Fra Angelico – San Domenico Altarpiece – Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven, 1423-30.1
Holy Scriptures are full of mentions of Angels and Archangels who are in God’s presence and minister to men. Thank God our lives are also filled with the Angels’ presence; too bad we cannot see them.
Today’s reading from Daniel shows the majesty of Angels in the throne of God: Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads attended him, something like what we see in the painting above by Fra Angelico.
Psalm 138 reminds us of what our worship will be like in heaven: In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord, but this can certainly be anticipated on earth, particularly in the liturgy.
In the gospel of John Christ tells Nathaniel, Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. The angels can be our instructors in teaching us how to worship the Son of God, Christ, the Incarnate Word.
The Necessity
I will share with you a short article of Aquinas showing the necessity of the existence of Angels as purely spiritual beings. It’s not an easy one but it will make us think and appreciate the beauty and perfection of God’s creation who has made Angels and men to love and glorify Him. St Thomas begins with a quote from Psalm 103: 4, God “makes His angels spirits.” Then he continues:
“There must be some incorporeal creatures. For what is principally intended by God in creatures is good, and this consists in assimilation to God Himself. And the perfect assimilation of an effect to a cause is accomplished when the effect imitates the cause according to that whereby the cause produces the effect; as heat makes heat. Now, God produces the creature by His intellect and will. Hence the perfection of the universe requires that there should be intellectual creatures. Now intelligence cannot be the action of a body, nor of any corporeal faculty; for every body is limited to “here” and “now.” Hence the perfection of the universe requires the existence of an incorporeal creature.” Here’s the reason for the existence of these purely spiritual beings.
Angels remind us of spiritual realities: not everything here on earth is about material things. They make us anticipate in thought the joy of Heaven. As we celebrate the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels, let us ask the Queen of Angels, our Blessed Mother, to worship her Son as the Angels do, with an angel-like devotion.
God bless you all,
Fr. Marcelo Javier Navarro Muñoz, IVE
Author: The Contribution of Cornelio Fabro to Fundamental Theology. Reason and Faith, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9315-2 Poesía Sacra, Quemar las Naves, and Desde Fossanova, IVE Press: https://ivepress.org/
1 https://gallerix.org/storeroom/217683978/N/155035947/, accessed September 20, 2026.
