Can Angels create material things or beings? Or do they lead us to perceive them through our senses and depict them in our imagination?
Antonio Borda – Bogotá
Only God has the power to create. Other beings, however sublime and powerful they may be, are incapable of doing so.
However, in certain cases some Angels have manifested themselves in a way that is perceptible to the human senses, as, for example, when they were seen by Abraham, Lot, Tobias and several others. In light of these apparitions described in Sacred Scripture, St. Thomas says: “since the Angels are not bodies, nor have they bodies naturally united with them, as is clear from what has been said, it follows that they sometimes assume bodies” (Summa Theologiæ. I, q.51, a.2).
The theological reasons to explain this portentous fact are indeed conclusive: “Angels need an assumed body, not for themselves, but on our account; that by conversing familiarly with men they may give evidence of that intellectual companionship which men expect to have with them in the life to come.
“Moreover that Angels assumed bodies under the Old Law was a figurative indication that the Word of God would take a human body; because all the apparitions in the Old Testament were ordained to that one whereby the Son of God appeared in the flesh” (ad 1).
For the Angelic Doctor, the method employed by the Angel in the formation of the body would be, in accordance with the scientific knowledge of the 13th century, the condensation of the air by divine power to the extent necessary to form the assumed body (cf. ad 3).
However, Angels can also represent intelligible truth in our imagination by means of sensible images, as if projected into our fantasy. Subsequently, they strengthen our understanding to so that we are enabled to grasp the meaning of these figures. This is the way in which the Angels enlighten men (cf. q.111, a.1).
I would like to resolve a question: is it a sin for a person to imagine themselves sinning, even if they do not physically practise the sin?
Raissa Silva – Via e-mail
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (cf. 2517) teaches us that the human heart is the seat of the moral personality: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander” (Mt 15:19).
This is why we should aspire to live the sixth beatitude, which promises the pure in heart that they will see God (cf. Mt 5:8). According to the same Catechism, “‘pure in heart’ refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity (cf. 1 Thess 4:3-9; 2 Tm 2:22); chastity or sexual rectitude (cf. 1 Thess 4:7; Col 3:5; Eph 4:19); love of truth and orthodoxy of faith (cf. Tit 1:15; 1 Tm 1:3-4; 2 Tm 2:23-26)” (2518).
Therefore, to sin in one’s heart by consenting to evil desires or dishonourable imaginings is just as grave a sin as if it had been realized outwardly. And this is, in fact, what the Divine Master teaches us in the Gospel: “Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28).
