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Dear Father Joe
Where did we get all the angel stories?
College meals are generally unpopular with
those who have to eat them - and sometimes
with good reason.
“What kind of pie do you call this?” asked
one student indignantly.
“What’s it taste like?” asked the cook.”
“Glue!”
“Then it’s apple pie - the plum pie tastes
like soap.”
This question offers
us a chance to see how the Catholic Church
puts together much of her theology. For this
article, I’m relying heavily on the Catholic
Encyclopedia. It’s a great resource, and you
can look at it on the Internet at the site
www.newadvent.org. I suggest the sections on
Satan, St. Michael, St. Thomas Aquinas,
sacred tradition, the church Fathers and
college football. Well, maybe not that last
one...
Anyway, let’s get right to it.
Most Catholic theology can be traced to the
Scripture and the commentaries of our great
thinkers about those passages. I know I’ve
typed a lot about this before, but to quote
Father Isidore Mikulski (the king of the Q&A
column), the Bible is the child, not the
parent.
For Catholics, the Bible does not
necessarily address every theological
question, and we don’t believe God intended
it to be used that way. Instead, God gave us
the wisdom of our church leaders, who use
sacred tradition and the great minds and
hearts God gave them to guide us into truth.
It’s actually an easy idea to see when you
think about it; you know how everyone is
talking about the new “gospels” that keep
popping up? Most of those have been around
since the third and fourth century. So, the
logical question is “Who picked the four
that we use and discarded the other bunch?”
Our church leaders did, acting under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit and the
teachings that were given to them by the
earliest followers of Jesus. That’s true of
a lot of our theology and a very important
point for us Catholics.
So, when we ask what happened to the angels
and how we know it, we start with the Bible,
and then look at what God revealed to us
when holy men and women pondered what the
Bible said.
Let’s look to the Bible first. Here are some
passages that will help us:
By the envy of the Devil, death came into
the world - Wisdom 2:24
How have you fallen from the heavens, O
morning star, son of the dawn! How are you
cut down to the ground, you who mowed down
the nations! You said in your heart: “I will
scale the heavens; above the stars of God I
will set up my throne; I will take my seat
on the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of
the North. I will ascend above the tops of
the clouds; I will be like the Most High!”
Yet down to the nether world you go to the
recesses of the pit! - Isaiah 14: 12-15
The angels too, who did not keep to their
own domain but deserted their proper
dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains, in
gloom, for the judgment of the great day. -
Jude 1:6
Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and
his angels battled against the dragon. The
dragon and its angels fought back, but they
did not prevail and there was no longer any
place for them in heaven. The huge dragon,
the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil
and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was
thrown down to earth, and its angels were
thrown down with it. - Revelation 12:7-9
These are, obviously, just some of the
passages that the church uses to teach us
what happened, but I think they give us a
good foundation.
The next step is to look at who commented on
these passages. First, we can look at some
individual saints. St. Thomas Aquinas was a
big one here; under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, St. Thomas used his massive
intellect (I wish I knew that burden) and
broke down how it all happened. Using the
stories that the Bible gave us as a
foundation, he built our current theological
house of teachings on angels, demons, free
will and others.
St. Anselm also asked a lot of the tough
questions in his pondering on these matters
and gave us some really powerful ideas about
the sin of pride from it.
Church councils and documents give us a lot
of wisdom on these matters. If you take a
look at your catechism, you’ll find
footnotes that direct you to documents
dealing with these issues.
So, in the end, this question demonstrates
how deeply interconnected our faith is and
how God calls us to use (in the words of
Pope John Paul II) our “faith and reason” to
grow in wisdom of God.
Enjoy another day in God’s presence!
- Father Joseph Krupp
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