CHAPTER XVIII

WHAT MUST BE HELD CONCERNING THE CONDITION

OF THE ANGELS' NATURE

             98.--Next, we must consider what must be held concerning the condition of spiritual substances according to the opinion of Catholic teaching.

             There were certain thinkers who thought that the angels were corporeal or composed of matter and form. Origen seems to have held this opinion in the Periarchon where he says, "It is proper to the nature of God alone, that is, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that it be understood to exist without material substance and without any association of a corporeal adjunct." The words of Sacred Scripture, which seems to attribute certain corporeal characteristics to angels and which pronounces the angels as being with corporeal things in a corporeal place, could have moved these thinkers to posit the angels as being corporeal:--According to the words of Matthew XVIII, "Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father Who is in heaven." And Scripture asserts them to be moved, according to the words of Isaias, "And one of the seraphim flew to me." And what is more, that it should describe them as having a corporeal form, just as is said in the same place of the seraphim, "The one had six wings and the other had six wings". And it is said about Gabriel in Daniel X "Behold a man clothed in linen, and his loins were girded with the finest gold. And his body was like the chrysolite,"--and other points which are pertinent to these are described in the same place.

             99.--Furthermore, we have already stated above, on the basis of arguments they may wish to hold, that there is in the angels a composition of form and matter, even though they are not corporeal. But that the angels are incorporeal, is proved from the authority of Sacred Scripture, which calls them "spirits". For it is said in the Psalm, "Who makest thy angels spirit." And the Apostle in speaking of the angels, says to the Hebrews, "All are ministering spirits, but to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation." Scripture, however, was accustomed to designate something incorporeal by the name of "spirit", according to the words of John IV, "God is a spirit and they who adore Him, must adore Him in spirit and in truth"; and according to the words of Isaias XXXI, "Egypt is man and not God: and their horses, flesh and not spirit."

             Therefore it is unfitting according to the view of Sacred Scripture, that angels should be corporeal. If, however, one should wish to examine diligently the words of Sacred Scripture, he will be able to gather from them that the angels are immaterial, for Sacred Scripture calls them certain powers. For it is said in the Psalm, "Bless the Lord, all ye His angels", and later it is added, "Bless the Lord all His powers." And it is said in Luke XXI, "For the powers of the heavens shall be moved," which all the doctors apply to the holy angels. Furthermore, that which is material is not a power but it has power, just as it is not an essence but it has essence, for power follows upon essence. For neither is man his humanity nor is he his power; and the same is the case with every other composite of matter and form. It remains, therefore, that according to the intention of the Scriptures, angels are immaterial.

             100.--Furthermore, both of these points are expressly ascribed to the words of Dionysius who, speaking of the angels, says in the fourth chapter of On the Divine Names that "the intellectual substances exist free from all corruption and death and matter and generation and are understood to be incorporeal and immaterial." He likewise says in the first chapter of the Celestial Hierarchy that the divine government made certain material figures to stand for the various immaterial hierarchies of angels. And in the second chapter of the same book, he asks why the Sacred Doctors, coming to the corporeal representation of incorporeal beings, i.e., the angels, did not picture them with the most resplendent figures but gave earthly figures to immaterial and Godlike simple beings.

             It is clear from all these words that Dionysius' opinion was that the angels are immaterial and simple substances. This is likewise clear from the fact that he frequently calls them celestial intellects or divine minds. The intellect or the mind, however, is something incorporeal and immaterial, as the Philosopher proves in Book III of On the Soul. Augustine likewise says in the second book of the Literal Commentary on Genesis that on the first day when the light was made, the condition of the spiritual and intellectual creature is announced by the name of "light", in which nature are understood all the holy angels and powers. Damascene likewise says that the angel is "an intellectual and incorporeal substance." But what he later adds creates a doubt, "It is called an incorporeal and immaterial nature with reference to us, for everything compared to God is found to be coarse and material." This point is introduced so that the angel, because of his incorporeity and immateriality would not be considered to be equal to the simplicity of the divine substance.

             101.--The corporeal shapes or forms, however, which are sometimes attributed to the angels in Sacred Scripture must be understood in the manner of a likeness because, as Dionysius says in the first chapter of the Celestial Hierarchy, "It is not possible for our mind to be raised up to the immaterial imitation and contemplation of the celestial hierarchies, unless in accord with its nature, it makes use of some material guidance";--just as many corporeal things are said about God in the Scriptures through a certain likeness. Accordingly, Dionysius expounds in the fifteenth chapter of the Celestial Hierarchy what spiritual thing might be signified in the angels through all such corporeal figures. He asserts that not only corporeal forms of such a kind are predicated of the angels by likeness, but also, these things which pertain to the affection of the sensitive appetite, so that thereby, we might be given to understand not only that angels are not bodies, but likewise, that they are not spirits united to bodies that they perfect with sense life so that, thus, there may be found in them operations of the sensitive soul.

             For he says in the second chapter of the Celestial Hierarchy "Rage is begotten in irrational beings from a passible movement, but in angels, the irascible must be understood in a different way, namely as showing--as I believe--their strength and reason." Another translation has it thus, "But in angels, rage shows their strength of reason." And in like manner, he says that concupiscence in the angels signifies a divine love. Agreeing with this, Augustine says in the ninth book of On the City of God "The holy angels punish without anger those whom they receive for punishment by the eternal law of God; they help the suffering without the compassion of pity; and when those whom they love fall in danger, they minister without fear; and yet, the names of these passions are applied to them from a habit of human speech because of a kind of likeness in works and not because of a weakness in affections."

             102.--Furthermore, that angels are said to be in the heavens or in some other corporeal place must not be understood that they might be in them in a corporeal manner, namely, through a contact of measurable quantity but in a spiritual manner through a certain contact of power. Now the proper place of the angels is spiritual according to what Dionysius says in the fifth chapter of On the Divine Names "The highest spiritual substances are stationed on the threshold of the Trinity." And Basil says in II Hexaemeron that "they are in spiritual light and joy." And Gregory of Nyssa says in the book, On Man "The existing intelligibles are in intelligible places for either they are in themselves or in superior intelligibles. Since, therefore, something intellectual is said to be locally in a body, it is said to be in a body not as in a place but in disposition and in the sense of being present, as we say that God is in us". And after a few words he adds, "Since, therefore, there was something understandable in the disposition either of place or of some thing as existing in a place, we say by improper use, taking the place for the condition, that that is there because of the act of that which is there; since, indeed, we should have said, 'It acts there,' we say 'It is there'." And following this, Damascene says that "where the angel acts, there he is." Augustine likewise says in Book VIII of the Literal Commentary on Genesis that "the Creator spirit moves the created spirit through time and without place; He moves the body, however, through time and place."

             103.--From all these arguments, we may understand that angels are in a place not in a corporeal but in a kind of spiritual manner. And because it befits a thing to be moved and to be in place in the same way, as a consequence, neither are angels moved in place in a corporeal manner; but rather, their movement, which is described in the Scriptures--if it is referred to a corporeal place--must be understood as a succession of contacts of power at diverse places; or it must be understood according to a mystical meaning, just as in the fourth chapter of On the Divine Names, Dionysius says: "The divine minds are said to be moved in a circular manner when they are united to the illuminations of the beautiful and the good; they are moved in a straight line, however, when they proceed to the providence of what is subject to them; then, they are moved obliquely, however, when in their providence over lesser beings, they remain fixed before God."

             Therefore it is clear from these statements what the Sacred Doctors taught concerning the condition of the spiritual substances, that is, of the angels, when they asserted that the angels are incorporeal and immaterial.