The Nine Choirs It is not precisely an article of faith that there are just nine choirs of angels, no more, no less, and yet in the face of the great unanimity of the Fathers on this point, it would be rash to think otherwise. As for the arrangement of the choirs in the different hierarchies, there is indeed a certain discrepancy, but the order in which they have been given in the preceding chapter is that which is followed by Saint Denis (Dionysius) of the Pseudo-Areopagite, the great authority of our subject, as well as by Saint John Damascene, Saint Thomas, and Suarez, if not by the majority of modern theologians. We shall consider them in that order one by one. Angels According to this arrangement the first or lowest hierarchy is made up of the angels, the archangels, and the principalities. The angels being the least perfect – that is to say, when compared with the higher orders, for in themselves they are far greater and more perfect than anything that we are familiar with – are called by the generic name, which is taken from the function that is common to all the angels, of whom Saint Paul says that “all are ministering spirits.” Considered in general, such ministry does not imply any special perfection, and hence the name angel which is derived from it, while applicable to all, is especially suited to those who have no pre-eminence in their ministry, even as they have none in their natures. These are the angels of the first or lowest choir, from whom, it is thought, our guardian angels are regularly chosen, and who from time to time are sent as messengers to private individuals. Archangels The second choir of the first hierarchy is that of the archangels. The name implies a certain superiority in the ministerial office, and hence it may be used of all the higher orders, but not of the lowest. As such superiority in the office of ministering is the least pre-eminence that can be attributed to the holy angels when compared with one another, the name archangel is reserved in a special manner for the least of the higher orders, that is to say, for the second choir of the lowest hierarchy. The name does not, as it would seem, imply any authority over the angels of the inferior choir, but only a greater degree of dignity in the ministry which they exercise. For whereas the angels are deputed for the guardianship of private individuals, the archangels have care of personages of exalted rank, such as kings, pontiffs and other rules; and whereas angels are employed for the bestowal of personal favours on ordinary people, archangels are the agents in the case of benefits affecting the public at large, and in all matters of graver moment. Principalities The foremost place in the first hierarchy is assigned by Saint Denis (Dionysius) or his namesake, and the majority of theologians following him, to the choir of the principalities. In all that appertains to the salvation of mankind, whether it be question of persons of rank or of low degree, of individuals or communities, they have authority over the angels and archangels and are the intermediaries through whom the divine will is intimated to them. It is likely, too, that certain principalities have immediate care of more important states or kingdoms as well as of more influential princes and bishops; and hence when mention is made of “the prince of the Persians,” and “the prince of the Greeks,” (Daniel 10:20) the word prince is to be understood strictly as referring to one of this particular choir of angels, and not to an angel of some one of the higher orders generally. And if we understand the term in the same way, when we read, “Behold Michael, one of the chief princes” (Daniel 10:13), it would seem to follow that in the battle where “Michael and his angels fought with the dragon,” (Apocalypse 12:7) the principalities are chiefly meant, as having played the main part in that momentous conflict. Not that the angels and archangels are excluded from their share in it, but that they fight under the leadership of the principalities and of Michael their chief, whose role is loftier and more necessary than their own. Powers We come now to the second hierarchy of the holy angels, and here the first or lowest place is commonly assigned to the powers. It is not easy to see just in what their office differs from that of the principalities, but we may say with Saint Denis (Dionysius) or his namesake, that in the spiritual warfare waged by the demons against the human race, the planning and directing of the campaign whereby their designs are frustrated, belongs to the powers, and the execution thereof to the three inferior choirs, each according to its grade. Saint Gregory furthermore assigns to the powers a special efficacy in curbing the demons, who are forced to submit to their authority. Nor is their power over the demons indirect, but it is exercised directly by way of command, constraint and, if need be, by confining them in fetters. Virtues The Greek name for the virtues, who compose the second choir of the second hierarchy, is the word from which our adjective dynamic is derived, and implies force or energy. Who is not familiar with the terrific energy displayed by