Question

Dear Father Angelo,

Please, tell me whether what I am about to write is true or not. God created the angels, pure spirits endowed with free will, and he created them after his image and likeness, an image and likeness more perfect than men’s, because angels do not have a body; they are pure spirit as well as God, who is the Purest Spirit.

I thank you.
Paolo

Priest’s answer

Dear Paolo,
Your statement is correct, and I take this opportunity to corroborate it with some documentary evidence from Saint Thomas.

1. Saint Thomas points out that men and angels were created after the image of God by virtue of their spirituality. “Man is said to be after the image of God, not as regards his body, but as regards that whereby he excels other animals. Hence, when it is said, “Let us make man to our image and likeness”, it is added, “And let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea” (Gn. 1:26). Now man excels all animals by his reason and intelligence; hence it is according to his intelligence and reason, which are incorporeal, that man is said to be according to the image of God” (Summa Theologica, I, 3, 1, ad. 2).

2. While men and angels are “after” the image of God, the Son, Jesus, is not “after” the image but He is “the” image, according to what Saint Paul affirms in his letter to the Colossians: “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1,15).
Saint Thomas argues that “The image of a thing may be found in something in two ways. In one way it is found in something of the same specific nature; as the image of the king is found in his son. In another way it is found in something of a different nature, as the king’s image on the coin. In the first sense the Son is the Image of the Father; in the second sense man is called the image of God; and therefore in order to express the imperfect character of the divine image in man, man is not simply called the image, but “to the image,” whereby is expressed a certain movement of tendency to perfection. But it cannot be said that the Son of God is “to the image,” because He is the perfect Image of the Father” (Summa Theologica, I, 35, 2, ad. 3). 

3. Moreover, the image of God is more perfect in the angels than in men “because their intellectual nature is more perfect” (Summa Theologica, I, 93, 3).
However, in other respects, a man reflects the divine nature more closely than an angel does, for example, in his participation in God’s paternity, and in the redemption of the world.
“Therefore, as in their intellectual nature, the angels are more to the image of God than man is, we must grant that, absolutely speaking, the angels are more to the image of God than man is, but that in some respects man is more like to God (Ib.).

4. It should also be said that a man can grow in grace, and can therefore grow in his supernatural image of God.
His grace can rise to a degree that surpasses that of the Angels, as is the case of Mary, who is the Queen of the angels also by virtue of her holiness.
More precisely, Our Lady was created from the very first moment with a degree of holiness that was superior to that of the angels, even though by her nature she is less to the image of God than the angels are.

Wishing you to  surpass the angels in holiness, I recommend you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo

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