Angels contemplate the divine perfection of God, as they bask in the eternal sun of heavenly delights. They offer praise, prayers, and good deeds of mortals. They plead the cause of human beings against evils, offering in their favor the Precious Blood of Jesus. This ministry is exercised above all by the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones, being the closest to God in the celestial kingdom.
Here on earth, we can say that angels are represented in these high functions, albeit in an imperfect manner, by those souls who consecrate their existence to the praise and glory of God. To consecrate themselves to glorify God and cultivate the soul, to meditate on its greatness, its perfection, it is necessary to reproduce the life of heaven on earth.
It means leading the life of angels who praise the creator continually and who will praise Him forever. The souls devoted to the contemplative life, although hidden in a cloistered convent, serve the Church and society. Through an austere life of prayer and good deeds, they obtain reparation in heaven for the sins of the world.
Angels contemplate the divine perfection
They offer God the Precious Blood of His Divine Son, to ask for grace and forgiveness for themselves and their loved ones. They pray for the sanctification of the nations and plead the cause of all. They invoke the beneficent wave of the Redeemer Blood upon the world which brings comfort and relief to suffering hearts and wounded souls.
The courtiers of God from the moment of their confirmation in grace find their joy in the contemplation of the Blessed Vision. This joy must have been greatly increased when Christ appeared in his Sacred Humanity and took his place at the right hand of the Father. From that moment on there must have been a renewed joy among the angels over every sinner who did penance and purified his soul in the Blood of the Lamb.
And what mouth could tell the glorious scene that took place in Heaven when, a few years later, Mary the Mother of God was assumed body and soul into heaven and proclaimed the Queen of angels? With what triumphant songs the angelic cohorts must have welcomed the humble Virgin whom the rebellious multitudes had refused to honor!
Whatever else the angels’ occupation may be, they never lose sight of God. They love Him and always sing love songs to Him. Their will is one with His and they are always full of joyful harmony in praising Him.
OH Angels of Heaven, shining servants of God who continually watch over us, we beseech you to intercede for us, so that we too may attain endless bliss and sing with you the eternal song of the Chosen one, praising the precious blood that we make you worthy of Heaven.
Possessing the morning knowledge, the Angels who dwelt faithful saw God face to face, were illuminated by His light, radiated by His intelligence, shining with His mysteries, His graces, His greatness. For every creature endowed with a spiritual nature, it is the absolute pinnacle of happiness since it returns it to its Creator who is its end and its reason for being.
Angels contemplate the divine perfection, all the aspirations of the spirit are filled to the hundredfold. It is not a question of a dissolution of the ego into divinity, as the philosophies of the Far East teach it, but of a personal joy without equal and without limits, still enhanced by an additional happiness: to see God glorified through oneself.
The angelic intelligence, and that of the blessed, is therefore perpetually filled without ever being satisfied by the vision of God. The capacity for love of the Angels is drunk in absolute Love. Their joy is in the highest. This contemplation and this happiness make them the holy creatures par excellence. Their only thought is to see the Glory and Love of the Creator manifest.
From this it follows that the Angels are the perfect worshipers, overflowing with love and self-denial, also ready to renounce their bliss if this renunciation could increase the glory of the Beloved. This scruple of divine glorification gives the angelic world an additional source of joy, called accidental bliss.
Because, although already perfect and maximum, angelic happiness is increased every time God is glorified on earth. The victory achieved by Christ over the powers of darkness, the conversion of sinners, the triumphs of the Saints and Martyrs excite the Angels and push them to help humanity with all their power in its fight against Satan. This accidental bliss will not reach its fullness until the day of the Last Judgment when God’s plan is fulfilled and His glory manifested.
Angels contemplate and rejoice in the good
But if the Angels rejoice in the good that is done on earth, how would they not be desolated by the evil that is done there? And, if this evil can afflict them, how could their happiness be perfect?
St. John of the Cross solves this dilemma in a way that may at first seem misleading, almost scandalous – Angels understand the effects of evil better than anyone else, without feeling any pain, and they detach themselves from works of mercy without feeling distressed compassion.
Thus, whatever the atrocities that take place in the world, the Angels see them without revolt, nor anger, without sadness nor painful compassion. Should it be said that they are insensitive, indifferent, cruel? In no way. It belongs to men to experience these feelings of helplessness, regret, and angry astonishment in front of the incredible divine patience in tolerating crimes and blasphemies.
And they try them because they don’t understand what place evil can hold in God’s plan. The Angels are informed of all that God did, does, and will do, they know the purpose of everything.
God tolerates evil because it is the ratio of freedom. Not wanting His creatures to be slaves, He has given them the opportunity to choose the revolt of sin from which all the misery of the world descends. But, from this misery, He intends to extract a sovereign good that remains hidden from our fleshly eyes. St Paul, faced with the persecution unleashed against the first Christians, confidently stated: All things are for the good of those who love God.