Angels and Free Will

[paladinofjesus]

Note: I’m looking for evidence from Church Teachings and saints teachings, not just a variety of random uncited thoughts! Thank you though!

My question is concerning angels and free will - do angels have it?

In my research, I came across people discussing an angel’s will. We live in a continuum of time and space and are “apart” from God and thus can change our mind and our will wavers back and forth. Angels have a more “powerful and unitary” will which once decided on something can’t change. My question was then, “If they were with God, how could they decide to be away from him - having enjoyed his full and immediate presence?”

This brought me to the “beatific vision” - which as far as I know, is what I just described, full presence and “being with” God. Some said:

“Some theologians have speculated that angels were shown Christ in his humanity, and asked to worship him, since he is the Second Person of the Trinity. Lucifer and his cohort outright rejected this, saying “I will not serve!” They saw themselves in their angelic nature as so far above man that they rejected the idea of God taking on a human nature. In doing so they rejected God.”
Source

So, just like we have to undergo a test (life on earth) before we can share in the Beatific Vision, the angels had to as well. When they failed and “fell”, their choice was eternal and unchanging.

I’ve read up on this a little and what I’ve read is that St. Ignatius and Clement of Alexandria posed the idea that angels underwent a “period of trial” in which they had to choose between loving God and not. Those who chose not were cast out, became “demons” or “fallen angels” and continued on in their immortal (?) lives. But there is where it gets murky:

“Here arises the problem of time: We conceived time as past, present and future in accord with our created matter and space, whereas the angels live in a time , past, present and future , but without the restrictions of matter and space. The Medieval theologians called this kind of time aeveternity, the time of the angels between eternity and time”.
Source

Keeping this in mind, that angels had free will about choosing God, and now their choices are set, for the sake of argument does that mean God…stopped? creating angels, but that doesn’t work since He is out of time, and they wouldn’t need to made in a corporeal world, as ours, because they are only spirit…

Does this mean angels have a free will concerning other issues though? They can decide what else they do in the service of God? We really don’t know what else though they do, besides the will of God.

Does choosing God eternally from the start mean that they love God so much that his Will is their Will, and that even thinking to do something else of their own accord would not come across their minds?

Maybe this has no solution, but thoughts would be appreciated! Please cite sources, especially since I am looking for hard evidence from saints or Church teachings on this topic, not just a variety of opinions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dorothy]

This site has a lot of information about the angels. There is a lot to explore here:

opusangelorum.org/catechesis/catechesis-dw.htm

 

[Don_Ruggero]

*Note: I’m looking for evidence from Church Teachings and saints teachings… My question is concerning angels and free will - do angels have it? …

So, just like we have to undergo a test (life on earth) before we can share in the Beatific Vision, the angels had to as well. When they failed and “fell”, their choice was eternal and unchanging.

I’ve read up on this a little and what I’ve read is that St. Ignatius and Clement of Alexandria posed the idea that angels underwent a “period of trial” in which they had to choose between loving God and not. Those who chose not were cast out, became “demons” or “fallen angels” and continued on in their immortal (?) lives

Keeping this in mind, that angels had free will about choosing God, and now their choices are set /…/

Does this mean angels have a free will concerning other issues though? They can decide what else they do in the service of God? …

Does choosing God eternally from the start mean that they love God so much that his Will is their Will, and that even thinking to do something else of their own accord would not come across their minds?

Maybe this has no solution, but thoughts would be appreciated! Please cite sources, especially since I am looking for hard evidence from saints or Church teachings on this topic, not just a variety of opinions.

A nice set of questions.

The creation of the angels was in one occurrence…it’s not on-going. Each was created directly by God. There is no pro-creation in the angelic order.

Angels are pure spirit. They’re intellect and will. They’re immortal by the angelic nature. They don’t think discursively as humans do. Their will is undistracted by, for example, the passions of the body. Angels apprehend what they intellectually contemplate in itself by a different epistemology than humans; they do not engage in deductive reasoning as we do. An angel cannot change its mind because it is its mind, if I may say it in a rather inexact way.

The test involving the angels involves speculation of various theological schools. You are drawing from Bonaventure in what you cite. Other theologians had other thoughts. I am Thomistic, myself. Bonaventure’s imagery, however, serves well and I don’t regard it lightly.

What’s not speculative is that there was a test. The test occurred after their creation and when they were in a natural state, without having yet experienced the beatific vision. Once a creature has seen the beatific vision, defection is impossible. And yes, the beatific vision isn’t simply being in the presence of God but beholding God as He is.

The test is seen as a battle but since angels are incorporeal and pure spirit, intellect and will, the decision would have been instantaneous and irrevocable since what they will is who they are. Clearly there would be conflict between those who decided one way and those who decided another – but, again, we rely on imagery to grasp the angelic reality. The Incarnate Word expresses it in human language as eloquently as human language possibly could when he says that “He saw Satan fall from the sky like lightning.” (Luke 10:18) An apt image of the fallen angels being separated from a heavenly abode to the realm of the damned

As for your question about time existing in a created yet incorporeal existence, it would be real but as our experience of time is so tied to sense perception (day and night; physical movement and change) it makes conveying its reality problematic for us and we must, to some extent, use concepts drawn from human analogy.

Fallen angels retain their proper nature, which has abilities that are preternatural to humans not unlike our ability to reason and to speak is of our nature but preternatural to sentient creatures like a horse or a dog. Thus a fallen angel’s intellect is vast in comparison with a human intellect.

An angel in the presence of God, on the other hand, retains his natural intellect but it is also augmented by beatific knowledge, infused by God. This angel’s will is still quite real but it is perfectly aligned with the divine will and the two would act in complete accord and harmony. The gifts of grace will also greatly uplift and augment the gifts of nature. Grace elevated Our Lady above nature to be Queen of Angels even though she is and remains a human person.

This was always a favourite topic of mine as a theologian! I have cherished its study for years. It has much influenced my spiritual life and my life of prayer. I wanted, at one point, to develop a course on it but, unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity as the interests of the students was lacking.

I would suggest to you the book “The Angels and Their Mission According to the Fathers of the Church” by Jean Cardinal Danielou, SJ. I think you would enjoy it and find it helpful. It is an exceptional text by a remarkable expert in this field who compiled disparate Patristic texts in addition to his own outstanding commentary. I used it to great benefit. The writings of Pseudo-Dionysius deserve particular mention on this topic.

I suppose I do not need to caution you that there are many things in print that are very problematic relative to the angels. There are even texts claiming to be private revelation that are problematic. One does well to always contrast what one finds with mind and thought of the Church, so one does not go astray.

That said, there was a wonderful booklet published by the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima called “The Angels: Our God-given Companions and Servants”. It was a wonderful booklet that is long out of print. If you find a copy, I do recommend it.

I hope this helps. God bless you. I ask the Holy Angels to guide you to sound sources of information about them so that you may know them better in this life even as you will enjoy their blessed company in the beatific vision in Heaven one day