are much more so ; gravitation acts instantaneously, it has no rate, and cannot be said to travel between two bodies. The angels are much more immaterial. Learn hence to be prompt in acting on the inspirations of grace. When God makes known His will, it must be carried out at once, whatever the cost. If you attempt to choose your own time He may withdraw from you His inspiration, or the grace or strength or opportunity to carry it out.

II. The angels do not possess immensity, like God ; they are not present simultaneously in several places. Each one has a finite action, which cannot, like the action of God, operate everywhere at once. An angel acts or speaks in a definite place, like those so often mentioned in Holy Writ ; he is therefore in a certain place rather than in another, although he has no extension which can be measured as space. We may compare an angel to a human soul. The soul is in the body and not elsewhere ; it is in every part of the body, and yet, although the body has dimensions, the soul has not. In some sense an angel moves from place to place, inasmuch as he acts now in one place and now in another. More we cannot say, as our mind and language are only adapted to the conditions of space and its dimensions. Endeavour to keep your soul on a higher spiritual level even though you have to live on the material plane. Keep it removed as far as possible above the ordinary conditions of sensual, worldly, selfish, sinful life.

III. It appears likely that the functions of the angels as ministers of God s will on earth, include some amount of physical power over material things. Thus an angel conveyed Habacuc from Judea to Daniel in the lions den; Satan also transported Our Lord to the pinnacle of the temple. Angels slew the first-born in Egypt, destroyed the army of Sennacherib, and scourged Heliodorus when he intruded into the temple. It is the way of God s Providence to carry out His designs through created agencies, through the powers of nature or human energies. No being is use less, or without its special function in carrying on the life and motion of the universe. By analogy those mighty spirits of God must have their uses, and duties proportioned to their great powers. We know that they help us, even in our physical necessities. What else they do we know not ; but we can place no limit to the possibilities of their action whether in the spiritual or the material sphere. Lead a life of holiness and prayer like that of the angels, and God will give you great powers and great duties ; even material nature will be in some sense subject to you.

MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES BELLORD, D.D