Whether the Angels Are Sent on Works of Ministry?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels are not sent on works of
ministry. For every mission is to some determinate place. But
intellectual actions do not determine a place, for intellect
abstracts from the "here" and "now." Since therefore the angelic
actions are intellectual, it appears that the angels are not sent to
perform their own actions.
Obj. 2: Further, the empyrean heaven is the place that beseems the
angelic dignity. Therefore if they are sent to us in ministry, it
seems that something of their dignity would be lost; which is
unseemly.
Obj. 3: Further, external occupation hinders the contemplation of
wisdom; hence it is said: "He that is less in action, shall receive
wisdom" (Ecclus. 38:25). So if some angels are sent on external
ministrations, they would seemingly be hindered from contemplation.
But the whole of their beatitude consists in the contemplation of
God. So if they were sent, their beatitude would be lessened; which
is unfitting.
Obj. 4: Further, to minister is the part of an inferior; hence it is
written (Luke 22:27): "Which is the greater, he that sitteth at
table, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at table?" But the
angels are naturally greater than we are. Therefore they are not sent
to administer to us.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ex. 23:20): "Behold I will send My
angels who shall go before thee."
_I answer that,_ From what has been said above (Q. 108, A. 6), it may
be shown that some angels are sent in ministry by God. For, as we
have already stated (Q. 43, A. 1), in treating of the mission of the
Divine Persons, he is said to be sent who in any way proceeds from
another so as to begin to be where he was not, or to be in another
way, where he already was. Thus the Son, or the Holy Ghost is said to
be sent as proceeding from the Father by origin; and begins to be in
a new way, by grace or by the nature assumed, where He was before by
the presence of His Godhead; for it belongs to God to be present
everywhere, because, since He is the universal agent, His power
reaches to all being, and hence He exists in all things (Q. 8, A. 1).
An angel's power, however, as a particular agent, does not reach to
the whole universe, but reaches to one thing in such a way as not to
reach another; and so he is "here" in such a manner as not to be
"there." But it is clear from what was above stated (Q. 110, A. 1),
that the corporeal creature is governed by the angels. Hence,
whenever an angel has to perform any work concerning a corporeal
creature, the angel applies himself anew to that body by his power;
and in that way begins to be there afresh. Now all this takes place
by Divine command. Hence it follows that an angel is sent by God.
Yet the action performed by the angel who is sent, proceeds from God
as from its first principle, at Whose nod and by Whose authority the
angels work; and is reduced to God as to its last end. Now this is
what is meant by a minister: for a minister is an intelligent
instrument; while an instrument is moved by another, and its action
is ordered to another. Hence angels' actions are called "ministries";
and for this reason they are said to be sent in ministry.
Reply Obj. 1: An operation can be intellectual in two ways. In one
way, as dwelling in the intellect itself, as contemplation; such an
operation does not demand to occupy a place; indeed, as Augustine
says (De Trin. iv, 20): "Even we ourselves as mentally tasting
something eternal, are not in this world." In another sense an action
is said to be intellectual because it is regulated and commanded by
some intellect; in that sense the intellectual operations evidently
have sometimes a determinate place.
Reply Obj. 2: The empyrean heaven belongs to the angelic dignity by
way of congruity; forasmuch as it is congruous that the higher body
should be attributed to that nature which occupies a rank above
bodies. Yet an angel does not derive his dignity from the empyrean
heaven; so when he is not actually in the empyrean heaven, nothing of
his dignity is lost, as neither does a king lessen his dignity when
not actually sitting on his regal throne, which suits his dignity.
Reply Obj. 3: In ourselves the purity of contemplation is obscured by
exterior occupation; because we give ourselves to action through the
sensitive faculties, the action of which when intense impedes the
action of the intellectual powers. An angel, on the contrary,
regulates his exterior actions by intellectual operation alone. Hence
it follows that his external occupations in no respect impede his
contemplation; because given two actions, one of which is the rule
and the reason of the other, one does not hinder but helps the other.
Wherefore Gregory says (Moral. ii) that "the angels do not go abroad
in such a manner as to lose the delights of inward contemplation."
Reply Obj. 4: In their external actions the angels chiefly minister
to God, and secondarily to us; not because we are superior to them,
absolutely speaking, but because, since every man or angel by
cleaving to God is made one spirit with God, he is thereby superior
to every creature. Hence the Apostle says (Phil. 2:3): "Esteeming
others better than themselves."
_______________________