dynamite, or with the uses of the dynamo, the name of which are words of the same origin? Virtue on the other hand, is a word of Latin derivation, and although we most commonly associate it with moral qualities and moral excellence (as when we speak of the virtue of humility, or of a man of tried virtue) yet the word, even in English, sometimes is employed of mere physical qualities. Thus we say that there is a virtue in certain herbs; and so in Latin, doubtless by an abuse of the term, as Cicero observes, the worth or value even of an irrational object, as a horse or tree, is called virtus. In Holy Scripture, and particularly in the New Testament, this use is quite common, and the Latin word virtutes is rendered in our version by miracles or mighty works. The virtues, then, are those blessed spirits whom God commonly employs for the working of signs and miracles, that is, for whatever is outside the regular order of events established by Providence, as often as the government and preservation of the human race may call for some extraordinary effect. It would not be necessary that in such cases their intervention should be recognized. Men might not be away that anything preternatural has happened, and yet as such circumstances may frequently arise, it need not surprise us that one of the heavenly choirs is specially deputed for this purpose, without preventing the occasional employment of angels of the higher or lower orders, for such extraordinary effects. Dominations The dominations hold the highest place among the angels of the second hierarchy. They resemble the principalities in this, that as the latter not only hold the highest place in the lowest hierarchy, but enjoy a certain precedence over angels and archangels, with authority to direct them, so the dominations are supreme over all the blessed spirits of the inferior choirs; and without being directly occupied with any functions having for their end the government of the world or of the human race, they exercise a high control over the ministry of the lower angels, directing them in the discharge of their offices, but in away which it is difficult to explain without seeming to identify their functions with those of the principalities or powers. One thing we can say of them with certainty: their names reflect the mystery which surrounds their nature and their functions. It implies a loftier order of intelligences than those previously described – a class of beings whose striking characteristic is an extraordinary elevation in the duties that fall to them, and a corresponding freedom from restraint in their discharge. Thrones We now come to the most exalted hierarchy. It is made up of angels whose part it is to form the court of the heavenly King, to stand forever in His presence, and to sing incessantly His praises. They are not occupied with the government of the world, and are not commonly sent as messengers to men. For this reason it is hard for us to say precisely by what they are distinguished one from another, and in what the peculiar excellence and dignity of each consists. We cannot explain these, as in the case of the inferior choirs, by pointing out the part that is assigned to each in the management of human affairs. We can only illustrate them by the relationship in which these mighty spirits stand to God Himself, and as this is something truly sublime, our explanation will necessarily be unsatisfactory and obscure. There is no doubt that God dwells not only in all the holy angels, but also in all the blessed in heaven, and in all the just on earth, who are His temples through sanctifying grace. For grace effects, as Suarez observes, a sort of substantial union with God, and they into whom He thus enters become, as it were, the seats whereon His Majesty is enthroned. Nevertheless, the name thrones is not unsuited to serve as a distinctive term whereby to designate one of the highest orders of the holy angels. For, in the first place, the word describes these blessed spirits in their immediate relationship to God and through their union with Him, and thus at once exalts them above all the lower choirs whom we name with reference to this or that external ministry. Again it sufficiently distinguishes them from the second and third choirs of their own hierarchy. For although the cherubim and seraphim are also the abode of Infinite Majesty, and though God is enthroned in them even more perfectly than in the lowest choir, yet the name thrones, as expressing an habitual rather than an actual perfection, is less apt to denote the excellence of the higher natures, than cherubim and seraphim, terms which imply the exercise of that perfection through the acts of knowledge and love. Hence the name thrones is appropriated to the inferior choir. It expresses, then, a certain aptitude and fitness on the part of those glorious spirits to become the dwelling of the Most High, and the seat of His Majesty. It implies a disposition on their part of wondrous purity and detachment, which prepares them to be as thrones, whereon God sits, and whence His Majesty shines forth, whilst He rules and passes judgement on His creatures. Cherubim The cherubim are mentioned