The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 55: The Fall of the Angels (2024)

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

Fr. Mike explores the fall of the angels, and how their fall leads to our own “fall into death out of envy.” Together, we examine what caused some of the angels to fall, whether it be pride or envy, and how it affects humanity's reality within creation. Fr. Mike concludes with a commentary on the mystery of why Divine Providence permits evil and the actions of the fallen angels. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 391-395. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism and the Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sure goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism and the Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together to our heavenly home. It is day 55, you guys, reading paragraphs 391 to 395 on the fall of the angels. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach. You can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism

of the Catholic Church. Also, to download your own Catechism in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. Also, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily notifications and updates. I wish you could even write a review. Maybe you could in likes things like Apple Podcasts. I think they allow reviews because then you know what it does is just says, hey, there's people think of this, this podcast. Also, a little quick thank you to all those who support the production of this podcast with prayers in financial support. I am so grateful We could not do this without you as I said it is day 55 reading paragraphs 391 to 395 Um, yeah, it is on as I said the fall of the angels. We talked about how

Here's God who created human beings and right? He created us in for good for friendship. He created us male and female He created us body and soul. And then yesterday we talked about the fall, the beginning of the fall, noting that God is infinitely good. All his works are good. And yet, and yet, we have rejected him. And that's the heart of sin, right? The heart of sin, we said yesterday, is we have to recognize the profound relation of man to God that that we're made for relationship with God, we're made for him and he has made us so we can share in his glory.

He's made us so we can share in his love, but he also made us free. And because of that, we have the capacity to reject him. And so that's the price of that sin, is original sin, is death we're gonna talk about in the next couple of days, like actual consequences. Actually, tomorrow we'll talk about original sin even more fully and then talking about the consequences

of that original sin for all of us. But today, even before original sin, there was the fall of the angels. And so we're gonna talk about how God made the angels good. So in God's creating the world and in God's creating the spiritual reality of everything, he created angels. These beings we already talked about before, right? He created angels. These beings we already talked about before, right? Angel refers to their task, right? Their mission, not their nature. Their nature is spirit and their mission is messenger.

But we have a recognition, we have knowledge that at one point these creatures that God made good and made to share in his life as well, rejected him. And so in paragraph 392, it says, scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. And it's a fall and it consists of a free choice of these created spirits. Now, something to note about angels again, angels are powerful, but they're not omniscient and they're not omnipotent. So they know things, they don't know everything. And they're powerful,

but they're not all powerful. So they're still creatures. You know, sometimes the image we have is of, you know, Jesus and Satan going toe to toe. That is, that is not the reality. And Jesus is fully God and fully man. Like so the Trinity that it's not ever the Trinity up against Satan. That is not even close. Satan is limited in his power, limited in his knowledge, limited in his ability to influence. God is all powerful. He's unlimited. And so it's never that. It's actually what we have as Satan who has so fully rejected God that he hates all that God loves, which includes you and includes me. So there is this, these fallen angels, right, that rejected the Lord. We don't know exactly why, but it says here in paragraph 392 that there's an indication

that the reason why the fallen angels rejected God is kind of implicit in their temptation to Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3, that you will be like God, that we wonder, we wonder, and we posit, we have the theory that the reason that Satan rejected God is out of pride That that that I will not serve they better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven kind of an issue there Couple things to note as well before we get started There is an irrevocable character to the fallen angel's choice right that they can't repent there There is no possibility a capability of them to repent just like after That they can't repent. There is no possibility or capability of them to repent. Just like after death, we can't repent. We get what we've chosen and Satan has gotten what he's chosen. And nonetheless, nonetheless, God remains

good even when we reject him. And God remains good even when Satan and the fallen angels reject him. So today we're gonna launch into that. And so let's just say a prayer as we, as we, you know, talking about some of these realities, these realities of darkness, these realities of sin and these realities of Satan, it's worth it to know that there's also the reality of grace and there's also the reality of redemption that God has not abandoned us. And we're not alone as we face the onslaughts of the evil one. He's with us and so we pray. Father in heaven, we know, we know that you are with us. We declare your faithfulness. We declare our trust in your goodness. And we ask for your protection. We ask for your protection against the wiles of the evil one, against the snares of the devil. We ask for your protection against

all of his lies that can sneak in past our defenses. Lord God, we ask you to please you be our guard, you be our shade against his onslaught because you are the one who has conquered Satan, you have conquered death, you have conquered evil by taking death upon yourself and by allowing it to overwhelm you. You've raised it up. You've been raised up. You've redeemed us. So we know that we trust in you and we fear nothing. While you are at our side, we fear nothing. We declare this and ask you to be with us in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day 55 for reading paragraphs 391 to 395, the fall of the angels. The fall of the angels. Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's tradition see in this being a fallen angel called Satan or the Devil. The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel made by God. The Fourth Ladder and Counsel stated, The Devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.

Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This fall consists in the free choice of these created spirits who radically and irrevocably rejected God and His reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents when he said, You will be like God. The devil has sinned from the beginning. He is a liar and the father of lies. It is the irrevocable character of their choice and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy that makes the angels sin unforgivable. St. John Damascene wrote,

there is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death. Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls a murderer from the beginning who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his father. First John wrote, The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. In its consequences, the greatest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.

The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and His kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries, of his nature and indirectly even of a physical nature. To each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, that we know that in everything God works

for good with those who love Him." Okay, so there it is. Diagrams 391-395 on the fall of the angels. I know I already highlighted a couple of these things, but gee, purse creepers, it is important to note this. I really... Ah. Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice,

opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. I mentioned pride before. You'll be like God, right? That's part of that. Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. But there's an element, you know, that again, all these theories, all these theories that... What was the real motivating factor? ultimately that caused Satan to to rebel to reject God and here this reference out of envy in Genesis chapter 3 verses 1 through 5 also wisdom chapter 2 verse 24 speaks of The envy of the devil where wisdom chapter 2 says but by the envy of the devil. Where wisdom chapter two says, but by the envy of the devil, death entered the world.

And they who are allied with him experience it. So we recognize that there was some kind of envy there. And so one of the theories is that God had revealed to the angels, again this is just a theory, that God had revealed to the angels his plan, his plan to create human beings. Who are spirit like the angels,

who are only pure spirit, but not only that, but spirit and flesh, right? So a spiritual being who is also material being and that also maybe even God had revealed that he would become one of us. And there's this that sense of that in becoming one of us, God would raise up human beings even higher than the angels in the divine realm. And there's that sense of, again, this is a theory, but that sense that because of this, Satan rebelled out of envy. And so there's this recognition. The point though, of course, is that that first line behind the disobedient choice of our first parents, that's, you know, we talked about yesterday, we'll talk about tomorrow and the next day.

Lurks a seductive voice opposed to God. And that church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel made by God. Again, again, God doesn't create anything that's bad. But he did create the angels to be free, just like he created you and I to be free, all human beings, to be free. And it was through that freedom that we either could have chosen to love God or choose to reject God. And here is Satan who chose to reject God. Now, obviously there is a whole host upon host of angels

who have chosen to love God and to serve God. But this fall in paragraph 392 of the angels, of the fallen angels, consists in their free choice, who radically and irrevocably rejected God in his reign. And this is really important because we know that, that you know, paragraph 1022 will go on to eat later on in the Catechism, paragraph 1022,

we'll talk about when it talks about the reality of judgment, the reality of hell. He says this, it says, each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death. So basically you get what you've chosen at the moment of death in a particular judgment It says, We get what we've chosen and Satan you know some people ask can we could we pray for the devil? Should we pray for the devil? The answer is I get that that impulse, but no There's no use implying for the devil. He has made an irrevocable choice. It is

Unchanging and this is really important the catechism highlights in paragraph 393 It's the irrevocable character of their choice and not a defect in infinite divine mercy that makes the angels sin unforgivable. This is, again, it's not that God doesn't have the mercy to do this, it's that they don't want to do this. And that's so vitally important for us to understand because once again, we can get to that place

where we just, we want to, out of compassion, we're willing to, you know, excuse many, many things. And yet here is God, who is saying, yes, if, I mean, let's take this honestly. And just look at this. We talked about there is no depth to which Jesus will not go

or has not gone to redeem us. He has not only allowed suffering and death to overwhelm him, he's descended to the abode of the dead. There's no depth to which Jesus will not go to win us back, but he won't force us to come back, right? That's one thing he will not do. He has not done and he won't do. He won't force us to come back

just like he will not force the angels to come back. So it's not a deficit in his mercy that he won't force us back into his presence. It's, it is his mercy. It is his love. It is his justice that refuses to force us just as it is his love and his mercy and his justice that refuses to force the angels back into his presence. This is so important for us to understand because God has done everything he possibly can do and will do. He will continue because God continues to call us, God continues to pour out His grace upon us and yet He will not take away our freedom and He will not take away the freedom of the enemy, the freedom of the evil one. Now, paragraph

