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| The angels as they receive the decree from the Lord |
Even though the angels were created in the midst of glory, the
Divinity itself was not to be made manifest to them face to face, until they
should have merited such a favour by obeying the divine will. The angels, in
their creation were in the state of probation. God proposed to them the good
and the bad, truth and falsehood, justice and injustice, divine grace and
friendship as opposed to sin and enmity of God. They saw the eternal reward and
eternal punishment. The most high God showed them hell and its pains. They saw
it all. So before falling from grace with which they were created, they were
clearly aware of the place of their punishment. The Most High had therefore justified his
cause and proceeded with the greatest equity and justice.
Within
this period of probation, the decree of
the Lord was made known to them. First the will of God, and the law and command
was given them, to acknowledge Him as their Maker and supreme Lord, and to fulfill
the end for which they had been made.
Secondly,
the angels were informed that God was to create a human nature, so that they
too should love, fear and reverence God. They were told that these were to
stand in high favour, and that the second Person of the blessed Trinity was to
become incarnate and assume their nature, raising it to the hypostatic union
and to divine Personality; that therefore they were to acknowledge Him as their
Head, not only as God, but as God and man, adoring Him and reverencing Him as
Godman. They understood also that they themselves had been, and all the rest of
the creatures should be created for his glory, and that He was to be their Head.
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| Good beautiful angels listening to the decree of the lord |
A
third precept was given them, namely, that they were to admit as a superior
conjointly with Him, a Woman, in whose womb the Only begotten of the Father was
to assume flesh and that this Woman was to be the Queen and Mistress of all the
creatures. These commands were at once given to the angels. The good angels
obeyed this command of the Lord with humility, praising the power and the
mysteries of the Most High. Lucifer, however, and his confederates, rose to a
higher pitch of pride and boastful insolence. In disorderly fury he aspired to
be himself the head of the entire human race and of the angelic orders, and if
there was to be a hypostatic union (two
nature in one; the nature of God and the nature of man), he demanded that it be
consummated in him.
The
decree constituting him inferior to the Mother of Christ, he opposed with
horrible blasphemies. Turning against God in unbridled indignation and calling
upon the other angels, those who listened to his bad advice, he exhorted them,
saying:
“Unjust are these commands and injury is
done to my greatness; this human nature which Thou, Lord, lookest upon with so
much love and which thou favorest so highly, I will persecute and destroy. To
this end I will direct all my power and all my aspirations. And this Woman,
Mother of the Word, I will hurl from the position in which Thou hast proposed
to place Her, and at my hands, the plan, which Thou settest up, shall come to
naught.”
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| Lucifer calling upon the other angels, looking at his beauty considered himself as the greatest and boasted to the Lord |
This proud boast so aroused the indignation of
the Lord that in order to humble it, He spoke to Lucifer saying:
“This Woman, whom thou refusest to honour,
shall crush thy head and by Her shalt thou be vanquished and annihilated (Gen.
3, 15). And if, through thy pride, death enters into the world (Wis. 2, 24),
life and salvation of mortals shall enter through the humility of this Woman.
Those that are of the nature and likeness of that Man and Woman shall enjoy the
gifts and the crowns, which thou and thy followers have lost.”
