The Glories of the Holy Angels
Venerable Henri Boudon, Archdeacon of Evreux
MOTIVE NINTH & TENTH
The great helps the Holy Angels afford us at the Hour of Death & Devotion to the Holy Angels is a sign of predestination to singular glory in Heaven
If to a pagan philosopher death appeared of all terrible things the most terrible, in what light should it be viewed by a Christian, to whom God has revealed its consequences ? When a person thinks seriously, that on the moment of death depends a happy or miserable eternity, his heart must be obdurate indeed, if he be not struck with fear; for “if the just be scarcely saved, where will the sinner appear?” O Lord ! “ enter not into judgment with thy servant, for no one living can be justified in thy sight!” The holy abbot Agatho, being seized with trembling at his last hour, and his religious having asked him the cause—he replied, that though by the great mercy of God, his conscience did not reproach him with anything, yet that the divine judgments being very different from those of men, he was in great alarm. No wonder he should have felt so—all our good works being imperfect in the sight of the Divine Majesty. If the Angels succour us in this dread moment, do they not prove themselves our true friends? It is in the time of affliction a person knows a sincere friend; and behold in the hour of death, when all abandon us to our fate, when our body is consigned to the solitary tomb, and our soul goes to the house of its eternity, the Angels, faithful to their charge, never depart from us.
—Our Lord once revealed, that souls devoted to the Angels during life shall receive extraordinary helps from them at the hour of death. And it is most just that the King of kings should thus evince his sense of the honours paid to his courtiers. Oh! blessed are those who by their love for and devotion to the Angels, and submission to the holy lessons which they have inspired, find themselves encompassed with their protection at the last hour, as with “a tower of defence.”
Woe to those, who have seldom thought Heaven ! How many say, that they care not, provided they may be in Heaven at all, what place they hold there. No doubt, the last place there is too high for persons who once deserved an everlasting hell; but since our merciful God calls us to aspire after the highest, it would betray great baseness of soul to be indifferent about it.
Be ambitious of the better gifts says the Holy Ghost. St. Teresa and St. Francis Borgia declared, that for one sole degree of increased glory in heaven, they would consent to burn in the flames of Purgatory till the day of judgment. These enlightened souls well knew its excellence—whereas we are incapable of discerning it, our sight being obscured by the vapours of flesh and blood. If it be asked, are not all the blessed perfectly content?—we reply, they are—but their joy is not equal. As one star differs from another in brightness, so the resurrection of the dead. The great spiritualist, Thaulerus, says, that there is more difference between one of the blessed who holds the first rank in the celestial empire, and another in an inferior degree, than between a mighty sovereign and an abject peasant. This should excite us to great and noble exertions, although there were no other motive than that by our greater glory and happiness God will be more glorified eternally. One sole degree of the glory of God would cause a soul who truly loves him to endure ten thousand deaths; and here it is not only one degree there is question of, but as many as there are moments in that eternity which is to be the term of our happiness.
Devotion to the Angels contributes wonderfully to the perfection of divine love, and consequently to the increase of glory in Heaven. These holy Spirits are all fire, and it is impossible to approach them often, without catching fire and participating in their ardours. If, with the Saints, we become sanctified— with the Angels, we are rendered celestial.
When St. Teresa was about to enter a more perfect life, a celestial voice said to her, that she should no longer hold converse with men, but with Angels. If intercourse with men be an obstacle to sanctity, familiarity with the Angels helps to our progress in it. Thus the greatest Saints have been the most devoted to the Angels. Let us endeavour to become so too, and we shall speedily advance in the ways of true sanctity, and enjoy in Heaven an eminent degree of glory.
