Whether One Angel Speaks to Another?
Objection 1: It would seem that one angel does not speak to another.
For Gregory says (Moral. xviii) that, in the state of the resurrection
"each one's body will not hide his mind from his fellows." Much less,
therefore, is one angel's mind hidden from another. But speech
manifests to another what lies hidden in the mind. Therefore it is not
necessary that one angel should speak to another.
Obj. 2: Further, speech is twofold; interior, whereby one speaks to
oneself; and exterior, whereby one speaks to another. But exterior
speech takes place by some sensible sign, as by voice, or gesture, or
some bodily member, as the tongue, or the fingers, and this cannot
apply to the angels. Therefore one angel does not speak to another.
Obj. 3: Further, the speaker incites the hearer to listen to what he
says. But it does not appear that one angel incites another to
listen; for this happens among us by some sensible sign. Therefore
one angel does not speak to another.
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (1 Cor. 13:1): "If I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels."
_I answer that,_ The angels speak in a certain way. But, as Gregory
says (Moral. ii): "It is fitting that our mind, rising above the
properties of bodily speech, should be lifted to the sublime and
unknown methods of interior speech."
To understand how one angel speaks to another, we must consider that,
as we explained above (Q. 82, A. 4), when treating of the actions and
powers of the soul, the will moves the intellect to its operation.
Now an intelligible object is present to the intellect in three ways;
first, habitually, or in the memory, as Augustine says (De Trin. xiv,
6, 7); secondly, as actually considered or conceived; thirdly, as
related to something else. And it is clear that the intelligible
object passes from the first to the second stage by the command of
the will, and hence in the definition of habit these words occur,
"which anyone uses when he wills." So likewise the intelligible
object passes from the second to the third stage by the will; for by
the will the concept of the mind is ordered to something else, as,
for instance, either to the performing of an action, or to being made
known to another. Now when the mind turns itself to the actual
consideration of any habitual knowledge, then a person speaks to
himself; for the concept of the mind is called "the interior word."
And by the fact that the concept of the angelic mind is ordered to be
made known to another by the will of the angel himself, the concept
of one angel is made known to another; and in this way one angel
speaks to another; for to speak to another only means to make known
the mental concept to another.
Reply Obj. 1: Our mental concept is hidden by a twofold obstacle. The
first is in the will, which can retain the mental concept within, or
can direct it externally. In this way God alone can see the mind of
another, according to 1 Cor. 2:11: "What man knoweth the things of a
man, but the spirit of a man that is in him?" The other obstacle
whereby the mental concept is excluded from another one's knowledge,
comes from the body; and so it happens that even when the will
directs the concept of the mind to make itself known, it is not at
once make known to another; but some sensible sign must be used.
Gregory alludes to this fact when he says (Moral. ii): "To other eyes
we seem to stand aloof as it were behind the wall of the body; and
when we wish to make ourselves known, we go out as it were by the
door of the tongue to show what we really are." But an angel is under
no such obstacle, and so he can make his concept known to another at
once.
Reply Obj. 2: External speech, made by the voice, is a necessity for
us on account of the obstacle of the body. Hence it does not befit an
angel; but only interior speech belongs to him, and this includes not
only the interior speech by mental concept, but also its being
ordered to another's knowledge by the will. So the tongue of an angel
is called metaphorically the angel's power, whereby he manifests his
mental concept.
Reply Obj. 3: There is no need to draw the attention of the good
angels, inasmuch as they always see each other in the Word; for as
one ever sees the other, so he ever sees what is ordered to himself.
But because by their very nature they can speak to each other, and
even now the bad angels speak to each other, we must say that the
intellect is moved by the intelligible object just as sense is
affected by the sensible object. Therefore, as sense is aroused by
the sensible object, so the mind of an angel can be aroused to
attention by some intelligible power.
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