Man. His Body and Soul

 

There are two substances of which all creation consists, matter and spirit. They form two diverse and apparently incompatible worlds; but in man they are united. The human body is of the earth, but is the most perfect of earthly productions. It stands upright, as if facing God and asserting its dominion over the rest of creation. The brain and nervous system are far more perfect than in other animals. The hand is a marvel of adaptability, and has been the instrument of human progress; the horse's hoof, the fish's fin, the end of the bird's wing are similar in structure, but how different in their capacity for use. The bones, the veins, the internal mechanism of heart and lungs, everything in fact is of the highest degree of elaboration. Much more beautiful than the bodily frame is the countenance, when it is the index of a pure and benevolent mind. Matter is glorified by being made part of the substance of those who are images of God. Above all, the human body was glorified by being united to the Divinity, when the Son of God took our nature from the most blessed of the daughters of Adam. Thus even your body is worthy of admiration and reverence. Remember its dignity, and never let it be the abode of sin and Satan. Maintain it in the divine likeness, and as the Apostle says : "Glorify and bear God in your body" (1 Cor. vi. 20). Continue Reading.

 

Mystical Senses of The Seven Days

The operations of God in the seven epochs of creation are a figure of His spiritual operations in the human race. The chaos of the first day and its darkness represent the state of mankind before the giving of the Jewish dispensation. There was no religious organization, and depravity was universal. The first dim light of that day is the law of nature, called by David the light of God's countenance (Ps. iv. 7). The creation of the firmament and separation of the waters is the segregation of the people of Israel from the Gentiles; for waters signify people (Apoc. xvii. 15). The rising of the dry land and its covering with vegetation are the rise of the Jewish nation into prominence, and its adornment with the holy lives of its heroes. The sun is Our Lord Jesus Christ; the moon and planets which reflect Him are the Blessed Virgin, the Church, and the Saints. The production of life from the waters is a figure of the new birth from the waters of Baptism. The different creatures of the fifth and sixth days are the souls which soar aloft to heaven like the birds, those which remain of the earth earthy, those which grovel in the slime like the reptiles, and the wild beasts are Antichrist and other persecutors. All of these are subdued by the Man made in the image of God, Jesus Christ His Son. The Sabbath is our final rest in heaven. Praise God for all the wonderful works of this mystical creation. Continue Reading.

 

The Seventh Day

"On the seventh day God ended the work which He had made" (Gen. ii. 2). He ended it in the sense that He had now completely equipped the earth for the purpose that it was intended for; and thenceforth it was to work out its destiny under the guidance of man. In another sense that work is not ended; i.e. it has not yet fulfilled the aim and object of its being; and it will not have done so till the end of time, when all the results are summed up and the elect are gathered into eternal happiness. Then the Almighty will pass the final verdict on His work and declare that it is good. The end of the material development of this earth has come; there will be no further days of creation, no superior race of beings to succeed man. Evolution indeed goes on, but it is of a kind now that depends on man's will aided by grace, and not on God alone, It should be an evolution of truth and justice, of the knowledge of God and the perfecting of His likeness in the soul. As this depends on the good-will of man, the result is various: in one line there goes on a development towards eternal life, but there is also an alternative line of deterioration. Each man chooses for himself which he will. It depends on you now to carry on the work of God in your own soul and in others. Go on constantly till you have finished your portion of the task. Imitate the regularity and thoroughness of God, so that He may be able to declare that you and your work are very good. Continue Reading.

 

The Sixth Day

After the age of the reptiles, there was a long interval not marked by features sufficient to make of it an additional day of creation. The cretaceous beds average one thousand feet in thickness ; they consist of the shells and skeletons of myriads of generations of minute animalcule deposited on the bed of the ocean. After being formed and consolidated during long ages, they slowly rose, till now they form great plains, or hills and cliffs. Then followed the Tertiary epoch, when new species of animals began to appear, the forerunners of existing races, marsupials and mammals. Some of these have flourished, extended widely and become extinct. Such were the Megatherium, eighteen feet in length, the Palaeotherium, a compound of rhinoceros, horse and tapir, and the Mammoth. Other species have lasted, more or less modified, into our times. The length of these periods is beyond our computation: we only know that it was enormous. Thus did God carefully, slowly, with enormous power and wisdom, prepare this world during millions of years to be your habitation. You have now to prepare your soul through countless thoughts and actions to be His dwelling. Continue Reading.

