Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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Abraham Encounters
Three Angels
I suggest that God's infinite love and infinitely creative intellect
will always find a way to protect the just, even when others try to
use His laws to achieve their own evil purposes.
Keep all this in mind as the story of Redemption unfolds and you see how God
decided to send His own Son to become a man and foil Satan's nefarious plan for
world domination. Can anyone be more creative than that?
We know (through revelation of Scripture and through the teachings of our
Church) that God created man and the angels with free will … the freedom to
make informed choices … and to determine for themselves the course of their
actions.
God makes laws and sets limits on our behavior, but He does this out of concern
for our welfare, not out of a desire to be a dictator. God never forces anyone to do
anything. This often leads to problems, but it certainly makes life more interesting!
A world without free will would be like a collection of organic robots programmed to
perform only a very limited number of tasks, in a carefully controlled environment.
You may not realize it, but I've just described the animal kingdom. Pets certainly
are nice. They're beautiful creatures. But, lacking free will they cannot provide the
high level of intellectual and spiritual companionship that God evidently had in
mind for us.
People also ask, "Why is there no
redemption (second chance) for the
rebellious angels, but only for man?
Another good question! Again, there is no
complete answer, but we do know that
angels are superior in wisdom, knowledge
and power to man. They are pure spirits. It is
not possible for an angel to be "conned" or
"hoodwinked" in the same manner that Adam
was.
Angelic choices are made by a fully informed,
supernatural intellect. Hence, a decision,
once made, is irrevocable, eternally unchanging
and wholly reflective of their fidelity (or lack of it) to
God's rule. The dimension of time also likely applies differently to angels, who
probably spend most of their existence in eternity. Can an eternal mind change?
Man's limited intellect and lower, earthly, temporal existence (relative to the
angels) may be the reason (other than the grace and mercy of God) that we
warranted a Redeemer and the angels did not.
After all, a (fairly weak) case could be made that Adam might never have sinned if
he hadn't been persuaded to do so by means of a fallen angel's supernatural
powers.
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