Whether All the Angels Who Are Sent, Assist?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels who are sent also assist.
For Gregory says (Hom. xxxiv in Evang.): "So the angels are sent, and
assist; for, though the angelic spirit is limited, yet the supreme
Spirit, God, is not limited."
Obj. 2: Further, the angel was sent to administer to Tobias. Yet he
said, "I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven who stand before the
Lord" (Tob. 12:15). Therefore the angels who are sent, assist.
Obj. 3: Further, every holy angel is nearer to God than Satan is. Yet
Satan assisted God, according to Job 1:6: "When the sons of God came
to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them."
Therefore much more do the angels, who are sent to minister, assist.
Obj. 4: Further, if the inferior angels do not assist, the reason is
because they receive the Divine enlightenment, not immediately, but
through the superior angels. But every angel receives the Divine
enlightenment from a superior, except the one who is highest of all.
Therefore only the highest angel would assist; which is contrary to
the text of Dan. 7:10: "Ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood
before Him." Therefore the angels who are sent also assist.
_On the contrary,_ Gregory says, on Job 25:3: "Is there any numbering
of His soldiers?" (Moral. xvii): "Those powers assist, who do not go
forth as messengers to men." Therefore those who are sent in ministry
do not assist.
_I answer that,_ The angels are spoken of as "assisting" and
"administering," after the likeness of those who attend upon a king;
some of whom ever wait upon him, and hear his commands immediately;
while others there are to whom the royal commands are conveyed by
those who are in attendance--for instance, those who are placed at
the head of the administration of various cities; these are said to
administer, not to assist.
We must therefore observe that all the angels gaze upon the Divine
Essence immediately; in regard to which all, even those who minister,
are said to assist. Hence Gregory says (Moral. ii) that "those who
are sent on the external ministry of our salvation can always assist
and see the face of the Father." Yet not all the angels can perceive
the secrets of the Divine mysteries in the clearness itself of the
Divine Essence; but only the superior angels who announce them to the
inferior: and in that respect only the superior angels belonging to
the highest hierarchy are said to assist, whose special prerogative
it is to be enlightened immediately by God.
From this may be deduced the reply to the first and second
objections, which are based on the first mode of assisting.
Reply Obj. 3: Satan is not described as having assisted, but as
present among the assistants; for, as Gregory says (Moral. ii),
"though he has lost beatitude, still he has retained a nature like to
the angels."
Reply Obj. 4: All the assistants see some things immediately in the
glory of the Divine Essence; and so it may be said that it is the
prerogative of the whole of the highest hierarchy to be immediately
enlightened by God; while the higher ones among them see more than is
seen by the inferior; some of whom enlighten others: as also among
those who assist the king, one knows more of the king's secrets than
another.
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