![]() Because human beings have bodies as well as souls, we learn through experience, step by step, and form general ideas from our experience. Photo: Public DomainĪngels have wills and intellects, but they aren’t quite the same as those humans have. Just as we can tell someone is embarrassed when they blush, angels can “read” us and tell what we’re thinking in many instances. Likewise, an angel cannot directly know the secret thoughts of our hearts, though they can discern much from observing us. Angels can predict some future events because, being supremely intelligent, they understand cause and effect very well, so they can tell that this event now will cause that event later.īut an angel cannot know the future free choices of human beings. Does this mean they know the future? Not exactly. They exist in a sort of middle state called “aeveternity.” They do not age, but they are not statues, either. What does it mean when I pray for my guardian angel to be ‘at my side’?Īlso, angels aren’t bound in time like we are, but neither are they eternal like God is. So, if your angel is by your side, it is thinking about and loving you right then! Thomas Aquinas reasoned, an angel must be present to whatever it is thinking about or willing something for. Their choices are fixed, because, having beheld God “face to face,” what could possibly draw away those who loved him, or bring back those who had rejected him?īecause angels do not have bodies, it raises the question: Where are they? Or, to put it more directly: What does it mean when I pray for my guardian angel to be “at my side”? Because angels are intellects and wills, St. The angels’ choice in the moment of the offering of grace was fixed: For those who loved God, they became his messengers for those who chose against God, they became demons. Some rejected it, seeking to seize for themselves likeness to God rather than accepting it as a gift. Like human beings, they were offered God’s grace. Having free will, the angels were given the choice to love God or not to love God. Unlike human beings, angels have no bodies, no physical or material part to them. (This “logical fittingness” is how Aristotle reasoned his way to the existence of what he called “separate substances,” which are very similar to the Christian understanding of angels.) This shows the fullness, the plenitude, in God’s creation. Angels are non-physical, limited, and personal. They fill a gap in the great chain of being: between humans, who are physical, limited persons, and God, who is personal, non-physical, and unlimited. Like human beings, angels are persons, possessing wills and intellects but unlike human beings, angels have no bodies, no physical or material part to them. Either way, they are truly a part of God’s creation. Whether angels were created before the physical world or along with it is a question the Church Fathers were divided on. We see them appearing to Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and Mary, among many others, speaking on God’s behalf and delivering God’s message to humanity.Ĭarrying messages is what angels tend to do, but what they are is pure spirit, like God - though unlike God, they are limited and created, receiving their nature and their existence from God. It derives from the Greek word angelos which means “messenger.” It’s a fitting title, as in Scripture angels most often act as God’s couriers. Rather than being the name of a type or species, like “human” or “lion,” the word angel is really more of a job description. But the Church’s teaching on these heavenly creatures presents us with a much richer and awe-inspiring understanding of these heavenly creatures. These depictions leave us with the impression of angels as something between greeting card characters and prototypical superheroes. When we think of angels, we tend to conjure images from Renaissance paintings: chubby cherubs with tiny wings long-haired figures with flowing robes or perhaps a heavenly warrior, outfitted in Roman armor. ![]()
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