 

The Fifth Day

The fifth day of Moses introduces us into new and almost unexplored realms of wonder. Animal life is here mentioned for the first time. This however was not its first commencement. Scripture indicates the infusion of the primitive germs of life on the first day; and in accordance with this, we find fossil evidence of marine life from a very early date. It would appear that the sea was amply peopled as far back as the Devonian era, many hundred thousand years before the fifth day. This is not mentioned by Moses. He speaks only of the more striking and distinct features of creation, such as would have come under the notice of a contemporary observer, such as he felt himself to be during the series of his visions. Notwithstanding the shoals of fish hidden beneath the ocean surface, and a few insects and air-breathing reptiles, this globe was still, to the eye, an unpeopled waste. Now the bright sunshine and limpid atmosphere made the earth rejoice; there was a great outburst of life, and strange new species of creatures suited to the changed conditions sprang into existence. Until a few years ago the passage in Genesis was the only record existing of a most wonderful and quite hidden episode of creation. Geology has now brought to light the skeletons of the animals that Moses saw in vision, and has corroborated every detail of his narrative. Men change, and their ideas, and their science; but the word of the Lord abides for ever. Events always justify those who walk by faith in that word. Have patience, and in due course God will give you light. Continue Reading.

 

The Fourth Day

On the fourth day, Moses, viewing creation in vision as if from the surface of the earth, according to probability, saw a new revelation of divine greatness, when the expanse of the heavens was opened to him, illumined by sun, and moon, and planets, and the millions of more distant stars. His description is that of an eyewitness, and not of an investigator who goes behind the visible fact. It does not mean that the celestial world was created from nothing at this epoch, nor that it was formed from pre-existing matter at this epoch, but that it appeared in existence for the first time to the visionary spectator. The heavenly bodies were not actually made on this day, for the outer planets of our system were cast off from the revolving nebular mass before our earth; and the glowing matter was probably far advanced in the process of condensation into the sun, even if it had not already formed it, at the epoch when Moses takes up the story of the earth on the first day. The glimmering light of the first three days was probably that of the sun, which could only penetrate dimly through the heavy curtain of vapour round the earth. The actual event of the fourth day, the day that succeeded the Carboniferous period of the great vegetation, was the clearing away of the thick layer of gas and aqueous vapour which had for so many years obscured the heavens, the visible appearance of the sun, and the commencement of the order of days and seasons. Geology witnesses to this. The closer texture of plants, their greater variety, and the appearance of season rings in trees, show that sunshine, as we know it, began only at this advanced period of the earth's development. God is hidden from many men by the voluntary clouds of prejudice and worldliness. Because they cannot see Him they profess disbelief. But He is there all the same. Continue Reading.

 

The Third Day

The Second Day

The First Day

The Creation of The World

The Honor Due to The Angels

The Angels of God merit veneration at our hands. In the Old Testament we read of God's servants adoring them or prostrating before them. So did Abraham, and Lot, and Joshua, so also did St. John the Evangelist. We should honour them 

1. for their sanctity, the most beautiful and admirable of all qualities, and more deserving of reverence than intellectual abilities, or strength of character, or wealth, or natural benevolence. 

2. For the benefits we receive from them. God is the source of these, but the angels are His willing agents in these benefactions, and fulfil their part with zeal and affection; they act as our best friends; and our salvation, under God, depends to a considerable extent on the assistance we receive from them. 

3. Their excellence, their high position in the spiritual order, and their resemblance to God claim recognition from us. As we render filial honour to parents, civil honour to magistrates and monarchs, respect to age, to virtue, to talent; so are we bound to render religious honour to those who are the manifestations of the supernatural perfections of the Infinite God. This is a matter of strict duty for you. You must not allow any class of God's creatures to pass without rendering to them what their character demands. Have you always paid due respect to so important a body of your fellow creatures? Continue Reading.

 

Angels and Men Compared

In their natural constitution and endowments the angels are far superior to men. The Psalmist, asking what is man or the son of man, answers, "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels" (Ps. viii. 6). They are our superiors even though appointed to be, in a way, our attendants and guards. The angels are more perfect representations than men of the spiritual and intellectual being of the Almighty, so that they are called "the seal of resemblance" (Ez. xxviii. 12). Further, they were created in the immaterial heaven, we on earth. They now see God face to face in His glory; we only in a dark manner by faith. They have the joy of possession, we must have patience in tribulation. They possess a beatified life, our most earnest desire is for a happy death. They live to God, we have to die to the world. They possess perfect justice, we need perfect penance. They have the completion, we the commencement of supernatural life. Therefore we may say of the angels as compared with men, "The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he. . . neither were the plane trees to be compared to him. . . no tree in the paradise of God was like him in his beauty" (Ez. xxxi. 8). Rejoice in the greatness of these noble beings, without envying them or despising your condition. Look up to them as to elder brethren. Venerate them for their nearness to God and the likeness they bear to Him. Continue Reading.

