522. Regarding the first, one
must know that angel translates as messenger.
Now [an angel] conformed to the divine
goodness is said to announce “the divine goodness” inasmuch as in angels “in a
secondary way” by “participation” there exists “that which” is enunciated about
God not by participation, but “by the cause”; just as if I were to say that illuminated
air announces the brightness of the sun, inasmuch as in a secondary way and
participatively [the brightness] is in the air, and in a primary way and
causally it is in the sun. And because that which something has participatively
and in a secondary way is an “image” of that which has in it a primary way and
causally, and the act of an image is to manifest that of which it is the image,
consequently he infers a certain definition of a good angel: the manifestation
of the divine “light” which is hidden from us on account of its excellence and
simplicity. (Thomas Aquinas, An Exposition of The Divine Names, The Book of
Blessed Dionysius, Chapter 4, Reading 18 [trans. Michael Augros; Scholastic
Tradition in English Translation; Merrimack, N.H.: Thomas More College Press,
2021], 233)
527. Next, when he says [213] “But
are they . ..,” he excludes an objection; and first, he gives it: for someone might
say that “because” the angels “Punish” sinners, “they” are “evil.” And Matthew
13 [verses 41-42, 49-50] expressly says that they punish sinners, because they
will cast out all scandals from the kingdom. Therefore, there is a question: whether
they are evil in the fact that they punish.
Second, he shows that they cannot
be called evil on account of this, because by the same argument those who
chastise bad people by punishing them would be “evil,” such as judges and
teachers; “and” likewise it would follow that certain priests “who” exclude “the
unclean,” that is, a sinner, “from the divine mysteries,” by excommunicating
him, would be evil, which is against the Apostle, who commands this in 1
Corinthians 5:3-5.
But because to multiply its
awkward consequences is not to revolve [an objection], third, he resolves all
the foregoing matters. And he says that “to be punished” “is not evil” simply
and in itself, but it is in itself good, since it is just, but it is evil in
some respect, inasmuch as it removes something good from someone. “But to
become” a sinner, that is evil simply; and so he who punishes a sinner is not
evil, but he who sins is evil. For the same reason, it is not evil in itself to
be excluded “from holy things” “with” justice, but it is in itself evil that
someone be tarnished by sin and abandon sanctity and by his become “unworthy of”
divine things, which are in themselves “undefiled.” And he does not sin who
excommunicates, but he sins who does something from which he becomes deserving
of excommunication. (Thomas Aquinas, An Exposition of The Divine Names, The
Book of Blessed Dionysius, Chapter 4, Reading 18 [trans. Michael Augros;
Scholastic Tradition in English Translation; Merrimack, N.H.: Thomas More
College Press, 2021], 235)
