We are not, of course, angels as we hear spoken of in scripture. We are women and men: members of the human race, and as such we have an equal share in the reason for Jesus Christ having taken his place among mankind two millennia ago.
Angels have not been redeemed because they have no need of redemption; they have not fallen, and in their unblemished state they can have no comprehension of what redemption really is or what it means (or should mean) to us. Just as our learning about things from books or from listening to others can never give us the intimate understanding that is born of experience, so the angels’ ways of learning and knowing can never make real sense of something utterly beyond their own existence. That is why they ‘long to catch a glimpse of these things.’
‘You have not seen him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him you believe in him and so are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described; and you are sure of the goal of your faith, that is, the salvation of your souls. ... Even the angels long to catch a glimpse of these things.’ (1 Peter 1:8-9, 12)
We are truly blessed to be living at a time when we have access to knowledge of these things, spoken and written of long ago, before their realization and by those who could only long (as do the angels) for their own share in the full understanding and the experience now available to each one of us.
Years ago I was asked by a friend whose path had crossed mine and who, for a time, was to become God’s undeniable provision for me, “Do you feel redeemed?” I could only answer that I did not, though I was aware that my inability to respond otherwise was not solely because I had no such feeling, but was the inevitable result of not really knowing what it should have felt like: in other words, I did not understand the meaning of the word. What exactly was redemption?
I wrote of this three years ago, and having recalled doing so and searched my own posts (28.01.09 The Catholic in me (6); 5.02.09 Beyond words) it is reassuring to find that since that time my sense of having been redeemed has built to a point where I can now answer that question differently, and with a certainty that I do indeed feel and experience the reality of my own redemption; not always and in all circumstances, but when it matters I know it to be there.
The abstract group of twelve followers, of which I have pictured myself as a member since beginning to write here, still attends me throughout these pages. As individuals we remain unknown to each other, but an awareness that you have been reading, and some of you returning and spending appreciable time here, continues to provide me with a sense of fellowship and of being accompanied on at least some parts of my journey. I derive a considerable degree of security and ongoing support from your presence, for which my thanks are due every day.
We began by realizing that we had been found, and this was soon followed by hearing ourselves being called by name: we were able to count ourselves among ‘The Named’. As our spiritual spiral of growth continued we travelled through the stages to a point where we found ourselves among ‘The Sent’, only to discover that wherever we found ourselves we were also somewhere familiar: somewhere reminiscent of where we had already been, but seen more clearly; from a new angle; in a brighter light; with greater understanding (though still barely able to understand at all); and with increased trust and hope.
In hearing ourselves being called by name once more, it is as though we have been told we have been short listed for an interview; and in feeling ourselves again to be among ‘The Touched’ we now have a real sense of what redemption is all about; and something else ...: a sensation suggesting that this time the touch may mean that we have been selected for training.
Uncertainty may return; fear even; we may have no recollection of making any application for whatever we are to be trained for, but somewhere, back there on the path we have been walking, we meant it when we answered “Yes”; and all that was then set in motion comes from the ultimate source of all that is good.
This is where we are confronted more clearly by personal difficulties roused by our attempted reliance on somebody other than ourselves; and here too is where we begin to learn the real meaning of that simple word, ‘trust’.
Trust; the angels must long to catch a glimpse of that too, for how can they grasp what it means for us who find it so difficult when for them it is an uninterrupted and unthought-of certainty?
Even the concept of free will must be a difficulty for them; they are already and permanently with Him: unlike ourselves they have never been invited to choose in response to His words, “Come, follow me.”