more frequently in Holy Writ than any other of the celestial choirs, with the exception perhaps of the angels, which, after all, is a generic term. The cherubim are, besides, the first of the holy angels to be named in the sacred pages. For, at the end of the third chapter of Genesis we are told that after casting Adam forth from the Garden of Eden, the Lord “placed before the paradise of pleasure cherubim, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” It is true that some commentators think that here the name is used in a broad sense, and that the angels deputed to guard the earthly paradise were of the choir of the principalities, whose place it is to watch over kingdoms or provinces; or of the powers, as having special authority to curb the evil spirits. The reason they are here called cherubim would then be the fullness of knowledge which the name signifies, and which, in an inferior sense, belongs to all the angels. On the other hand, it would be most appropriate that they who had sinned, as our first parents did, through an inordinate desire of knowledge, should be restrained and deterred by those possessed of true and surpassing knowledge. This explanation may not satisfy, but to take the name cherubim in a broad sense is still less satisfactory, where it is used by the Prophet Ezechiel, in setting before us the details of his wonderful vision. (Ezechiel 10) If we do so, with some writers, we leave ourselves without certain scriptural warrant for asserting the existence of a distinct choir of cherubim. The name does also occur, it is true, in an earlier passage, in the description of the temple (3 Kings 6). The form under which the cherubim are there described, corresponds substantially with the description given by Ezechiel and so, these writers argue, if the name need not be taken strictly in the latter place, there appears to be no good reason why it should be taken strictly in the former. It is a familiar image, often met with in the inspired writers, under which God is portrayed as sitting upon the cherubim. It takes us back to the days when the Israelites were still wandering in the wilderness under the guidance of the great law-giver, Moses. In the directions which God gave to him for the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, a chief feature was the propitiatory, or mercy-seat, which was to cover the ark. Over it Moses was commanded to set two cherubim of beaten gold, spreading their wings and looking one toward the other, and at the same time toward the mercy-seat. It was from the midst of the cherubim thus, as it were, protecting the propitiatory, that God promised to speak to Moses and to deliver to him His commands for the children of Israel; and that is why the propitiatory was also called the oracle. In later times it fell to Solomon’s lot to build to the Lord a permanent dwelling, the Temple of Jerusalem, and he built it with a munificence worthy of himself and of the high purpose to which it was dedicated. Instead of a propitiatory such as Moses constructed, two cubits and a half in length, and one cubit and a half in breadth, which merely covered the ark from end to end, Solomon erected in the inner part of the Temple, the House of the Oracle, twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in height, and overlaid it with the purest gold. Then he caused two cherubim of heroic size to be made of olive wood and he set them above the oracle, one on either side. As they stood there, with outstretched wings, like sentinels guarding the propitiatory, they measured each ten cubits in height and ten cubits in from the extremity of one wing to the extremity of the other, and were so placed that the inner wings touched one another. And when all was ready, “the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the oracle of the temple, and into the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim.” (3 Kings 8:6) What, then, is the meaning of this symbolism? Why does God choose, when addressing His people, to speak to them from out of the midst of the cherubim “overshadowing the propitiatory” (Hebrews 9:5)? Why, in like manner, does He show His glory to Ezechiel “upon the chariot of cherubim” (Ecclesiasticus 49:10) The name cherubim is usually explained as signifying the fullness of knowledge and hence in Ezechiel’s vision, the strange forms which appeared to him and which he calls cherubim, were full of eyes. But God’s knowledge is infinitely above that of the highest of His creatures, and He it is who with wise providence rules all things, directing them by the ministry of the angels. They are under the God of Israel; “His glory went forth…and stood over the cherubim.” (Ezechiel 10:18) And because His providence is so swift, and extends to the farthest parts of the world, it is said of Him that “He ascended upon the cherubim and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds.” (Psalm 17:11) And so in the vision of Ezechiel, there are wheels and a chariot moving in all directions, and the cherubim are they who bear or guide the chariot of the Lord, which is equivalent to saying that God dwells in all heavenly minds, as upon the throne of His Majesty, and