PARS TERTIA, cap. V
The Hidden Court and Its Service
A hidden multitude of angels dwells with God in light, aligned with him more than with humans, yet all serve and worship one God.
There is also a certain multitude of angels who remain with God in the hidden places of heaven, whom the Godhead floods with its own light, yet who is hidden from human creatures, except insofar as that multitude is recognized through clear signs. And this multitude is aligned with God more than with any human being, and it rarely appears to people; but the angels who serve among people show themselves by certain signs whenever it pleases God, because God has appointed some to various services and made them servants to creatures. Yet although they hold different services, all of them worship one God by honoring and knowing him.
Pride's Fall and the Soul's Mirror
Reason that turns inward collapses, as Satan's fall shows, while the soul finds joy and self-knowledge by looking back to its Creator in faith.
For if knowledge, joined with the sound of praise, did not rise toward him from whom it comes, but wished to belong to itself, how could it stand, since through itself it is nothing? For reason always extends the sound of praise outward toward another, and from that it takes pleasure; because if it tried to sound from itself, it could not be glorified. This is what Satan did when he began to exist: he did not look back with praise toward his Creator, but wanting to exist through himself, he fell, cut off from the Godhead and trampled down, just as a stalk of straw, severed from the grain, is trampled underfoot. Therefore every living creature should look toward its Creator and not seek glory from itself. For a person cannot have full joy in his own benefit unless he receives it from another; and when he has recognized through another the joy of benefit, he will then have great gladness in his heart. From this the soul also remembers that it was created by God, and in faith looks toward him, just as a person examines his face in a mirror to consider how it was formed.
Casting Away What Opposes Beatitude
God ordered his work to praise him, and blessed spirits reject whatever threatens true beatitude, as attested in God's will.
Almighty God established his work in this way: that it should look back to him with praises, since he accomplished it in great honor, arranging also that the blessed spirits would cast away those who are contrary to true beatitude, saying: "Let us cast these away from us, who want to terrify us. Whence it is written in the will of God:"
The Psalmist's Witness
The words of Psalm 92 are cited as pointing to the same truth and as needing right interpretation.
The Psalmist's words from Psalm 92, pointing toward the same matter, and the sense in which they are to be understood.
Read the original Latin
Est etiam multitudo quaedam angelorum cum Deo arcana in coelo, quam Divinitas lumine suo perfudit, et quae humanae creaturae obscura est, praeter quod illa per lucida signa cognoscitur. Et multitudo ista cum Deo magis quam cum homine rationalis est, raroque hominibus apparet, cum angeli qui cum hominibus officiales sunt, quando Deo placuerit illis quibusdam signis se ostendunt, quoniam Deus quosdam ad diversa officia constituit, et cum creaturis eos officiales esse fecit. Qui tamen quamvis diversa officia habeant, omnes unum Deum colendo et sciendo venerantur. Quod si scientia cum sono laudis ad illum de quo est non volaret, sed a se ipsa esse vellet, quomodo stare posset, cum per se ipsam non sit? Rationalitas enim sonum laudis in alium semper praetendit, indeque jucundatur, quoniam si a se ipsa sonare vellet, glorificari non posset; quod Satan fecit, cum vivere incepit, quia cum laude ad Creatorem suum non respexit, sed per seipsum esse volens corruit, a divinitate abscissus et conculcatus, quemadmodum stipula a grano abscissa conculcatur. Quapropter quaelibet creatura quae vivit, ad Creatorem suum respiciat, nec gloriam a se ipsa habere quaerat. Plenum namque gaudium utilitatis ex se ipso homo habere non potest, nisi illud ab alio percipiat; et cum per alium utilitatis gaudium intellexerit, exsultationem magnam in corde suo exinde habebit. Hinc etiam anima se a Deo creatam recordatur, et in fide ad illum respicit, sicut et homo faciem suam in speculo considerat, quomodo formata sit.
Omnipotens enim Deus opus suum hoc modo constituit, ut cum laudibus ad ipsum respiciat, quoniam in magno honore illud perfecit, disponens etiam quod beati spiritus verae beatitudini contrarios abjicerent dicentes: « Istos a nobis abjiciamus, qui volunt terrere nos. » Unde in voluntate Dei scriptum est:
Verba Psalmistae ex psalmo XCII ad idem spectantia, et quo sensu intelligenda sint.
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