Annotatio CXXVI

(The printed text misnumbers this annotation CXXVII, skipping CXXVI; it is corrected here to CXXVI, its proper place in the sequence — the following annotation on folio 571 is correctly numbered CXXVII in the source.)

”And the Lord being angry, said to Moses: Take all the princes of the people, and hang them up against the sun.” — Numbers 25:4

Origen, in homily 20 on Numbers, applying an allegorical interpretation to this passage, teaches that the angels, our guardians, are to be judged by God on the day of judgment — whether they have guarded us with accurate diligence or not — and will receive, for the care expended toward us (well or ill), either punishments or rewards, which now they themselves, anxious about their own salvation, await between hope and fear.¹ His words are these: “The angels will come to judgment with us, and will stand for us before the Sun of justice — lest perhaps something also of that which we do amiss be from them, lest perhaps they have expended less of work and labor toward us to recall us from the stain of sins. For unless there were also something in them which might seem blameworthy in our cause, Scripture would never say to the angel of this or that Church, ‘You who have, for example, certain [persons] holding the doctrine of Balaam’;² or, ‘Because you have forsaken your first charity,’³ or ‘your patience,’ or other things of this kind, for which, in the Apocalypse, the angels of each single Church are blamed. For if an Angel — for example, he who received me, sealed, from God, for the things which I have done well — hopes for a reward, it is certain that he will also fear to be blamed for the things which have been done ill by me; and therefore they are said to be ‘hung up against the Sun,’ that it may appear, without doubt, whether [these things] were committed through my disobedience, or through his negligence.” And in homily 24 on Numbers, expounding that [passage] from the 20th chapter of the same book, “The woman, if she shall know anything,” etc., repeating the same, he says: says: “We have often said that a care and administration is had, through the Angels, of the souls which are in the Church of God; and we have shown that these [Angels] too come to judgment together with men, so that by that divine examination it may be established whether men have sinned by their own sloth, or by the negligence of their monitors and guardians,” etc. Again, in homily 13 on Luke, narrating that [passage] from chapter 2, “There was made a multitude of the heavenly host,”⁴ etc., he treats the same thing more fully, writing thus: “If it is expedient to speak boldly, following the sense of the Scriptures, for each single Church there are two bishops: the one visible, namely a man; the other invisible, who is an Angel — the former manifest to the sight of the flesh, the latter to the [inward] sense. And in what manner [the man], if he has well administered the stewardship committed to him, is praised by the Lord, [and] if ill, is subject to fault and blame — so also the Angel. For it is written in the Apocalypse of John: but you have there a few names [of those] who have defiled this or that; and again you have there [those] who teach the doctrine of the Nicolaitans; and then you have those [others] committing this or that sin. And the Angels are accused, whose Churches have opposed [them]. But if the Angels have [such] solicitude how the Churches are governed, what need is there to speak of men — how great a fear they must have, that, laboring together with the laboring Angels, they may obtain salvation? I think that both an Angel and a man, [both] good, can be found together [as] Bishops of the Churches, and in a certain manner participants of one work: which since it is so, let us ask the omnipotent God that the Angels and the men [who are] bishops of the Churches may be a help to us; and let us know that both are judged by the Lord on our behalf. For if they be judged, and the fault and the sin be found not in their neglect but in our negligence, we shall be accused and punished; for when they do all things and strive for our salvation, we shall nonetheless not be free from our sins. Moreover it frequently happens that, while we labor, they do not fulfill their office, and are in fault.” Again in homily 35 on Luke, upon that [passage] of chapter 12, “When thou goest with thy adversary,”⁵ etc., he speaks these things more openly to the same sense, saying: “It is written elsewhere that double Angels attend a man, whether unto the good or unto the evil part. For of the good ones the Savior makes mention, saying, ‘Their Angels always see the face of the Father.’⁶ At the same time inquire whether the Angels of the little ones in the Church always see the face of the Father, and the Angels of the others have not liberty to attend upon the countenance of the Father: for neither is it to be hoped that the Angels of all see the face of the Father, who is in heaven. If I be of the Church — however least I may be — my Angel has liberty, and confidence, of always seeing the face of my Father; but if [I be] outside, and not of that Church which has not spot nor wrinkle, or any such thing, and I am reprobate [and] alien from such a congregation, my Angel has not confidence of looking upon the countenance of my Father, who is in heaven. For which cause the Angels are solicitous for the good, knowing that, if they govern us well and lead [us] through unto salvation, they too may have confidence of seeing the face of the Father. In what manner also, if through their care and industry salvation is procured for men, they always attend the face of the Father — so, if through their negligence a man falls, they are not ignorant that there is peril to themselves also. And as a good Bishop and the best steward knows it to be of his own merit and virtue if the sheep of the flock committed to him have been kept, so understand also concerning the Angels: it is a disgrace to an Angel if a just man committed to him has [nevertheless] sinned; as, on the contrary, it is a glory to an Angel if [even] the least [man] committed to him be [kept] in the Church. For they shall see the face of the Father, who is in heaven — not sometime, but always — while others shall never see [it]: for according to the merit of those whose Angels they are, the Angels shall contemplate the face of God either always, or never, or less, or more.”

Thus far Origen: to whose opinion Jerome seems to subscribe, in book 2 of the commentary on Micah, where, expounding those words of the 6th chapter of the same prophet,⁷ “Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains,” etc., he left this written: “By the mountains he signifies, I think, none other than the angels, to whom the administration of human affairs has been committed — the Canticle of Deuteronomy agreeing to the very same [point]:⁸ ‘When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the Angels of God.’ And contend in judgment, that — whether they be reckoned mountains or hills — it may appear that they have not worthily administered the peoples; or that it may seem to be my [charge], who have set forth such [rulers]; or that the fault may be taken away from the people and referred to the Angels. We read the Apocalypse of John, in which the Angels of the Churches are praised and accused for the virtues and vices of those over whom they are said to preside. For just as sometimes it is the Bishop’s fault, sometimes the people’s; and often the master sins, often the disciple; and sometimes it is the father’s fault, sometimes the son’s, that they are well or ill instructed — so in the judgment of God the crime is either referred to the Angels, if they have not done all the things which pertained to their office, or to the people, if — [the Angels] doing all things — they themselves have scorned to hear [them].” These things Jerome [spoke], more (as I judge) from another’s opinion than from his own.

Divus Thomas, in the first part of the Theological Summa, question 113,⁹ kindly and benevolently — as he is always wont — excusing the errors of the Fathers, says that Origen wished to infer nothing else from the aforesaid words, except that the Angels were to be brought into judgment for the sins of men — not indeed as defendants, but as witnesses,¹⁰ to convict the sloth of those who have neglected to acquiesce in the admonitions of the angels. Nor does that seem to be discordant from this pious interpretation of Thomas which Origen brought forth in homily 11 on Numbers, in these words: “Therefore each single one of the Angels will be present at the judgment in the consummation of the age, bringing forth with him those over whom he presided. And I think there will be an inquiry there also — not indeed whether the Angel was wanting to the care of the men, but whether the Angelic care met with no worthy response from human sloth.”