Stand Alone Pages on 'Musings of an Old Curmudgeon'

23 June 2019

The Catechism of the Summa VIII. THE INNER LIFE OF THE ANGELS

(A) 

What is the life of the angels in so far as they are pure spirits? 

Their life as pure spirits consists in knowledge and love. 

What kind of knowledge have the angels? 

Their knowledge is intellectual (LIV.).

Have the angels a knowledge through sense as we have?

No, there is no such knowledge in the angels (LIV. 5).

Why is there no knowledge through sense in the angels as in us? 

Because knowledge through sense is acquired through a body; and the angels have no body (ibid.).

Is the intellectual knowledge of the angels more perfect than ours?

Yes.

Why is this? 

Because their intellectual knowledge is not acquired like ours from the exterior world; moreover they attain to the truth of a thing at a single glance without need of reasoning (LV. a; LVIII. 3,4).

(B) 

Do the angels know all things?

No, for their nature is finite; God alone knows all things because He is infinite (LIV. 1, 2, 3).

Do they know the totality of creatures? 

Yes; for their nature of pure spirit demands that this be so (LV. 2).

Do the angels know all that passes in the external world? 

Yes. For the ideas in their minds manifest to them these things according as the latter come into being (ibid.)

Do they know our secret thoughts? 

No. For these thoughts depend on our free will, and thereby are not necessarily linked up with external events (LVII. 4).

Is there no means at all whereby the angels can know our secret thoughts? 

Yes. Our secret thoughts can become known to them by the revelation of God, or by the person himself revealing them (ibid.).

Do the angels know the future?

No, unless God reveal it to them (LVII. 3). 

What kind of love is connatural to the angels? 

Connaturally there is in the angels a perfect love of God, love of themselves and of all creatures unless sin, in the supernatural order, does not denaturalize what is free in their love in the natural order (LX.).

(Next  - IX. OF THE CREATION OF THE ANGELS)

Pegues OP, R P Thomas. Catechism of the "Summa Theologica" of Saint Thomas Aquinas for the Use of the Faithful (pp. 50-53). Veritatis Splendor Publications. Kindle Edition. )

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