I’ve recently come back to The Church and have an agnostic wife and step-daughter. We’ve been having a lot of religious discussions lately and I constantly pray for their conversion. PLEASE PRAY FOR US! Although it’s not a pivotal question for her, she can’t understand why Satan or other fallen angels couldn’t repent if they know they are going to lose in the end.
All I could do was quote the catechism but that wasn’t good enough. Does anyone have further insight?
392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.269 This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: "You will be like God."270 The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is "a liar and the father of lies."271
393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."272
Consider first the analogy of Hebrews 6:
“For it is IMPOSSIBLE [practically speaking] for those who have once been enlightened, and tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance.”
While the text in this instance is most likely specifically addressing Jewish Converts who apostatized and went back to Judaism, the connotation would seem to address apostasy in general, that is, once a person fully tastes of the truth and grace of God, if they abandon it, it will be essentially [although not absolutely] impossible for the person to repent.
Hence, there is a sense in which God can only give you so much truth and grace and love before there is nothing left to give, short only of the Beatific Vision itself. Hence, in a sense, if the being fully understands God (that is, Catholicism and all doctrinal development) and tastes of sanctifying grace, if they even reject God after all that, there is essentially nothing that can bring them back.
Also, it becomes, as it were, a type of unforgivable sin, the situation that will exist at the end of the world, in that, after humanity experiences the fullness of the Gentiles, and receives all Catholic teaching and development, once they rebel, there is nothing more God can do for them. In effect, they will be insulting God completely because they will have understood Him to the fullest possible degree (again, short of the Beatific Vision) and received His Love, hence, when, after all that, they tell him to take a hike, it will be an irrevocable rebellion, ultimately insulting to God, and hence, unforgivable.
So, in other words, herein is the key difference between man and the angels. When man fell the first time, he did not have anything close to the full understanding of God. Not that he was not guilty of sin in the proper sense, but that since his knowledge was not nearly full and only primitive, it is a fall that can be healed and forgiven. Hence, as salvation history progresses, even though there are repeated manifestations of this fallen nature, none of them (except the last one) are unforgivable nor unhealable, because God has not yet given them the fullness of His truth and grace. But again, once man experiences the fullness of the Gentiles, man will have fully understood and tasted of everything, so then they will be both irredeemable and unforgivable at the very end.
But, with the angels, it’s a once and done deal. The angels are pure spirits, unimpeded by physical steps and stages that humans must go through, hence, in a sense, the angel comes to understand very quickly, if not even all at once, and hence, it utterly considers all angles, fully comprehends, so that once it makes up its mind, there is no turning back. So then, it seems it would have been intrinsically impossible for the angels not to come to full knowledge once the revelation is given and to be mutable after their total irrevocable choice.
Hence, the angels understanding the entire Plan for the future Creation and its spiritual stages and dogmas, their first choice is their last, irrevocable, and, if they fall, unforgivable.
Hope this helps.
