Good morning, Father Angelo, I am writing today to ask you:

1. Since some angels sinned, and therefore fell before the world was, is it possible that will happen again in the future? I do not think so, but why?

2. As men can repent, why do angels not have this opportunity? Maybe because men live in time, and therefore within time they sin and can repent; but, if those angels had no time and yet sinned, why cannot they repent and be forgiven as well?

3. If the angels sinned despite being in eternity, can man sin in eternity as well? I already know that the answer is No, otherwise we would not speak of eternal bliss, but if the angels did it why shall men not?

The common explanation to all these questions might be that a choice made in eternity is valid in eternity, because it is eternal indeed, sine die; so maybe, the sin of the angels occurred immediately at their creation, making immediately an eternal choice; that would also answer and clearly explain about the other questions; is that the actual reason?

Thanks a lot for your answers.

They are always great to understand the doctrine of the Church.

Francesco

The answer of the Priest

Dear Francesco,

Only today I reached your email of 2021, August 5th, more than one year later. I beg your pardon.

1. Your reasoning is essentially correct.

Angels cannot sin in the future because… they have no future.

They effectively are in eternity.

2. Rightly, you are asking when angels sinned.

Since, if they were created and put directly into eternity, they could not have rebelled.

Indeed, in eternity there is neither before nor after.

3. Well worthy, St. Thomas makes an important distinction and says that the angels were created in grace since the beginning but not yet in glory, that is, not directly into heaven.

Although we are extremely different from angels as we live in time, by baptism we too are introduced into grace, but not yet into glory and into heaven.

Angel earned the heavenly glory by the movement of charity toward God immediately after being created in grace.

“By such grace he merited beatitude” (St. Thomas, Summa theologiae, I, 62, 4).

4. Therefore, angels received grace right after their creation.

St. Thomas says that the angel merited beatitude “by the movement of charity” (Ib., Reply to Objection 2). Consequently, “the angel had grace ere he was admitted to beatitude, and that by such grace he merited beatitude” (Summa Theologiae, I, 62,4).

5. Once accomplished this deliberation or act of charity toward God, the angels found themselves in heaven.

In this condition they cannot sin, because their will is immutably fixed in God since that moment.

St. Thomas: “Therefore the beatified angel can neither will nor act, except as aiming towards God. Now whoever wills or acts in this manner cannot sin. Consequently the beatified angel cannot sin” (Summa Theologiae, I, 62, 8).

6. Therefore other angels sinned before entering heaven, before contemplating God, and receiving beatitude.

In that instant those deserved hell.

Again, here is the opinion by St. Thomas: “more in harmony with the teachings of the Saints, is that the devil sinned at once after the first instant of his creation“ (Summa Theologiae, I, 63, 6).

I bless you, wishing you will always live in communion with the angels, first through grace and then through glory.

Father Angelo

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