The idea of a guardian angel or a heavenly guide may seem superstitious, old-fashioned, or outdated to some. It is difficult, sometimes, to understand why Catholicism would include in its Catechism this rather fanciful idea. But the teachings of the Catholic church are not designed simply to be facts we blindly agree with or disagree with, rather they designed to reveal more to us about our God who is love, the world God created, and how God seeks to offer us grace and salvation in every moment of our lives.
In its paragraph on guardian angels, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) includes a quote from St. Basil of Caesarea, the great fourth-century theologian. St. Basil was writing against the teachings of Eunomius, who denied the existence of angels: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him or her to life” (CCC 336). Basil’s argument has scriptural foundation, as Christ says: “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angelscontinually see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).
The word “angel” comes from the Hebrew term for “messenger,” and the angels in Hebrew Scriptures function as spirits that bring messages from God. An angel brings word to Abraham to spare Isaac. An angel wrestles with Jacob. Angels help Daniel interpret God’s visions. In the New Testament, the angel Gabriel announces the births of Jesus and John the Baptist; and angels assist Jesus when he is tempted in the desert and during his agony in the garden. In varying gospel accounts, angel(s) are witnessed at the empty tomb, and Matthew credits an angel with rolling the stone back from the entrance.
So who are these angels? What are they all about?
The branch of Christian theology that attempts to answer these questions, angelology, developed in the fourth century, beginning with St. Ambrose and St. Jerome, but really taking off with the theologian Pseudo-Dionysius. Pope St. Gregory the Great developed his own hierarchy of the angelic choirs, and St. Thomas Aquinas discusses angels in his Summa Theologica. While their ideas about the nature and organization of angels vary somewhat, they agree on several key truths about angels: Angels are created spirits, having intellects and wills, but no bodies. Their presence in Scripture witnesses to a God who is not a passive God, but a God who is an active agent operating in the world, sometimes in ways that are somewhat mysterious for humans to understand.
Angels are celebrated in the church’s liturgical calendar on October 2nd because the church desires to celebrate God’s mysterious providence in creation. In the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI from his Angelus address on October 2, 2011, “the Lord is ever close and active in humanity’s history and accompanies us with the unique presence of his Angels. … From the beginning until the hour of death, human life is surrounded by their constant protection. Angels are yet another manifestation of the ever-provident care of our endlessly generous God who did not set creation in motion and leave it to its own devices, but who seeks, each day, to draw creation back towards the Divine Love from which it came.”
Angels, which may be so uncomfortable to our scientific minds that want to reduce the world to explainable phenomena, reminds us that the physical world of our five senses is not the sum total of reality. Indeed, there are more things in heaven and earth, says Hamlet, “than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Creation comes from the God who is mystery, and creation is itself mystery.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!