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On Prayer

Origen, tr. Oulton, 1954

Not only does the high priest pray along with those that genuinely pray, but also the …

The angels, as well as Christ, pray with us (Chapter XI)

Not only does the high priest pray along with those that genuinely pray, but also the angels “in heaven,” who rejoice “over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine righteous persons, which need no repentance,”1 and so do also the souls of the saints2 who have fallen asleep before us. This is indicated in the following references. On the one hand, Raphael offered for Tobit3 and Sarah a reasonable sacrifice4 to God.5 For after the prayer of both, “the prayer of both,” the Scripture says,6 “was heard before the glory of the great Raphael, and he was sent to heal them both.”7 And Raphael himself, when disclosing the mission that he had as an angel to them both by God’s command, says, “And now, when thou didst pray, and Sarah thy daughter in law, I did bring the memorial of your prayer before the Holy One.”8 And a little lower down: “I am Raphael, one of the seven angels, which present [the prayers of the saints],9 and go in before the glory of the Holy One.”10 Certainly, according to the word of Raphael, “good is prayer with fasting and alms and righteousness.”11 On the other hand, “Jeremiah”12 is represented in the Books of the Maccabees as “of venerable age and exceeding glory,” so that “wonderful and most majestic was the dignity around him,”13 and “stretching forth his right hand, he delivered to Judas a sword of gold.”14 To whom bore witness another of the saints who have fallen asleep before us, saying, “This is he who pray-eth much for the people and the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God.”15

Since knowledge is disclosed to them that are worthy in this present life “through a mirror” and “in a riddle,” but is revealed hereafter “face to face,”16 it is indeed absurd not to employ this analogy in thinking also of the other virtues; for what has been prepared for17 in this life is properly perfected hereafter. Now according to the divine word one of the chiefest virtues18 is love to one’s neighbour.19 And we must hold that the saints who have fallen asleep before us exercise towards those who are struggling in this life much more than do they who are compassed about with human weakness and are struggling in company with feebler folk. It is not only in this life that the words: “If one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it”; and “if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it”20 may be applied to those who love the brethren; for it can be fittingly said also of the love that animates those outside this present life, “anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is made to stumble, and I burn not?”21 Christ also acknowledges22 as concerning each of the saints that are “sick” that he is “sick” likewise, and that he is “in prison,” and that he is “naked, a stranger,” and “an hungred” and “thirsty.”23 What reader of the Gospel does not know that Christ refers to himself the happenings of the faithful and reckons their sufferings as his own?

If “angels” of God “coming to” Jesus “ministered unto him,”24 we must not suppose that this ministry of angels to Jesus was only for the short period of his bodily sojourn among men, since he is still “in the midst of” believers, not as “sitting at meat,” but “as serving.”25 How many angels26 therefore may there be ministering to Jesus as he seeks to “gather together the children of Israel one by one”27 and muster them of “the Dispersion,”28 and as he saves them that fear and call upon him?29 Do not they, even more than the apostles, work together30 for the increase and multiplying of the Church (for certain rulers of the churches are called “angels”31 by John in the Apocalypse)? It is not in vain that “the angels of God ascend and descend upon the Son of man,”32 being seen by those whose eyes have been “enlightened” with “the light of knowledge.”33

At the actual time of prayer, being reminded by him who prays of what he needs, the angels do all in their power to bring it to good effect in virtue of the general command34 which they have received. Let me use the following illustration to commend my thought on this matter. Suppose that a physician with a regard for righteousness was present when a sick man was praying concerning his health; and that he knew how to heal the disease concerning which this man was offering up his prayer. It is clear that the physician will be moved to heal the man who prayed, perhaps not unreasonably supposing that this very thing was in the mind of God when he gave ear to the prayer of him who prayed to him for the removal of the disease. Or suppose that a man abundantly possessed of the means of livelihood and liberally disposed should hear the prayer of a poor man as he offers his petition to God for his needs: it is plain that he too will fulfil for the poor man the substance of his prayer, thus becoming a minister of the Father’s will, who brings together to the same place at the time of the prayer both him who is about to pray and also him who is able to supply the request and unable because of his kindly disposition to disregard him who stands in need of such and such things.