 

The Guardian Angels

Those spirits are called Guardian Angels who are deputed to take charge of individual men. We do not know to which choirs this duty is committed, but it is generally attributed to the ninth or lowest choir. Even these, however, are princes of the house of God, and are of surpassing splendour and ability. It may be that spirits of higher rank and power are given charge of more distinguished servants of God who have a more difficult vocation than the average, such as Apostles, Popes, founders of orders, Bishops, missionaries, great rulers of men. There are examples in Scripture of other orders of blessed spirits being employed on this earth. Thus, one of the Cherubim was placed at the gates of Paradise with a flaming sword, a Seraph was sent to purify Isaias with a burning ember from the altar, and Archangels were sent at other times, Raphael to Tobias, Michael to Daniel and St. John, Gabriel to Zachary, the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph. Every human being, however degraded and wicked, has an angel as his guardian and companion all through life. Learn hence to esteem every soul without exception as being the recipient of so high a favour from God. Like their angels, never fail in hope and in prayer for their salvation. Learn the same lesson as St. Peter : "God hath showed me not to call any man common or unclean" (Acts x. 28). Continue Reading.

 

The Functions of The Angels

St. Paul says of the angels, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?" (Heb. i. 14). God employs them as His agents, as intermediate, secondary causes of the works of various kinds which He carries out for the benefit of mankind. God also uses men as the agents of His dealings with other men; to exercise the functions of Providence towards them, enlighten their minds, move them to goodness, help them to save their souls. God uses further the intelligence of man for the material development of this earth, by the discovery of its secrets and the manipulation of its great forces, such as electricity, for example. The angels are an innumerable multitude of immense intellectual forces. Every creature of God has its utilities, and these are proportioned to its nature and activity. The angels have functions to fulfil on this earth, as Scripture itself informs us, and these may be material as well as spiritual. It may well be, in accordance with a widely received supposition, that the Almighty made use of the instrumentality of the angels in the development of the universe, and in the maintenance and guidance of it subsequently. How grand a conception of nature this opens out to us! The possibilities that we can imagine are wonderful, and it is certain that the actual facts are more wonderful still. When we see in God all things as they are, we shall discover for the first time marvellous harmonies of the spiritual and material universes which are hidden from our present science. Continue Reading.

 

The Intercommunion of The Angles

Social life arises among beings possessed of intelligence; and it consists primarily in the intercommunion of mind with mind. In the Trinity there is a Divine Society, with interior communications between the three Persons. The divine mind also enters into communication with human minds by means of revelation. Animals can communicate simple emotions to one another by inarticulate cries. Men deaf and dumb can exchange ideas by gesture. With normal men communication is much more complete; it embraces large groups of ideas, and enters into minute detail. By sounds, facial expression, and a system of little marks on paper, men can reproduce their thoughts and emotions in others most vividly. But this method is gross and imperfect, whereby mind communicates with mind through physical signs addressed to the eye or ear, passing through the nerves to the brain, and thence into the immaterial consciousness. The angels, being pure intelligence, communicate directly and instantaneously, without physical medium, without the waste that accompanies so many transformations of energy, and without the misunderstandings that ensue with us. How sublime must be the speech of the angels; how much more extended in its range than ours! As the conversation of the learned surpasses that of the savage, so does the converse of the blessed and the angels surpass that of earth. This alone will be a great source of delight in heaven. Continue Reading.

 

The Temptations of the Evil Spirits

In nature, God allows all creatures to exercise their proper activities without interference. They may be contradictory to others and may produce catastrophes, but out of it all there proceeds harmony and a higher good. So all spiritual beings are allowed to use their powers according to their free will, whether rightly or perversely. Wrong doing is not visited straightway with extinction, or with restraint of activity or liberty; it plays its part, and is controlled by God to a good end. The forces of right and wrong are allowed to wage an unending strife until the time comes to separate them eternally. As bad men are allowed to live out their full course unhindered, so Satan and his followers remain in the universe where they were to have acted as ministers of God, and there they carry on a work of their own, according to their desires and capacities. Hatred of the supreme good, envy of men who are one day to occupy their places in heaven, fierce pride, malicious love of evil for its own sake, these are their motive forces. They endeavour to thwart the designs of God, to establish a reign of falsehood and vice, to deceive and corrupt men, to turn them against their Creator and lead them to eternal misery. It is fearful to think of our being exposed to conflicts with spirits so malicious and so superior to us. But it is for our advantage; and some day we shall see how much good God has educed from that evil. Continue Reading.

