Episode 36

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This is the Catholic Frequency Podcast . Visit our website at catholicfrequency.com . There, you can sign up for our free newsletter to receive a weekly devotion.
We know that God created everything, and he created the angels to play a big role in the cosmic struggle between good and evil. Throughout history, angels have delivered messages, protected humans, and wrestled demons.
Their role in salvation history fascinates us, and they fascinated Saint Thomas Aquinas as well. Let's dig into his ideas. What did Thomas Aquinas think about angels in his writings? He wrote about them in his great work, the Summa Theologica. And on today's podcast, we're gonna share 20 key ideas or thoughts from Saint Thomas Aquinas about angels.
His first, of course, is that angels are created by God. They are creatures. Created by God is part of the divine order of creation. The next idea, he posits that there is an organized hierarchy with different orders, the seraphim, the cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, and angels. Immortality is an angelic quality.
Thomas Aquinas said that they are immortal, and they do not experience death or decay. He also did a lot of thinking about their intellect, their will. They do possess intellect far superior to humans. They have will that allows them to know and love god. When it came to their essence, Thomas Aquinas said angels are pure spirit, purely spiritual beings without physical bodies and composed of form, spiritual essence without matter.
A few minutes ago, we mentioned he had thoughts about the hierarchy of angels, how they relate to each other. And we touched on his belief that, of course, angels are created, and they have immortality. But he still calls them, quote, finite beings. So so they're not equal to god. God is far above the angels and everything, of course.
There's another concept of the angels that comes from the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. We'll describe it as the impeccability of the blessed angels, that the angels had free will to follow God or follow Lucifer who fell and became Satan, that the angels who remained faithful to God, the blessed angels, cannot sin because they are confirmed in grace. They did face a choice, but the ones who made the right choice can never sin again, confirmed in grace. This, of course, leads Thomas Aquinas to believe what we believe today in Catholic teaching, that Lucifer was an angel who rebelled against God, became the devil, and all the other angels became demons. Going back to the superiority of angels, he thought about their knowledge.
And Thomas Aquinas said they have intuitive knowledge, that they understand things immediately without the need for reason. Human beings have to reason, have to think, have to come to a conclusion. Angels don't have that. They have intuitive knowledge, immediate understanding. Now because they lack bodies, Aquinas said they do not have sensory perception.
What they have is intellectual illumination. Perhaps this most comforting thought to Christians today about angels is the idea of a guardian angel. He said, or he wrote, that each human being is assigned a guardian angel to guide and protect them. How do angels communicate? Aquinas said through an angelic language.
They communicate with one another and with humans through intellectual illumination, not through a physical language like we use as humans here on earth. Angels have a job to do. Angels are sent by God to carry out specific tasks, such as delivering messages or aiding humans. Of course, the most famous example of this would be the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel said, Hail Mary, full of grace. Angels have an incredible speed.
In fact, Aquinas argued they can move instantaneously because they're not bound by physical limitations. They don't have a physical body. Angels are not confined to space, but they can be present in a place by their power and their action. Do angels love? Yes.
According to Aquinas, angels love god and other beings according to their nature, and their love is directed by their intellect. Names. They have names. Now we know just a few of them. Right?
Michael, Gabriel, Raphael. The names of the angels reflect their roles and missions. For example, Michael. That name means who is like God. Angels have a role in salvation history.
The Annunciation. Assisting in spiritual battles. Like all of us, they have a mission. Angels fascinate us, and they fascinated one of history's greatest intellects, the one they call the angelic doctor himself. So as we ponder on these incredible creatures, let's thank God that he created the angels to help us on our path of salvation.
You've been listening to the Catholic Frequency podcast. Visit us online at catholicfrequency.com. You can support our mission if you wanna help us make more episodes by subscribing on x or on our newsletter, catholicfrequency.substack.com. You can sign up for free there, but you can also support us financially.

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