Worship God, not angels; Angels: Day 144

Last updated on: December 12, 2016 at 3:30 am by Pete Socks

Worship God, not angels; Angels: Day 144 2016-12-05T20:46:57-05:00 Pete Socks

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St. Augustine explains why we don’t worship angels. Just as Paul and Barnabas refused to be worshiped when pagan Greeks tried to pay them divine honors, so the good angels have only one desire: to lead us to God. The only angels who desired worship were the ones who were cast out of Heaven.

See what holy men do—men who are like the angels. If you find some holy man who serves God and try to worship him instead of God, he won’t let you. He refuses to take the honor due to God for himself. He doesn’t want to be like God to you, but to be under God with you. This is what the holy Apostles Paul and Barnabas did.

These good men refused to be worshiped by people who wanted to treat them as gods. They insisted that only God could be worshiped. Only God could be adored. Only God could be offered sacrifices.

In the same way, the holy angels seek only the glory of the God they love. They try to lead and prompt everyone they love to contemplate God. Because they are messengers, they bring God’s message, not their own. And because they are soldiers, they seek only the glory of their Captain. If they seek their own glory, they’re condemned as usurpers. That’s what happened to the devil and his angels: he claimed divine honor for himself and all his demons. He filled pagan temples and persuaded people to make him idols and sacrifice to him. –St. Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 97, 10

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Am I allowing the angels who surround me to lead me to God?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, teach me to trust that your holy angels desire only to lead me to you, and let me desire to follow where they lead.

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