 

The Punishment of the Bad Angels

The first and chief punishment of the fallen angels in hell is the pain of loss, the deprivation of God and of all that holds from Him, i.e. of all good. 

1. They have lost the Beatific Vision, the sight of God in all His love and His beauty. 

2. They have lost their position of dignity and the company of the blessed. 

3. Also such supernatural advantages as they had before the trial, including faith, hope and charity. 

4. Although they retain their natural faculties and powers, yet they have lost the natural happiness which springs from employing these in the natural apprehension and service of God; for God is the only object which can satisfy even the natural faculties and elicit all their activity, and He has been utterly rejected and lost. Thus are these perverted beings deprived by their own choice of every advantage but bare existence and the faculties that belong to their nature. Consider what it is to lose at once all that is good, and forever. What a multitude of things you require to make life happy or even endurable: the angels require much more on account of their greater activities and capacities. Think what it is to lose but one of the minor gifts of God, a sense or bodily liberty or health, wife or child, fortune, good-name or employment. Such a loss often makes life unendurable, makes all other goods worthless, drives men to desperation. What will it be to lose everything. Continue Reading.

 

The Award of the Judge

When the trial and conflict of the angels was over, a separation of good and bad took place. The "great dragon was cast out, the old serpent . . . and his angels were thrown down with him" (Apoc. xii. 9). The good angels were confirmed in grace and in the possession of heaven. This involves a summing up of results and a judicial award, a preliminary general judgment of the supramundane universe. In all that was essential, the angels had worked out their destiny and made their final choice for once and all. Our Lord implies this judgment where He says, "the prince of this world is already judged" (John xvi. 11). The conflict is still being continued, but in this lower sphere. When that is complete, the final summing up and judgment of all will take place; and in this the angels will be included, according to the Apostle: "The angels who kept not their principality . . . He hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6). That will be the day of the great victory of God. It will be the manifestation of His justice and mercy, the revelation of the hidden ways of His providence, the justification of His dealings with men and angels, Then will you, if among the blessed, rejoice, that, having trusted in the Lord, He has delivered you. Let the thought of that day make you patient in the obscurities and difficulties of this life. Continue Reading.

 

Speculations on the Sin of the Angels

It is generally taken for granted that pride was the sin of the angels. It is a sin of the intellect; it is one that accommodates itself to the strongest natures as well as to the meanest; high virtue, and position, and excellence are a direct incentive to it; it seems to disorganize the relation of the creature to its Creator more directly than any other sin. But as to the particular form which pride took in the angels there is much speculation. Some have supposed that it was spiritual luxury, or unbridled delight in themselves, their talents, their dignity, their beauty, without subordination to God. This accords with the Scripture: "Thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty; thou hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty" (Ez. xxviii. 17). They would thus be seekers of themselves and their private advantage and pleasure, and not of the glory of God. They would make self the aim of their existence, putting it up as a kind of god in the place of the Supreme Goodness which ought to be the object of all created action, love and service. This form of sin is very prevalent in our experience. Men delight in any excellence, natural or inherited, which they possess, and turn God's gift into a source of continual offence against Him and men. They give themselves full credit for it, and never refer it to its giver or use it for His glory. They worship themselves by reason of it and not God. Continue Reading.

The Sin of The Angels

It may reasonably be supposed that every hierarchy and choir furnished its contingent to the host of the revolted angels. In every condition of life some are found unfaithful. Past supernatural graces and the delights of God's friendship are no assurance against a fall. Higher endowments are no preservative, for these are accompanied by greater temptations and more numerous opportunities of sin. Even the cedars of Lebanon have fallen; and those who have eaten the bread of angels have come to lust after the husks of swine. As Lucifer failed, the highest of the Seraphim, the nearest to the throne, the most like unto God, we cannot suppose that any other class was exempt from the dangers that accompany free-will. As Lucifer was the noblest of the blessed spirits, so his sin was the greatest. He had a clearer vision of what he was doing: his powerful will adhered more obstinately to evil; at the same time he owed a deeper debt of gratitude to Him who had made him so great; and the splendour of his natural endowments gave greater encouragement and vigour, and dignity even (we may say), to the cause of evil. How sad to see the destruction of great possibilities of good, and the failure of great promise of happiness! How sad the rejection of God's best gifts, the frustration of His loving designs! How horrible that His mercy should meet with such a return of hostility and hatred! Yet it is of daily occurrence. You may yet come to this; strive and pray that you may not. Continue Reading.

