"Bright Seraphs, Cherubim and Thrones".

PART 2

In the Jan/Feb 1999 edition the author discussed the appearance of angels in the Old and New Testaments and used the poet Dante to give an insight into their hierarchical structure and purpose.

Let us first look at the names of angels and their meaning. The name of "seraphim" comes from the Hebrew word for "to burn" and signifies burning love, a superabundance of charity. The name "cherubim" suggests a superabundance of science, of knowledge. The name of "throne" suggests solidity, stability. It implies an openness to receive the one who sits down upon the throne, i.e., God, and to carry him, i.e., to carry his orders to the choirs of angels below them. As Dante puts it, they "declare God's judgements."

These three higher order of angels, the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones, have this in common, that they know immediately in God the reasons of the divine works. However, the Cherubim have a greater science, or knowledge, and the Seraphim, a greater love or charity. Therefore, the excellence of the Thrones is included in the excellence of the Cherubim; and, similarly, the excellence of the Cherubim is included in the excellence of the Seraphim: Which means that the excellence of a particular order of angels includes the excellence of all the orders below it, but not the other way around.

The names of the next three orders of angels, the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers, all pertain to government. The name of Dominations means a firm and inflexible government, which is shown in determining the things that are to be done. For it belongs to the master who dominates to prescribe what should be done.

The name of Virtues means a certain manly and unshaken fortitude, an invincible courage, either to accomplish all the divine operations that are entrusted to them or to receive the divine things themselves. The name of Powers designates a certain ordinance, concerning either the receiving of divine things or the divine actions which the superior spirits perform in the lower ones, lifting them upwards. Therefore, it pertains to the order of Powers to regulate what is to be done by those who are below them.

Third hierarchy

The third hierarchy of the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, carries out the particular actions that have been decided upon by the higher orders of angels. The name Principalities means leadership in a sacred order. For those who lead others, being first in rank, are called properly 'princes'. The principalities are the first order of angels to execute the divine ministries. They preside over the government of kingdoms and nations, which is the first and most important of divine ministries.

The archangels are between Principalities and Angels. They are considered the princes of angels and they are the custodians of those destined by God to a higher degree of glory. They are entrusted with the greater and more important missions (e.g., the archangel Gabriel coming to the Virgin Mary). Finally, to the order of angels is assigned the custody of the individual. We usually refer to them as guardian angels and their role is to direct and move each individual towards the good.

There is a wonderful logic to this order of the choirs of angels which St. Thomas brings out. If we consider God to be the end of all creation, the goal towards which the whole creation moves, then the first hierarchy of angels, the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, consists of the angels that contemplate God as the end, and therefore their names express their relation to God. The second hierarchy, the Dominations, the Virtues, and the Powers, consider how the end, God, can be attained, and therefore their names express the idea of government. And finally, the third hierarchy, the Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels, considers the practical application or the carrying out of that government, and therefore their names express the executions of the work.

St. Thomas goes further in showing the logic of this classification. He brings out the special affinity that exists between the higher order of a hierarchy with the lower order of the hierarchy above. He brings out, for example, the special affinity that the highest order of all, the Seraphim, whose name means burning love, has with the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity, the Love proceeding from the Father and the Son.

Angels are pure intelligences or pure spirits, i.e., they are not composed of body and spirit as man is. They were created by God and established, in the words of Dante, "as summit of the world." Therefore, by nature, they are the highest creatures, but they cannot, by their own effort or merit--any more than man can--attain beatitude, i.e. union with God. Lucifer, the most beautiful and most intelligent of all angels, fell precisely because he did not want to recognize his limits. In his presumption, he affirmed that he could attain the beatific vision through his own powers. He could not.

But to the angels who humbly admitted their created nature, to them was given the light of glory. Beatrice explains to Dante:

Merit and grace should waver, be it known That merit dwells in the receipt of grace In measure as the heart to it is prone (Para. XXIX, 64-66).

This precision is important. The reception of grace by the angel is meritorious in so far as his love is open to it. This means that even though grace is necessary for the angel to attain the vision of God, it is also necessary that he engage his will towards God. This idea is beautifully represented in the story of the war waged in heaven between Lucifer and his angels and St. Michael and his angels.

Once the angel has fixed his choice on God by the conversion of charity, of love, his will becomes "steadfast and perfect grown" and he begins, in the image of Dante, to whirl in a fiery circle around the Point of Light, forever revolving around it. This circular motion, considered by Ancients and the Medievals as the perfect movement, is the symbol of the intellection of the angels, which is both action and contemplation--contemplation, because they see God face to face, and action, because they carry out God's missions. They do both at one and the same time, because they are pure intelligences, and therefore direct their external actions by their intellectual operation alone. Consequently, the different missions that are entrusted to them are in no way an obstacle to their contemplation.

Dante also considers the number of angels. He refers to the following text of Daniel:

As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were like burning fire. a stream of fire issued and came forth before him; a thousand thousand served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him (viii, 9-10).

Beatrice says to Dante:

The angelic nature in number doth extend So far beyond the range of mortal mind, Not tongue or thought has ever reached the end.

And in the Book of Daniel thou wilt find, For all the thousand thousands he there states, No fixed and final figure is assigned.

The Primal Light the whole irradiates, And is received therein as many ways As there are splendours wherewithal it mates.

Since, then, affection waits upon the gaze And its intensity, diversity bright, Therein the sweets of love now glow, now blaze.

(Para. XXIX, 130-141).

The number of angels is so great that our mind cannot encompass it. The Primal Light, God, irradiates all the angels and "is received therein as many ways as there are splendours wherewithal it mates." Not only is the number of angels infinite. It follows, then, that their love is also different from one another. According to its intensity, "the sweets of love now glow, now blaze."

Beatrice ends her discourse on angels by drawing Dante's attention to the greatness and sublimity of God, which are manifested both in the infinite multitude of angelic intelligences and in the absolute unity of God. I can find no better way of ending their short exposition on angels than to leave you with these beautiful lines:

Consider well the breath, behold the height Of His eternal Goodness, seeing that o'er So many mirrors It doth shed Its light,

Yet One abideth as It was before. (Para. XXIX, 142-145).

Dr. Marguerite Kussmaul is a Teaching Fellow at the University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia.