A Teaching on Angels
from the Catechism of the Catholic Church & The Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott
Teaching on Angels from The Catechism of the Catholic Church
I. THE ANGELS
The existence of angels - a truth of faith
328 The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls "angels" is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition.
Who are they?
329 St. Augustine says: "'Angel' is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is 'spirit'; if you seek the name of their office, it is 'angel': from what they are, 'spirit', from what they do, 'angel.'"188 With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word".189
330 As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.190
Christ "with all his angels"
331 Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him. . "191 They belong to him because they were created through and for him: "for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through him and for him."192 They belong to him still more because he has made them messengers of his saving plan: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?"193
332 Angels have been present since creation and throughout the history of salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham's hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples.194 Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus himself.195
333 From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God "brings the firstborn into the world, he says: 'Let all God's angels worship him.'"196 Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the Church's praise: "Glory to God in the highest!"197 They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been.198 Again, it is the angels who "evangelize" by proclaiming the Good News of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection.199 They will be present at Christ's return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgment.200
The angels in the life of the Church
334 In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels.201
335 In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .["May the angels lead you into Paradise. . ."]). Moreover, in the "Cherubic Hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels).
336 From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.202 "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life."203 Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.
II. THE VISIBLE WORLD
337 God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine "work", concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day.204 On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation,205 permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God."206
338 Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator. The world began when God's word drew it out of nothingness; all existent beings, all of nature, and all human history are rooted in this primordial event, the very genesis by which the world was constituted and time begun.207
339 Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. For each one of the works of the "six days" it is said: "And God saw that it was good." "By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws."208 Each of the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God's infinite wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment.
340 God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow: the spectacle of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is self-sufficient. Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other.
341 The beauty of the universe: The order and harmony of the created world results from the diversity of beings and from the relationships which exist among them. Man discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. They call forth the admiration of scholars. The beauty of creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire the respect and submission of man's intellect and will.
342 The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the "six days", from the less perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures209 and takes care of each one, even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said: "You are of more value than many sparrows", or again: "Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!"210
343 Man is the summit of the Creator's work, as the inspired account expresses by clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other creatures.211
344 There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his glory: May you be praised, O Lord, in all your creatures, especially brother sun, by whom you give us light for the day; he is beautiful, radiating great splendor, and offering us a symbol of you, the Most High. . .
May you be praised, my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble, precious and chaste. . .May you be praised, my Lord, for sister earth, our mother, who bears and feeds us, and produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses. . .
Praise and bless my Lord, give thanks and serve him in all humility.212
345 The sabbath - the end of the work of the six days. The sacred text says that "on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done", that the "heavens and the earth were finished", and that God "rested" on this day and sanctified and blessed it.213 These inspired words are rich in profitable instruction:
346 In creation God laid a foundation and established laws that remain firm, on which the believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the unshakeable faithfulness of God's covenant.214 For his part man must remain faithful to this foundation, and respect the laws which the Creator has written into it.
347 Creation was fashioned with a view to the sabbath and therefore for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of creation.215 As the rule of St. Benedict says, nothing should take precedence over "the work of God", that is, solemn worship.216 This indicates the right order of human concerns.
348 The sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. To keep the commandments is to correspond to the wisdom and the will of God as expressed in his work of creation.
349 The eighth day. But for us a new day has dawned: the day of Christ's Resurrection. The seventh day completes the first creation. The eighth day begins the new creation. Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ, the splendor of which surpasses that of the first creation.217
IN BRIEF
350 Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures: "The angels work together for the benefit of us all" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I, 114, 3, ad 3).
351 The angels surround Christ their Lord. They serve him especially in the accomplishment of his saving mission to men.
352 The Church venerates the angels who help her on her earthly pilgrimage and protect every human being.
353 God willed the diversity of his creatures and their own particular goodness, their interdependence and their order. He destined all material creatures for the good of the human race. Man, and through him all creation, is destined for the glory of God.
354 Respect for laws inscribed in creation and the relations which derive from the nature of things is a principle of wisdom and a foundation for morality.
Footnotes
186 Ps 115:16; 19:2; Mt 5:16.
187 Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800; cf. DS 3002 and Paul VI, CPG § 8.
188 St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 103,1,15: PL 37,1348.
189 Mt 18:10; Ps 103:20.
190 Cf. Pius XII, Humani generis: DS 3891; Lk 20:36; Dan 10:9-12.
191 Mt 25:31.
192 Col 1:16.
193 Heb 1:14.
194 Cf. Job 38:7 (where angels are called "sons of God"); Gen 3:24; 19; 21:17; 22:11; Acts 7:53; Ex 23:20-23; Judg 13; 6:11-24; Isa 6:6; 1 Kings 19:5.