The Trial and Conflict of the Angels

All beings aspire to act according to the full capacity of their nature. The service of free beings must be free: i.e., the choice must be given to them to serve or not to serve; in other words, a trial or test is necessary. Further, the sight and possession of God with its infinite delights is not the proper due of angels or men. It has pleased the All-wise to offer this transcendent gift as a reward to be earned by fidelity under trial. As to men, so also to the angels, a period of probation was appointed, in which they could exercise their liberty of choice and make themselves worthy of God. How long it lasted we cannot know. It may have been as long as that of the human race, or it may have been instantaneous. There was no need for a lengthy trial; in the angelic nature there is no struggle between heterogeneous components, no clouding of mind by matter; the intelligence is prompt and clear, the will is precise and unwavering. With the angels there was no perturbing influence, no inheritance of perversity to be allowed for, such as make the sins and errors of men more excusable and pardonable. They could grasp at once all the aspects of the question; they could have no need of reconsideration; there was no room in them for repentance. The substantial fact remains that they were needs tested as we are. To them was applied the "golden reed" or scale, "the measure of a man which is of an angel" (Apoc. xxi. 17), the option between the life of mere nature independent of God, or submission to God with supernatural life. Your whole life on earth is arranged simply for the solution of this question. Every act of yours contributes towards it. Continue Reading.

The Third Hierarchy

The spirits of the third hierarchy are considered as entrusted by God with what we may call executive powers. They act upon the external world more directly than the other orders, and, as we gather from Holy Scripture, act as guides, directors, messengers, in carrying out the divine decrees regarding this world. The first of these three choirs is that of the Principalities. We assign to this class such spirits as the one whom the Prophet Daniel calls the "Prince of the Kingdom of the Persians." These are the angels who have the guardianship of kingdoms and peoples: and they are endowed accordingly with wisdom, force, and authority for that purpose. When men are entrusted with such preeminence under God, they too frequently employ it for their own private advantage; they forget that they are the servants of God and the people, and place their interests above the claims of morality and religion; they exalt themselves as if there were no God above them, and enforce their will as if there were no hereafter. On the other hand the characteristic of the celestial Principalities is the purity of intention with which they use their powers, seeking not themselves, but the glory of God and the utility of His creatures. Take care to employ with similar conscientiousness and unselfishness whatever preeminence you have received from God over others. Continue Reading.

The Second Hierarchy

The three choirs of the second hierarchy are, according to St. Dionysius, associated with the external rule of God over creatures. The Dominations are the first of these. They represent the universal sovereignty of the Creator over all things, they manifest that perfection, assert it, and promote it. The petition of the Our Father, "Thy kingdom come," expresses the object of their existence. The special virtues of these angels are, therefore, profound adoration towards the majesty of God, zeal for the maintenance of His authority, hostility to all those numerous forms of usurpation by which the devil, or the world, or the flesh, thrust themselves into the place of God as supreme objects of human homage and service. You require the spirit of these holy Dominations in yourself, and their aid in your work for God. A contest is always in progress between the two standards of Christ and Satan. A large portion of mankind have adopted, more or less consciously, the spirit of him who said "I will not serve," and have cast off the yoke which is sweet and the burthen which is light. The honourable service of God is the only true liberty. Those who cast it off only change masters, and they become the bond-slaves of evil, of misery, and of Satan. As far as you can, promote the reign of God in yourself and others. Continue Reading

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The First Hierarchy

An ancient work formerly attributed to St. Denis the Areopagite sums up the ancient Jewish and Christian traditions concerning the different orders of the angels and the characteristics of each. The author gathers from Holy Writ, and principally from St. Paul's Epistles, the names of nine choirs, and arranges them in three greater divisions or hierarchies according to their dignity. The first hierarchy comprises those spirits who are devoted to the immediate service of God, and stand, comparatively speaking, within the veil. The highest of the three choirs is that of the Seraphim. Their characteristic is the intense and burning love which they render to Him who is the source of all love, and is Himself infinite Love. They are the created representation of that high divine perfection; and in that consists their service and glorification of God. This keeps them forever in the adorable Presence, worshipping, and crying one to another, "Holy ! Holy ! Holy! the Lord God of Hosts" (Isa. vi. 3). The love of God is the final service of Him, the most worthy of Him. the most perfect offering of yourself to Him. It is the completion and crown of the other departments. of our service, and at the same time is the summary of them all. God sums up all His perfections for us in His love; and He desires above all things our love in return. Join yourself with the Seraphim, and ask them to bring a burning coal from the celestial altar to enkindle your frozen heart. Continue Reading.