Angels, Demons, and Us
One
Angels
In the last few days we learned about the Archangels and Guardian Angels, but who are the Angels? What do we know about them? At the very beginning, God created all the Angels. They are immortal persons who are pure spirits, with intelligence and freedom, but with no physical body. They are always around us, they massively outnumber us, and they have way more power than we do and they definitely outthink us! Their mission is to help us poor humans get to heaven.
There are three levels or hierarchies of angels and three groups within each hierarchy making nine categories or choirs of angels.
The Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones.
The Dominions, Virtues, and Powers.
The Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels.
The mission of the first and highest hierarchy of angels, the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones is to contemplate the infinite goodness of God and the proper goal of all things. The Seraphim communicate the love of God, the Cherubim communicate the truth of God, and the Thrones communicate the purpose of all things to the next hierarchy of angels.
The second hierarchy of Angels is the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers. Their mission is to govern the material world and control the elements, the seasons, the stars, and even the sun and moon. In short, they control all aspects of nature.
The idea of the Angels controlling the turning of the seasons or the rotation of the planets may sound farfetched to some, but keep in mind what we can call the “more the merrier principle.”
God can run everything in the universe. He doesn’t need angels or us. But God wants us to not only share in His divine life, but he also wants us to have the delight of sharing in divine activity, divine work. And the more God gets his creatures involved in His plan, the more He delights and, frankly, the more we delight.
For this reason, St. Thomas nicknamed the Angels, “God’s secondary causes” because God chooses to do many things in his creation through the intercession of His Angels.
The third or lowest hierarchy of Angels is the Principalities, Archangels, and Guardian Angels. The Principalities are the “spiritual generals,” who direct the action of the Archangels and Guardian Angels in the spiritual battle on earth as they protect us and help lead us to heaven.
Two
The Devil and the Demons
The Church teaches that the Devil and the Demons were at first good angels made by God, but they became evil by their own doing.
What could have caused Lucifer, one of the highest angels, who excelled in the knowledge of God, to reject God forever?
Teresa of Avila provides an insight. She writes, “I believe His Majesty desires to bring us along this way (the way of suffering, trials, crosses, and difficulties) for our own good so that we may understand well what little we amount to. The favors that come afterward are of such great worth that He desires first that before He gives them to us, we see by experience our own limitations so that what happened to Lucifer will not happen to us.” Life 11:11
Lucifer thought he had no limitations. Therefore, he thought he did not need God so, he did not want God and he made no space in his life for God. That is why he is in hell. He had no space for God in his life.
Three
The Devil fell out of pride.
Pride is not one of the seven deadly sins. All sin is pride. Pride is like ice cream, it comes in a variety of flavors – vanity, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, and lust.
Pride is to say, “I don’t need God and His plan. I can do it on my own. I can do it my way.”
But God is the foundation of existence. If you remove Him as your foundation then you become the foundation. But you are not wise or strong or big enough. That is why you feel overwhelmed, anxious, and angry…because you are trying to be the Atlas of the Universe. Atlas was the Titan condemned to hold up the universe forever. He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Your Universe rests on your shoulders now and that is overwhelming and unmanageable.
So Pride is a break with God’s order. Pride says, “I don’t need this boat (God and His plan). In fact, I’m getting out of this boat into the ocean.”
Then Panic sets in and you say, “I can’t deal with this!” Because you can’t!
Then we try to soothe or escape the pressure, the overwhelm, and the pain with addiction to busyness, entertainment, food, alcohol, drugs, porn…
Four
Satan didn’t accept his limitations, he thought he didn’t need God and he landed in hell.
We fall into the same trap. In our pride, we live as if everything depends on us.
Eventually, the weight of the world is crushing and our lives become overwhelming and unmanageable. Then we try to cope or escape through all kinds of vices and addictions to food, alcohol, weed, workaholism, binging on entertainment, news, sports, social media, porn and sports.
There is only one way out.
Admit that on your own you are powerless over your vices and your life has become unmanageable. Believe God is God and you are not, and that He wants to set you free and restore you to sanity. Then surrender your life to Him. Make a searching and fearless examination of conscience and go to Confession so that Jesus can forgive your sins and begin to heal you.
Finally, since you now know you are not God, make the commitment to spend time with Him everyday in daily meditation, reading or listening to the word of God, thinking about it and applying it to your life and putting it into practice every day.
Then rinse and repeat. Keep this simple way of life up every day and God will transform you and your limitations to become like Him!
Five
Humility saves us from pride and hell.
Jesus said to St. Catherine of Siena, “Do you know who you are and who I am? If you know these two things, you will be blessed, and the Enemy will never deceive you. I am He who is, and you are she who is not.”
Humility is knowing who God is and who we are. Humility is first, knowing I am not God. I have limitations. Therefore, I need God and I want him. Secondly, humility is also knowing that I am a son of God by Baptism and His life dwelling within me.
See, it all rides on experiencing our limitations, accepting them, and allowing those limitations to turn us to God to be filled by Him. But Pride is the opposite. Pride is to forget all this and to live as if everything depends on me. That is why pride is the source of fear and anxiety.
Humility is the source of peace because I know that no matter what, I will be OK because God is my Father.