The Son of God in person did not take the nature of the angels: He took the nature of man. The angels did not participate in the divine nature, but in working and in grace. Now, men do participate, and become partakers of the divine nature when they receive the holy Body of Christ and drink His Blood. For He is united in person to the Godhead, and two natures in the Body of Christ shared by us are united indissolubly in person, and we partake of the two natures, of the body bodily, and of the Godhead in spirit, or, rather, of each in both.
We are made one, not in person, for first we have a person and then we are united by blending together the body and the blood. How are we not greater than the angels, if through fidelity to the commandments we keep this perfect union? In itself our nature is far removed from the angels, on account of death and the heaviness of the body, but through God’s goodness and its union with Him it has become higher than the angels.
For angels stand by that nature with fear and trembling, as, in the person of Christ, it sits upon a throne of glory, and they will stand by in trembling at the judgment. According to Scripture they are not partakers of the divine glory. For they are all ministering spirits, being sent to minister because of those who are to be heirs of salvation, (Heb. 1.14) not that they shall reign together, nor that they shall be together glorified, nor that they shall sit at the table of the Father.
The saints, on the contrary, are the children of God, the children of the kingdom, heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ. (Rom. 8.17) Therefore, I honour the saints, and glorify the servants and friends and co-heirs of Christ servants by nature, friends by their choice friends and co-heirs by divine grace, as our Lord said in speaking to the Father. (Jn. 17)
As we are peaking of images, let us speak of worship also, and in the first place determine what it is.
On Adoration. What is Adoration?
Adoration is a token of subjection,–that is of submission and humiliation. There are many kinds of adoration.
Read More about Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 3
