Contents
- The Bible and Mental Functions
- Why I pursue angels
- Fr. Kabundi Honoré’ ” Biblical Real image of Angels”
- The meaning of my love for the Bible
①Reading the Bible makes us aware of various psychological functions. Whether this is a figment of our imagination or an archaeological fact, we experience rational (thoughts and feelings) and irrational (sensations and intuition) functions before the factual conclusion. The proposal of psychological functions is based on C. G. Jung, but those of us for whom Christianity is not the state religion will first judge whether we like the story or not (feelings). Next, we will reach to capture the system of the Bible (feeling). Then we analyses the content (thoughts), and intuitively we may temporarily try to explain the nature of Adam and Eve in Genesis, for example, and talk passionately about why women suffer. There are many choices: to repeat it again and again with changing thoughts, or to stop reading it because you don’t like it; but the person who does not let go of the Bible connects the experience of the outer world to the growth of the inner world. Following Jesus is when we reach out from our built-up inner world to the outer world.
It is service. It is love. It is evangelization.
At the same time, reading the biblical world requires a dynamic of imagination. Whether imaginary, dreamy or pictorial, what is clear is that there are no glib metaphors in the Bible. Many obstacles lie in the way of faith. This is because people’s psychological functions are processed differently from person to person, whether they become occultists and cults or exemplary Christians like Edith Stein.
The theologian Balthasar declared Angels as Mirrors of the Human. It is the way of theology. I leave behind those who dismiss this as pictorial. The Catholic Catechism states that angels are Messengers. As I wrote above, angels do not appear to people whose inner world is clouded. Angels play an important role in proving that one’s inner world is not clouded. Throughout history, poets and writers have attempted to return to nature through various poetic inspirations, which have also preceded philosophy and psychology. If not for German mysticism, philosophy would not have been derived until the present day. The Bible is a necessary part of the history of human wisdom, and we must not forget that there are still unknowns. It is important to read it again and again, to repeat its psychological functions and to grasp how it moves towards the existence of the world.
② I love angels first of all because as a feeling I find them beautiful, and because intuitively they do not seem to be the product of a pictorial imagination. Although I have been thinking about how to express and prove this sense and intuition for a long time, angels have not been dealt with much even in Catholicism; in 2018 the Pope talked about angels, but for a while they did not seem to be a topic of conversation in Japan. So I gradually gave up the pursuit of angels.
Recently, I came across a good book.
③Fr. Kabundi Honoré’sbook ” Biblical Real image of Angels” was published by the Orient Institute of Religion. I had given up the pursuit of angels. The fog that had been clouding the mirror seemed to have lifted. The mirror shone with light.
I found it fortunate and opportune that Father was living in Japan, so I contacted him. He was very kind and told me why he had written this book. He told me that he had been travelling around Japan with his silent retreats, communing with the faithful and felt the need to draw their attention to the presence and work of the angels in order to help them develop their spirituality.
Father Honoré’s book was both scholarly and beautifully written, as if the Holy Spirit were present in the words.
Book index
Ⅰ:Angels created by God
Ⅱ:The Angelic Ranks
Ⅲ:Exceptional angels mentioned in the Bible
Ⅳ:The appearance of angels
Ⅴ:Angels’ sins and destiny
Ⅵ:Demonic means of control over man
Ⅶ:Following the angels in the spiritual life
This work is wonderful because it includes the angels of the Old Testament book of Daniel, which is not often explained by Catholics. It is important to note that angels do not float, but fly. The popular non-biblical view of angels equates angels with God and does not understand angels as floating messengers. By biblical, I mean that angels have a purpose. Flight is having a purpose. This book is a very clear explanation of the whole of biblical angels and the purpose for which they appear.
The book not only deepens our spirituality, but the stories of angels in the Bible, which are mystical in their own right, can be used to interpret the images of angels left behind by many great writers. For example, even the works of Balzac, Rilke and Shelley, who professed to be non-Catholic, often drew on the Bible for their angelic attributes. The unity and difference between the love we seek and the love angels give, the fact that angels are not gendered, the dynamism of people’s imagination and creation.
Only when people contemplate can the mystery live on. How does it happen that the dreaming of man coincides with the works of God? It is to trace what the flight of angels is like.
It might be to realize “the reflection of the purest thing” (André Paul Guillaume Gide)
It is only through faith that forgetfulness can become a mystery to accumulated memories, experiences and paradoxes.
Shakespeare said: “All the world’s a stage,And all the men and women merely players.”The stage is full of tragedy, comedy, folly, despair and cruelty. Nothing in his work has ever been made happy by breaking a biblical commandment. Hamlet completely loses his reason and even loses his beloved Ophelia to madness. Shakespeare could not have created such a tragedy without the foundation of the Bible and faith. He was well aware of the retribution brought about by the god of the script. A life that does not go mad like Hamlet’s is an angel’s inner mirror (Balthazar).
Tragedy repeats itself, but the life God has given us in this world can be made meaningful through agape and gratitude. That is certain. Simply writing about human hatred does not capture the essence of the story. In order to find the divine retribution and miracles, we need to feel our own heat through faith.
To do this, we need to know the angels better. Angels are complicated when it comes to explaining their relationship to the Trinity, but this labyrinth is the purest space of existence. Because it is pure, there are fallen angels. Even the angels let us know that we are losing the light.
It is rare to find a book so dedicated to the angels of the Bible.
Quotes
Angels are mentioned at least one hundred and eight times in the Old Testament and one hundred and sixty-five times in the New Testament.
Chapter Ⅰ – God’s Creation of Angels
Thus, the angels, before the Fall, were revealed to be very noble, sublime angels, full of wisdom and crystal.
Chapter V‐The sins and destiny of the Angels
The angels are not omniscient.
Chapter Ⅶ – Spiritual life in imitation of Angels
God does not allow us to worship angels. The Apostle Paul clearly warns against it.
Chapter Ⅶ Spiritual life in imitation of Angels
About the Author
Fr. Kabundi Honoré
C.I.C.M
（Language: Japanese）
https://www.oriens.or.jp/orienssite_shop/seisyo/B113.html
The Catholic Catechism 328-336
