MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA. TREATISE III. 11. THE SPECIAL ENDOWMENTS OF THE ANGELS.

St. Bibiana, VM

MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA. 

TREATISE III.

11. THE SPECIAL ENDOWMENTS OF THE ANGELS. 

I. "Star differeth from star in glory" (1 Cor. xv. 41). There are differences between the heavenly spirits ; they have received various kinds and various degrees of grace from God. Amongst them, no doubt, as amongst men, their Lord has singled out some for special favour and for higher place. To some He has assigned a peculiar vocation, and duties which require greater capacities and graces. Some, possibly, like some of us, have responded with greater ardour, generosity and love to the advances of God, or may have used their opportunities to better effect than others. To all this must correspond a more abundant outpouring of divine favour. Moreover, the angels are arranged in different orders and choirs, and this involves differences of dignity, activity and glory. Your present sanctity and future reward depend partially on the free generosity of the Almighty, partially on the task and position assigned to you here, partially on your own efforts and fidelity to grace. Be content with God s arrangements for you, and strive to do the best with such graces as you have. The last often becomes first ; the humblest and the least endowed have risen to high spiritual perfection and glory, above those who seemed to be the wise and the strong according to nature and even according to grace.

II. With their difference of vocation and difference in correspondence to grace, the angels are also distinguished by a different perfection of virtue. The ardour of the Seraphim, the knowledge of the Cherubim, the submission of the Thrones, the other virtues of the blessed choirs, these are peculiarities special to each, which constitute their particular service towards God. So it is among the Saints. Each has his own character of holiness. Noah is noted for perseverance, Abraham for faith, Job for patience, Joseph for chastity, Moses for meekness, David for fervent devotion ; and, in the Christian Church, St. Francis of Assisi for poverty, St. Peter of Alcantara for austerity, St. Ephrem for holy fear, St. Francis of Sales for sweetness, St. Thomas Aquinas for learning, St. Vincent of Paul for organized charity. So it should be with you. There is some form of usefulness in the service of God and man for which you have a special facility. There is some attribute of God or aspect of the life of Jesus which you have to manifest as your contribution towards the total exhibition of God in mankind. There is some particular virtue which God wishes to dominate your life. Pray to know what it is, and to have grace to fulfill your destiny.

III. It is to be remembered that each angel, although excelling in a particular virtue, possesses all others, and is not deficient in any one. Every possible virtue and excellence is common to them all. A perfection which is distinctive of one choir by its special brilliance is not therefore absent from other angels ; nor is its possession by one angel a cloak or excuse for the want of other perfections in him. Your special virtue must not be your only one ; your principal duty- must not make you forget minor ones. Do not rely on any good work of yours, however meritorious, but remember that you have many great deficiencies known not to you but to your friends and enemies. Do not trust to one virtue as making you completely just, but fear lest by the violation of one commandment you make yourself guilty of all. You may, how ever, practice one virtue especially, and this will bring in the others and co-ordinate them round itself. This virtue may become the key-note of your spiritual life, tuning all the others into harmony, and giving them a special character. But it has an opposite pole, your predominant passion, which may easily become a key-note of evil and a source of other sins. Beware of it.

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