Angels And Devils

Joan Carroll Cruz

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1999
• ISBN:
  9781618908902
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

The most thorough book about the Angels yet written! Here, bestselling author Joan Carroll Cruz expounds upon the traditional definitions and delineations of the Angels and Devils, asking and answering virtually every conceivable question about them. Among the many recent books about Angels, this has to be one of the very best, if not the very best yet. Definitely another Mrs. Cruz bestseller! Impr. 314 pgs 44 Illus,

ANGELS

1. What Are Angels?

St. Augustine (354-430) instructs us that the word “angel” is the name of their office, not of their nature. Their nature is known as “spirit.” The word “angel,” as translated from the Greek, means “one going,” “one sent” or “messenger.” St. Augustine adds that “the spirits called angels were never, in any sense, at any time, partakers of darkness, but from the moment of their creation, they were made beings of light. They were not merely created in order to exist and to live, but they were also illumined, so that they might live in wisdom and happiness.”¹

According to St. Bernard (1090-1153) in his De Consideratione, angels are

mighty, glorious, blessed, distinct personalities, of graduated rank, occupying the order given them from the beginning, perfect of their kind … endowed with immortality, passionless … being of pure mind, benignant affections, religious and devout; of unblemished morality; inseparably one in heart and mind, blessed with unbroken peace, God’s edifice dedicated to the divine praises and service. All this we ascertain by reading, and hold by faith.²

According to Fr. Pascal P. Parente, “Even though not yet an article of faith, it is Catholic doctrine that the Angels are pure spirits, incorporeal substances, free and independent from any material body …”³

As to their “form,” we accept the descriptions of Scripture and Tradition and the revelations of the Saints which reveal that when they appear on earth, angels have a form similar to that of men, but of an ethereal, spiritual nature. At least that is how they appear in various apparitions in both the Old and New Testaments and in the apparitions of saints.

St. John Damascene (c. 675-c. 749), a Doctor of the Church, writes: “An angel is an intellectual substance, endowed with liberty, perpetually active, without a body, serving God, having the form and the limits of whose substance only its Creator knows.”⁴

We believe that each angel is a distinct being, an individual, having distinct features (as we will learn from the revelations of the Saints), who has his own place in a hierarchy and who has an intellect far superior to human intellect. This is manifest in their many apparitions. Agreeing is St. Thomas Aquinas, who maintains that the Angels differ from each other specifically.

2. How Do We Know that Angels Exist?

The answer can be briefly summarized in this manner: we know that angels exist from the teaching of the Church, which is based both on Sacred Scripture—the Old and the New Testaments—and on Tradition, from the unanimous teachings of the Saints and Doctors of the Church, and from the innumerable well-authenticated accounts of apparitions.

That the Angels were created was defined by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). The decree “Firmiter” against the Albigensian heresy declared both the fact that they were created and that men were created after them. Given free will and a high intelligence at their creation, they are often called the “sons of God.”

In the Bible, angels are represented as a large gathering of spiritual beings intermediate between God and men. Angels are the servants and messengers of God, doing all as God pleases, serving the accomplishment of the divine plan. As St. Paul cites in his letter to the Hebrews: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14).

In addition, there are angels who minister not only to man, but principally to God Himself. In the book of Daniel, the Prophet tells of a vision of angels: “… thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him.” (Dan. 7:10). Our Lord Himself reveals the following: “See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 18:10).

The first great wealth of information regarding angels is given us in both the Old and New Testaments, as well as through the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Tradition has handed down from the earliest days important truths regarding them, while numerous Doctors of the Church have enlightened us on this doctrine. But probably the greatest wealth of information has been given us by the saints who have been privileged to view them and sometimes to communicate with them in wonderful visions that have been recorded for our edification.

Before we consider these wonderful visions we will first consider the testimony about the Angels as given in the Old Testament.

3. Angels in the Old Testament

Of the forty-six books of the Old Testament, angels are mentioned in thirty-one. In these books we learn about the activities of the Angels as they are directed by God. They adore, rebuke, reprove, comfort, instruct, chastise, prophesy, destroy, protect, assist, guard, interpret, advise, announce births, locate the lost and deliver messages of God; they also intercede and pray for us, they afflict, punish and even kill.

We are reminded of the following well-known activities of angels:

When Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden for their sin, God “placed before the paradise of pleasure cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (Gen. 3:24).

Three angels visited Abraham, and when he saw them, “he ran to meet them from the door of his tent, and adored down to the ground.” After eating the meal that was prepared for them, they prophesied that Abraham’s wife Sara, even though well advanced in years, would nevertheless bear a son. (Gen. 18:2-14). The prophecy was fulfilled when Sara gave birth to a son whom Abraham named Isaac.

We learn later that Sara had a servant girl who ran away from her stern mistress, but “the angel of the Lord having found her, by a fountain of water in the wilderness … said to her: Return to thy mistress, and humble thyself under her hand.” (Gen. 16:7-9).

Yet another intervention of an angel took place when Abraham was about to slay his son for a holocaust, as instructed by God. While the knife was poised to strike, “… an angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham … Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou anything to him …” (Gen. 22:11-12).

After Abraham, we learn that Lot and his wife, while entertaining two angels in their home, were warned by them about the destruction of Sodom:

And when it was morning, the angels pressed him, saying: Arise, take thy wife, and the two daughters which thou hast: lest thou also perish in the wickedness of the city … And they brought him forth and set him without the city: and there they spoke to him, saying: Save thy life: look not back, neither stay thou in all the country about: but save thyself in the mountain, lest thou be also consumed … And his wife looking behind her, was turned into a statue of salt. (Gen. 19:15-17, 26).

When Moses was learning from God the laws that would be observed by the people, God assured him, “Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared … If thou wilt hear his voice, and do all that I speak, I will be an enemy to thy enemies and will afflict them that afflict thee. And my angel shall go before thee …” (Ex. 23:20, 22-23).

When Josue was in a field of the city of Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and saw a man holding a drawn sword. After the man answered that he was not an enemy but “prince o...

Table of contents

• Author’s Note
• —Part I—
• 50.
• The Archangels
• —Part II—
• 91.
• 110.
• Notes