The trial of the Angels was one that required a far more complete submission than that which God asks of us, for the Angels could not help knowing the superior excellence of their own nature. Yet they never hesitated for one moment in their obedience, but paid to the Manhood of Jesus, to His Sacred Body, made though it was of the dust of the ground, the supreme homage due to God alone. This it was that made their obedience so meritorious, and earned for them the privilege of sinlessness forever, and the joy of continually seeing the face of their God. How God loves those who are willing to stoop!

Their intimate union with God makes it impossible for the Angels to fall away, or even to depart in the least particular from the will of God. The joy of serving God is so great that every other motive disappears before it. The sweetness of the Beatific Vision is so overwhelming that they could not find satisfaction in anything else for a single instant. This is the reward of humility. It breaks down the barrier that hides God from us.


Every one of the Holy Angels knows that he is safe for all eternity, that he is beyond the power of any temptation. To many humble Saints, God has often given in confidence. It does not make them careless, but only more eager to serve God perfectly. It is the greatest happiness possible for any created being. It turns the happiness of certain hope into the happiness of an assured expectation. It makes their life on earth an anticipation of the reward which is already theirs in spe (hope) though in re (reality).