D
draco_cupri
Guest
O.K., I am glad you acknowledge the actuality of angels. I, too, submit all private judgment of my own to the solemn teaching of the Church. The reason I questioned your view of angels was because of what you said and also because I made an error in the past, in not holding that angels have ontological existence prior to their being sent by God as messengers. A friend of mine pointed out my error by saying, “In heaven, Saint Michael loves Saint Gabriel and Saint Gabriel loves Saint Michael.”God, Perfect Act, is not a " blank slate. " Act means " to exercise existence. " Perfect Act means to be Perfectly and Infinitely Active. This is seen logically in that God not only created the universe but is the efficient cause for all its acts, is its sustaining cause moment by moment, and is its perfect director. So one cannot envision God as suddenly becoming active at the moment of his creative act. Indeed, Revelation shows us a God as an eternal active communion between three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Of course, I believe all that the Church teaches. God created Angels whole and entire as he did everything else. Still every Angel is a composite of essence and existence. In this composite essence stands in relation to existence as potency to act ( existence ). In other words the essence of Angel says " this much existence and no more. "
But I am very happy to know we are on the same page with regard to the Teaching Authority of the Church. That is the solid basis for much intellectual freedom, despite what the world says to the opposite effect. I look forward to some good discussions with you!
I don’t know what has already been said by theologians and especially Saints about this idea (and I take the word of Saints as far above that of mere theologians), so I am bringing it up as an interesting topic: Genesis says that God’s Creative Act of the First Day was to pronounce, “Be light made!” or alternatively, “Let there be light!” It seems possible and even likely to me that this means not only physical light but intellectual light, or perhaps primarily intellectual light. (But probably both.) It seems to me the angels have immortal souls and bodies of light. This is also consistent with the condemnation of the evil spirits, since, despite the fact that their souls are immortal, they yet meet destruction in the Lake of Fire for their sins.
Going out on a limb of speculation here, but wondering what others think about this and whether anyone is familiar with Saintly, preferably Doctoral, teaching about this.
Also, to clarify, I was not asserting in any way, shape or form, that God is the “blank slate,” but rather, that the original Nothing outside of God was the blank slate. Similarly to the way an artist views a blank page. God is certainly not “blank” — that would be Masonic, not Catholic Doctrine. God is eternally, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — Infinite, Omnipotent Love. But before He created anything, He could have created anything at all, so the original Nothing that there was — not, indeed, the Origin, as that is God, but simply the lack of any creature in existence — was, to God, in effect, His “blank slate.”