9/29/2020 5:37:07 AM
"War broke out in heaven : Michael and his angels battled against the Dragon" (Rv 12:7)
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Saint John-Paul II
Pope from 1978 to 2005
General Audience of 23/07/1986 (trad. DC no. 1924 p. 798)
"War broke out in heaven : Michael and his angels battled against the Dragon" (Rv 12:7)
In the perfection of their spiritual nature, angels are called from the beginning, by virtue of their intelligence, to know the truth and love the good, which is known to them in a far fuller and more perfect way than is possible to humans. This love is the act of a will that is free (…), which means having the possibility to make a choice for or against the Good, namely God Himself. Here we must repeat what, whenever opportune, we have already mentioned concerning the human creature: by creating free beings God willed that in this world an authentic love should be realized such as is only made possible on the basis of freedom. He has thus willed that the creature formed in the image and likeness of its Creator (Gn 1:26) should become as completely like him, like God, who “is love” (1Jn 4:16) – as is possible. By creating these pure spirits as free beings, God, in His Providence, could not fail to foresee the possibility of angelic sin. But precisely because Providence is an eternal, loving Wisdom, God knows how to draw out of the history of this sin (…) the ultimate good of the whole created universe. In fact, as Revelation clearly states, the world of pure spirits appeared divided into good and evil (…) What are we to make of such an opposition? (…) The Fathers of the Church and theologians do not hesitate to speak of a “blindness” produced by over-evaluating the perfection of their own being so far as to conceal the supremacy of God who, to the contrary, demands acts of docile, obedient submission. All this would seem to be concisely expressed in the words: “I will not serve!” (Jr 2:20), manifesting a radical, irreversible refusal to participate in building up the Kingdom of God within the created world. Satan, the rebellious spirit, wants his own reign not that of God, and sets himself up as the Creator's chief adversary by opposing Providence and as an antagonist of God's loving wisdom. Out of Satan's rebellion and sin, as also from that of man, we must draw our conclusion, accepting the wise experience of Scripture when it affirms: “Arrogance is the cause of ruin” (cf. Tb 4:13).