395, it specifies and highlights something that's very important for us because we can often be and rightly so in some ways afraid of the devil. There is an element to which there is a healthy respect. Well, I don't want to say healthy respect. What's the right word? Well, you know, you wouldn't go down a dark alley if there was a mugger down there, someone who's very intimidating, who is bent on your destruction. You would be afraid of them. And that would be that would that would be fear that would keep you out of trouble. In a similar way, Saint Peter writes that your point at the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Resist him solid in your faith. He doesn't say fear him necessarily, but at the same time, again, don't go looking for a fight. Don't go looking for a fight with Satan. So we have this kind of healthy fear at the same time. 395 paragraph says this, the power of Satan is nonetheless not infinite. He's only creature.

He's powerful, of course, from the fact that he's pure spirit, but he's still a creature He cannot prevent the building up of God's reign and and yes He can act in the world out of hatred for God in his kingdom and yes His actions can cause grave injuries spiritual injuries They can hurt us spiritually and the fallen angels can hurt us physically indirectly But that action is permitted by divine provenance and the fallen angels can hurt us physically, indirectly, but that action is permitted by divine providence, with which, I love this, which with strength and gentleness

guides human and cosmic history, God's private providence, with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. And it goes on to say in this last piece here, it is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity. That isn't that it, like you think,, well why wouldn't God just stop the devil? Like, you know, why does the devil have to even exist anymore? Why couldn't God just say, I don't want you to exist? You rejected me, you rebelled against me, so you're just simply going

to cease to exist. Why doesn't God do that? And the church says here, the Catechism says here, it's a great mystery. Why Providence should permit diabolical activity? Why providence? Why God should allow the devil to still influence us, to still injure us at times? We don't know. I have no idea. But I wonder if, I wonder if it's something along these lines. God knows, as it says in Scripture here, this quote, the paragraph 395 quotes Romans chapter 8 verse 28, we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, in everything. So God can even take this evil reality, this evil presence, this evil being, or evil beings, fallen angels, and in our fight and their attack against us.

And he can do something great in that. But maybe he can strengthen us in a way that God alone knows. Maybe he can purify us in a way that God alone knows. Maybe the existence and activity of diabolical activity purifies us and keeps us humble in a way that God alone knows. I don't know. But we do

know that it's a mystery and we do know that it exists and we do know that it in no way limits God's providence or limits God's love. And so we walk through this world that is dangerous and that's the thing. We walk through this world that is dangerous with these beings, other human beings that at times want to hurt us, want to use us, and these spiritual beings that want to hurt us, and want to manipulate us, want to get us to reject the good. They want to get us to reject the one who loves us. And so that's why we resist. We resist because the devil is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. And so we have to resist that. We have to resist that lie. We have to fight against his murderous heart

and lead into the sacred heart of Jesus. Into the loving heart of God. And today, as we're learning about the fall of the angels, we just have to be on guard because it's one thing to know about the fall of other creatures, of the other beings. It's another thing to ourselves fall into sin, out of rebellion, out of rejection, out of envy, or out of pride. And so that's what we're gonna hear about tomorrow. Freedom put to the test in the original sin, man's first sin. But

today, today for all of us to be able to say, okay, God, in your providence, guide me, continue with strength and gentleness, guide me, the lives of the people I love, my family members, all the people who are listening to this catechism in a year, this whole community. You guys, I am so proud of you. I just want to encourage you to keep pressing play because it's a day by day. You know, you're learning something and this is, you might feel like, I don't know, I get to the end of some of these podcasts and I don't remember a thing. I'm telling you, you do. I'm telling you that if someone were to ask you, you would remember. You would know these things. They're slowly getting into your mind, and I have to promise you this, in getting into your mind, they're getting into your heart. Because this is all about transformation, not just information, about conversion, not just more data. And so we've continued to pray for you. We also pray for each other because, again, we don't just want to know new things. We want to be able to live that new life in Jesus. And so we need

God's grace for that. So please pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.