Whenever angels are mentioned in the Bible, the author has a difficult time explaining the exact number of spiritual beings present.
For example, when the shepherds learn that Jesus was born, Luke explains that, “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God” (Luke 2:13).
Similarly when the prophet Daniel had one of his visions he saw, “a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him” (Daniel 7:10). The expression is not meant to reveal an exact number, but a number beyond our ability to count.
St. John had a similar vision that he recounts in the book of Revelation, “Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands” (Revelation 5:11).
In other words, we will never know on this earth how many angels exist. Only God knows the exact number of angels, as he was the one who created them in the beginning. They are uniquely united to him and obediently relay his messages to us on earth.
Their vast number reminds us that God is a being of life, surrounding himself with creatures that he sustains with his life-giving spirit. As Jesus said to his disciples, “He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32).
In God’s eyes, the more angels the merrier!
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And today we celebrate...