19. The presence of infinite things in God is even more obvious to angels because of the heavens where they live. The whole heaven, made up of millions of angels, is like a person in its overall form. Each individual community of heaven, large or small, is the same; and therefore an angel is a person. An angel is actually a heaven in its smallest form (see Heaven and Hell 51-87 [51-86]).

Heaven is in this form overall, regionally, and in individuals because of the divine nature that angels accept, since the extent to which angels accept the divine nature determines the perfection of their human form. This is why we say that angels are in God and that God is in them, and that God is everything to them.

The multiplicity of heaven is indescribable; and since it is Divinity that makes heaven, and therefore Divinity is the source of that indescribable multiplicity, we can see quite clearly that there are infinite things in that quintessential Person who is God.

334. These gifts have been given to mankind to use and enjoy, and they are free gifts, as is clearly apparent from the state of angels in heaven, who likewise have a body, rational faculty, and spiritual character, as people do on earth. They are nourished without cost, for they are daily given their food. They are clothed without cost, because they are given their clothing. They have their lodging without cost, because they are given their houses. Nor do they worry about any of these things. ¹ Moreover, to the extent that they are spiritually rational, they experience enjoyment, protection, and the preservation of their condition.

The difference is that angels see that these are gifts from the Lord, because things there are created in accordance with the state of their love and wisdom, as we showed in the preceding discussion (no. 322), while people do not see this, because things here recur yearly and exist not in accordance with the state of people's love and wisdom, but according to the care they expend on them.

Imibhalo yaphansi: