We can be almost angels – if we want; Angels: Day 261

Last updated on: April 10, 2017 at 3:30 am by Pete Socks

We can be almost angels – if we want; Angels: Day 261 2017-04-01T20:33:11-05:00 Pete Socks

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What if you found an enormous diamond—but you threw it away because you thought it was a doorknob? Wouldn’t that be a huge loss to you? In the same way, says St. John Chrysostom, you’re missing an enormous treasure if you don’t realize what your human nature is capable of.

The devil was incorporeal, but he became a lion—look, it says, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

But we were corporeal, and we become angels.

If someone should find some precious metal, and not care about it at all because he’s not a craftsman, it would be a great loss to him—or if he should see pearls, or a pearl shell, or any other thing of that sort. In the same way, if we are ignorant of our own nature, we won’t care about it at all—but if we know what it is, we’ll work hard and reap enormous profits. From this nature a king’s robe is made—and a king’s palace, and a king’s members. We’re all kingly.

So let us not misuse our nature and do ourselves harm that way. He has made us a little lower than the angels (Ps. 8:5)—lower, I mean, because of death, but even that little we have now recovered. So there is nothing to keep us from becoming near to the angels if we want. Let’s want it! Let’s want it, and having given it our best effort, let us give honor to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, world without end. Amen. –St. John Chrysostom, Homily 32 on Acts

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do my desires tend to focus on money or success? How can I focus them on becoming near to the angels?

CLOSING PRAYER

Glory to you, O Lord—glory to you for your unutterably precious gift of a human nature capable of being made equal to the angels.

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