The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification (continued)
Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life 179
The Church of the Angels
Correct order in the profession of the faith (rectus ordo confessionis) demands that we speak of the church immediately after the Trinity. Given the ordo confessionis Augustine is following in the Enchiridion, we can reason that after professing belief in Deum Patrem, comes Iesum Christum filium Dei unigenitum, and then Spiritum Sanctum, ending with an exposition on the unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam. It is most fitting, as Augustine suggests, to speak first of a lord and then immediately to take up the manor in which he dwells. Therefore, after the Enchiridion's detailed examination of the Trinity, Augustine turns to the church. What is most striking is that the church is approached first as a pan-cosmic, pre-historical reality. The church is first and foremost that earliest moment of creaturely praise in that abode, ". . . which has remained with God in heaven ever since its foundation and has never suffered any fall into evil. This part is found among the holy angels and continues in blessedness, giving generous help as it should to its comrades who are on pilgrimage, since they will together form one company in eternity, which is one already by the bond of charity, established to worship the one God."3
As we examined in chapter 1, all creation exists by adhering to God. Here the angels are represented as the first established body of rational creatures held together, not only by adhering to God (cohaesit Deo), as all creation, but also bound by the Spirit of charity (uinculo caritatis). There was never a creation when God's unparalleled goodness in creating was not recognized and praised. Unlike humanity's ecclesial pilgrimage which only in time and through struggle can
3. ench. 15:56; Harbert, Enchiridion (I/8), 307: ". . . ex illa quae in caelis semper ex quo condita est cohaesit deo, nec ullum malum sui casus experta est. Haec in sanctis angelis beata persistit, et suae parti peregrinanti sicut oportet opitulatur, quia utraque una erit consortio aeternitatis, et nunc una est uinculo caritatis, quae tota instituta est ad colendum unum deum."; CCL 49.79.