195 Cf. Lk 1:11,26.
196 Heb 1:6.
197 Lk 2:14.
198 Cf. Mt 1:20; 2:13,19; 4:11; 26:53; Mk 1:13; Lk 22:43; 2 Macc 10:29-30; 11:8.
199 Cf. Lk 2:8-14; Mk 16:5-7.
200 Cf. Acts 1:10-11; Mt 13:41; 24:31; Lk 12:8-9.
201 Cf. Acts 5:18-20; 8:26-29; 10:3-8; 12:6-11; 27:23-25.
202 Cf. Mt 18:10; Lk 16:22; Ps 34:7; 91:10-13; Job 33:23-24; Zech 1:12; Tob 12:12.
203 St. Basil, Adv. Eunomium III, I: PG 29,656B.
204 Gen 1:l-2:4.
205 Cf. DV 11.
206 LG 36 § 2.
207 Cf. St. Augustine, De Genesi adv. Man. 1,2,4: PL 34,175.
208 GS 36 § 1.
209 Cf. Ps 145:9.
210 Lk 12:6-7; Mt 12:12.
211 Cf. Gen 1-26.
212 St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures.
213 Gen 2:1-3.
214 Cf. Heb 4:3-4; Jer 31:35-37; 33:19-26.
215 Cf. Gen 1:14.
216 St. Benedict, Regula 43,3: PL 66,675-676.
217 Cf. Roman Missal, Easter Vigil 24, prayer after the first reading.
Revelation Concerning the Angels of Christian Angelology
FROM THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CATHOLIC DOGMA
Ludwig Ott
§ 26. Existence, Origin and Number of Angels
1. Existence and the Origin of Angels
In the beginning of time God created spiritual essences [Angels] out of nothing. [De fide.]
The existence of the Angels was denied by the Sadducees [Acts 23:8: "The Sadducees say that there is no Resurrection neither Angel nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both."], and by materialists and rationalists in all times. Modern rationalists explain the Angels as personifications of Divine attributes and activities, or see in the Jewish-Christian doctrine of the Angels traces of an original polytheism or a borrowing from Babylonian and Persian legends.
The 4th Lateran and the Vatican Councils declare: "simultaneously at the beginning of time He created from nothing both spiritual and corporeal creation, i.e., angelic and mundane." D. 428, 1783 {Note D refers to Denzinger, Sources of Catholic Dogma} It is not defined that the creation of the angelic world was contemporaneous with that of the material world [simul can also mean: in total, together; cf. Ecclus. 18:1], but the sententia communis is that both were created at the same time.
Holy Writ, even in its oldest books, affirms the existence of the Angels who glorify God, and as His messengers and servants, transmit His commands to mankind. Cf. Gen. 3:24; 16:7 et. seq.; 19:1, et. seq.; 18:2 et. seq; 22:11 et seq.; 24:7; 28:12; 32:1 et. seq. The creation of the Angels is indirectly attested in Ex. 20:11, "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them," and directly in Col. 1:16, "For in Him [= Christ] were all things created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations or principalities, or powers."
Tradition affirming the existence of Angels is unanimous from the very beginning. The early Christian apologists, in refuting the reproach of atheism, also mention the existence of the Angels [St. Justin, Apol. 1, 6: Athenagoras, Suppl. 10]. The first monograph on the Angels was composed about 500 A.D. by Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita under the title: De coelesti hierarchia. Among the Latin Fathers, St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great occupied themselves minutely with angelology. The Liturgy of the Church also offers many testimonies.
Natural reason cannot prove the existence of Angels, since their creation is a free deed of God. From the known sequence of stages and perfections of the creatures, however, the existence of purely spiritual created essences can, with high degree of probability, be inferred.
2. Number of the Angels
The number of the Angels is, according to Holy Writ, very great. The Scriptures speak of myriads [Heb. 12:22] of thousands and thousands [Dan. 7:10; Apoc. 5:11], of legions [Matt. 26:22]. The various biblical names indicate a gradation and order among the Angels. Since the time of Pseudo-Dionysius, nine Choirs or Orders of Angels are named of which each three form a hierarchy. In accordance with Holy Scripture these are called: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Principalities, Powers, Strengths [Virtues], Highnesses [Dominations], Archangels, and Angels. Cf. Is. 6:2 et seq., Gen. 3: 24; Col. 1:16; Eph. 1:21; 3:10; Rom. 8:38 et seq.; Jud. 9; 1 Thess. 4:16.
The division of the Angel-world into nine Orders and the illumination of the lower Orders through the higher Orders---a teaching which stems from neo-Platonism---is not a truth of Faith, but a free theological opinion. The same applies to the grouping of Angels by the Schoolmen, which goes back to Dan. 7:10, into angeli assistentes and angel ministrantes [assistants at the Throne---messengers of God]. To the former group are allocated the upper six choirs, to the latter group the lower three. Revelation testifies however that the functions of assisting and serving are not mutually exclusive. Cf. Tob. 12:15; Luke 1:19, 26.
According to the teaching of St. Thomas, which is connected with the doctrine of the principle of individuation, the Angels are specifically distinguished from one another; thus each Angel forms a separate species. Other theologians, as against this, teach either that all the Angels together form one species only [St. Albert the Great] of that the individual hierarchies or choirs form particular species [the Franciscan school, Suarez].