Angelology: What are angels made of?

Angels seem so ethereal and mysterious compared to humans in flesh and blood. Unlike people, angels don't have physical bodies, so they can appear in various ways. Angels can temporarily present themselves in the form of a person if a mission they are working on requires it. At other times, angels may appear as exotic winged creatures, as beings of light or in some other form.

This is all possible because angels are purely spiritual beings who are not bound by the physical laws of Earth. Despite the many ways they can appear, however, angels are still created beings that have an essence. What are angels made of?

What are angels made of?
Each angel that God created is a unique being, says St. Thomas Aquinas in his book "Summa Theologica:" "Since angels have no matter or build in themselves, since they are pure spirits, they are not identified. This means that each angel is the only one of its kind. It means that every angel is an essential species or type of being substantial. So every angel is essentially different from every other angel. "

The Bible calls angels "ministering spirits" in Hebrews 1:14, and believers say that God created each angel in the way that would best authorize that angel to serve the people God loves.

Divine love
More importantly, believers say, faithful angels are full of divine love. "Love is the most basic law of the universe ..." writes Eileen Elias Freeman in her book "Touched by Angels". "God is love and every true angelic encounter will be filled with love, because angels too, since they come from God, are full of love."

The love of angels obliges them to honor God and serve people. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that angels express that great love by taking care of each person throughout his life on Earth: "From childhood to death human life is surrounded by their vigilant care and intercession". The poet Lord Byron wrote about how angels express God's love for us: “Yes, love is truly light from heaven; A spark of that immortal fire with shared angels, given by God to lift our low desire from the earth ".

Intellect of angels
When God created angels, he gave them impressive intellectual abilities. In 2 Samuel 14:20 the Torah and the Bible mention that God gave angels the knowledge of "all things that are on earth." God also created angels with the power to see the future. In Daniel 10:14 of the Torah and the Bible, an angel says to the prophet Daniel: "Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision is about a time that is yet to come."

The intellect of angels does not depend on any type of physical matter, such as the human brain. “In man, since the body is substantially united with the spiritual soul, intellectual activities (understanding and will) presuppose the body and its senses. But an intellect in itself, or as such, requires nothing physical for its activity. Angels are pure spirits without a body and their intellectual operations of understanding and will do not depend at all on material substance, "writes St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica.

Strength of the angels
Even if angels do not have physical bodies, they can still exert great physical strength to carry out their missions. The Torah and the Bible both say in Psalm 103: 20: "Bless the Lord, you angels, powerful in strength, who execute his word, obeying the voice of his word!".

Angels who assume that human bodies carry out missions on Earth are not limited by human strength but can exercise their great angelic strength while using human bodies, writes St. Thomas Aquinas in "Summa Theologica:" "When an angel in human form walk and speak, exercise angelic power and use bodily organs as tools. "

Luce
Angels are often illuminated from within when they appear on Earth, and many people believe that angels are made of light or work within it when they visit Earth. The Bible uses the phrase "angel of light" in 2 Corinthians 11: 4. Muslim tradition declares that God created angels from light; the Sahih Muslim Hadith quotes the prophet Muhammad saying: "Angels are born of light ...". New Age believers claim that angels work within different frequencies of electromagnetic energy that correspond to seven different rays of color in the light.

Incorporated into the fire
Angels can also be incorporated into fire. In Judges 13: 9-20 of the Torah and the Bible, an angel visits Manoah and his wife to give them some information about their future son Samson. The couple want to thank the angel by giving him some food, but the angel encourages them to prepare a burnt offering to express their thanks to God instead. Verse 20 tells how the angel used fire to make his dramatic exit: “While the flame burned from the altar to heaven, the angel of the Eternal rose into the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell on their faces. "

Angels are incorruptible
God created angels in such a way as to preserve the essence that God originally intended for them, St. Thomas Aquinas declares in "Summa Theologica:" "Angels are incorruptible substances. This means that they cannot die, decay, break or be substantially changed. Because the root of corruptibility in a substance is matter, and in angels there is no matter. "

So whatever angels can be made, they are made to last forever!