Ever wonder why God redeems mankind but not the fallen angels?
“Man is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.” It was for this end, God’s love and mercy, that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity (CCC 356).
The corporal works of mercy:
- To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To harbour the harbourless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.
The spiritual works of mercy are:
- To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.
Fallen Angels
“The devil is not one person. The devil is an organized battalion of malice” who has formed a “mystical body of satan” on earth to mimic and oppose the mystical body of Christ, the Church Militant (Father John Hardon).
Padre Pio said the number of fallen angels is more than all the men who have ever lived on the earth since Adam, so numerous that if we could see them they would block out the sun
“The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” when God “laid the foundation of the earth” (Job 38:4, 7). Morning stars and sons of God are literary terms for angels and have been interpreted so since the Septuagint (“all my angels,” Job 38:7).
The fallen angels’ revolt is said to have involved blasphemy against the unique union of divinity with humanity in Christ. According to this premise, God gave the angels a preview of Jesus Incarnate as the Savior of the human race and commanded that they adore him—Jesus in all his human suffering, weakness, limitation, and humiliation (“Devil,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia).
“You [Lucifer] were the signet [seal] of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty . . . . till iniquity was found in you” (Ez 28:12, 15).
Hell, voluntary separation from God, began. According to scripture and Church tradition, the devil and other demons are the “fallen angels” who turned away from God, saying “We will not serve!” (CCC, 391; see also Wis 2:24; Is 14:12–15).
We will judge angels (1 Cor 6:3).
“Satan . . . was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rv 12:9).
Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Lk 10:18).
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters” (Gn 1:1–2).
Augustine and Aquinas see in the darkness and light the good and evil angels. (Thomas Aquinas, “Question 63: The Malice of the Angels with Regard to Sin,” Summa Theologica).
Fallen Man
Woman is a “helper” or battle partner, “suitable” or “fit” for Adam, meaning his opposite or complement (Gn 2:18).
Adam and Eve “walked” with God through the Garden in the “cool of the day” (Gn 3:8).
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gn 1:31).
The awful, lonely separation from one another and God that sin wrought is felt as fear (Gn 3:10).
“I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Rom 7:18–19).
The entire cosmos is under “bondage to decay” with us (Rom 8:21).
“The exact transmission of Original Sin is a mystery” (CCC, 404), but “sin came into the world through one man [Adam as first and representative of all] and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned” (Rom 5:12).
Angelic power is superior to human power in its abilities because it is exclusively spirit, without any need for a body. (Thomas Aquinas, “Question 61: The Production of the Angels in the Order of Natural Being,” Summa Theologica).
Angels “know all things at once: just as in heaven ‘our thoughts will not be fleeting, going and returning from one thing to another, but we shall survey all our knowledge at the same time by one glance.’” (Thomas Aquinas, “Question 58: The Mode of Angelic Knowledge,” Summa Theologica).
Without the limitation of a physical brain, the angels do not have to reason in steps. They have perfect intelligence and clarity, and they understood the consequences of sin to a degree that Adam never could have; there was no “temptation” as we normally understand it. So “it is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. ‘There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death’” (CCC, 393).