as supreme Monarch reigns over them, and through them governs all things with resistless energy. The answers which He gave to Moses from the mercy-seat, called also the oracle on that account, were only a particular revelation of the wisdom of God, as displayed in His general providence over His creatures. The word cherub (of which cherubim is the Hebrew plural) occurs in yet another striking passage of Holy Scripture, where the Prophet Ezechiel thus addresses Lucifer (for in the person of the King of Tyre, Lucifer is certainly intended): “Thou are a cherub stretched out, and protecting….” The allusion is to the appearance of the cherubim as designed for the mercy-seat, with outstretched wings protecting it, and the implication is that Lucifer was, by nature, of surpassing excellence as, as it were, a guardian to the rest. He is called, however, not a seraph, although it seems more likely that he was one of the highest of the seraphim; but a cherub, because while he retained the perfection of his natural knowledge, he had fallen away from love. Not, of course, as though the cherubim are lacking in divine love, which results from their transcendent knowledge of God, but because the latter is the characteristic which gives them their distinctive rank among the blessed spirits. Seraphim Highest of all the holy angels, on the loftiest pinnacle of heaven, stand the glorious seraphim. Apart from the human nature of the Incarnate Word, and that other masterpiece, God’s Blessed Mother, they are the most perfect creation of Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence. They are bright with a radiance which beyond all else, most powerfully and most wonderfully reflects the splendours of the infinite Godhead. The name itself, seraphim, is by some interpreted, “the exalted ones,” but the more common explanation connects it with a root which means “to consume with fire.” The flame with which they burn is that of love, and its effects are to enlighten and cleanse. When Isaias, in his great vision, beheld the Lord on the throne of His Majesty and heard the seraphim as they stood round about crying one to another, “Holy, holy , holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of His glory,” he was seized with fear at the thought of his own unworthiness and exclaimed, “Woe is me,…because I am a man of unclean lips,…and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts.” Then suddenly one of the seraphim flew towards him with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar of the temple, touched the prophet’s mouth, and said, “Behold, this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.” (Isaias 6) This refining flame of love is enkindled in the breasts of the seraphim by their clear vision of the Creator, whom they behold with a depth and penetration of view far greater than is enjoyed by any other of the sacred choirs; and yet it is love, not knowledge, which gives them their name and serves as their distinctive characteristic. That is because love supposes knowledge. It is knowledge which begets love, and the more ardent and intense is the love, the more profound is the knowledge from which it springs. On the other hand, the notion of knowledge does not of itself imply love, for knowledge may exist without producing love. And hence it is that to designate the most exalted of all the celestial choirs, the more inclusive term, love, is invoked to supply the name seraphim, while that of cherubim is appropriated to the one next in perfection. So closely associated with the highest order of angels is the idea of love, that we acclaim as a seraph one whose love we would commend as extraordinary in point of intensity and tenderness. Hence the epithet seraphic has become inseparable from the name of the lowly and gentle Saint of Assisi, and we even apply the term to the whole order of which he was the founder. For the same reason, that is, on account of the all-pervading spirit of love which animates his writings, we speak of Saint Bonaventure as the Seraphic Doctor. But it is not merely in the name that Saint Francis is associated with the seraphim. There is also that wonderful story – so beautifully and touchingly related by Saint Bonaventure – the story of the impression upon his hands and feet and side, of the sacred stigmata of Our Lord. For it was a glorious seraph with glittering wings all aflame who appeared to Francis, and as he descended to earth with rapid flight, Francis saw that his hands and feet were nailed to a cross. But as the Saint was deeply touched at this, and filled with tender sympathy, the angel explained to him that the representation was only symbolical, and that just as it was impossible for a seraph to experience physical pain, so it was not in the designs of God that Francis should be a martyr in the ordinary sense of the word, but that his likeness to his Crucified Savior was to be accomplished by the flames of love which should consume his soul. And yet as the vision left him, the sacred stigmata remained indelibly impressed upon his innocent flesh.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 03:31:00 +0000
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