We need not suppose that these happenings, when they occur, come by chance, since he who “has numbered the hairs of the head”35 of the saints fittingly brings together at the time of the prayer to hear it him who is to act as the minister of the man who seeks the benefit from God and the man who truly stands in need. In the same way we are to assume that the angels, who watch over things and minister to God, are at times brought into the presence of this or that man who is praying, in order that they may join in the requests that he is making in his prayer. And indeed “the angel” of each one and of the “little ones” in the Church, “always beholding the face of the Father which is in heaven,”36 and gazing upon the divinity of him who created us, joins in our prayers37 and co-operates as far as possible in the objects for which we pray.

Notes

  1. Luke 15:7.
  2. XI, 1. the angels . . . the souls of the saints] Cf. XXXI, 5, where there is also a reference to the Book of Tobit. See also contra Celsum, VIII, 34.
  3. XI, 1. Tobit] Here and in contra Celsum, V, 19, the name is spelt Τωβὴτ.
  4. ἱερουργίαν.
  5. Cf. Tobit 12:12.
  6. XI, 1. “the Scripture says”] Tobit 3:16, 17. But in XIV, 4, Origen notes that “they of the circumcision . . . reject the book of Tobit as uncanonical.” The citations from Tobit in this section follow the text of B and A, not that of ℵ.
  7. Tobit 3:16, 17.
  8. Tobit 12:12.
  9. The words in brackets are absent from the MS. T, but are found in the LXX.
  10. Tobit 12:15.
  11. Tobit 12:8.
  12. XI, 1. “Jeremiah”] An example of a departed saint who prays for those on earth. II Maccabees 15:14 is also quoted for the same purpose in In Joh., XIII, 58.
  13. II Maccabees 15:13, 14.
  14. II Maccabees 15:15.
  15. II Maccabees 15:14.
  16. I Cor. 13:12.
  17. XI, 2. what had been prepared for, etc.] I follow the text as emended by the Anonymous.
  18. XI, 2. one of the chiefest virtues] Cf. XXIX, 8 (end): “the most beautiful thing to be found among men, namely, charity.”
  19. Cf. Matt. 5:43, 44; Luke 6:35; 10:27 etc.
  20. I Cor. 12:26.
  21. II Cor. 11:28, 29.
  22. XI, 2. Christ also acknowledges, etc.] For a similar thought and reference to the parable of the sheep and the goats, cf. In Jerem. hom., XIV, 7 (C.B., VI, 112).
  23. Cf. Matt. 25:35–40.
  24. Matt. 4:11.
  25. Luke 22:27.
  26. XI, 3. How many angels, etc.] The Anonymous scholar observes that the question is not the number of angels but their ministry. He would therefore read πῶς οὐκ for πόσους—it must be that angels work more for the building up of the Church than did the apostles; and he refers to contra Celsum, VIII, 34, and In Joh., XXXII, 17.
  27. Isa. 27:12.
  28. Cf. John 7:35; 10:16; 11:52.
  29. Cf. Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:12, 13.
  30. XI, 3. Do not they, even more than the apostles, work together] This passage does not fully express Origen’s thought concerning the relationship of angels to churches. Not only do angels help the apostles to carry out the work of evangelization, but they are the heads in the invisible order of the churches as the apostles (and the bishops) are in the visible sphere. When the Apocalypse speaks of angels of churches, invisible rulers are indicated. Thus each church possesses at one and the same time a visible bishop and an invisible angel. “One might almost say, if we follow Scripture, that there are two bishops for each church: the one perceptible and visible and the other invisible [νοητός]. And just as a man, if he has faithfully exercised the charge committed to him is praised: so also an angel” (In. Luc. hom., XIII; C.B., XXXV, 91). Cf. In. Num. hom., XI, 4 (C.B., XXX, 82 ff.). See also J. Daniélou, Origène, 240.
  31. Rev. 1:20, etc.
  32. John 1:51.
  33. Hos. 10:12 (LXX).
  34. XI, 4. the general command] See Heb. 1:7, 14. Angels are ministers (λειτουργοὶ) of God, and are sent forth for the salvation of believers.
  35. Matt. 10:30; Luke 12:7.
  36. Matt. 18:10.
  37. XI, 5. joins in our prayers] Cf. contra Celsum, VIII, 64.

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