POPE LEO & AQUINAS ON THE ANGEL OF GOD

But if it was beyond Eutyches to derive sound understanding from this, the purest source of the christian faith, because the brightness of manifest truth had been darkened by his own peculiar blindness, then he should have subjected himself to the teaching of the gospels.

When Matthew says, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham,” Eutyches should have looked up the further development in the apostolic preaching.

When he read in the letter to the Romans, “Paul, the servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for God’s gospel, which he had formerly promised through his prophets in the holy writings which refer to his Son, who was made for him of David’s seed according to the flesh,” he should have paid deep and devout attention to the prophetic texts.

And when he discovered God making the promise to Abraham that “in your seed shall all nations be blessed,” he should have followed the apostle, in order to eliminate any doubt about the identity of this seed, when he says, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and his seed . He does not say ‘to his seeds’–as if referring to a multiplicity–but to a single one, ‘and to thy seed’ which is Christ.”

His inward ear should also have heard Isaiah preaching, “Behold, a virgin will receive in the womb and will bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel,” which is translated “God is with us”. With faith he should have read the same prophet’s words, “A child is born to us, a son is given to us. His power is on his shoulders. They will call his name ‘Angel of great counsel, mighty God, prince of peace, father of the world to come’.”

Then he would not deceive people by saying that the Word was made flesh in the sense that he emerged from the virgin’s womb having a human form but not having the reality of his mother’s body.

(The Tome of Leo, Council of Chalcedon, 451 AD)

Reply to Objection 9. The priest does not pray that the sacramental species may be borne up to heaven; nor that Christ’s true body may be borne thither, for it does not cease to be there; but he offers this prayer for Christ’s mystical body, which is signified in this sacrament, that the angel standing by at the Divine mysteries may present to God the prayers of both priest and people, according to Apocalypse 8:4: “And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God, from the hand of the angel.”

But God’s “altar on high” means either the Church triumphant, unto which we pray to be translated, or else God Himself, in Whom we ask to share; because it is said of this altar (Exodus 20:26): “Thou shalt not go up by steps unto My altar, i.e. thou shalt make no steps towards the Trinity.”

Or else by the angel we are to understand Christ Himself, Who is the “Angel of great counsel” (Isaiah 9:6: Septuagint), Who unites His mystical body with God the Father and the Church triumphant..

(Question 83. The rite of this sacrament)