This article was first
published in The Catholic Herald
Encounters with Angels
By Dwight Longenecker
A visit to Glastonbury, the hub of British New
Age-ism will reveal an extraordinary interest in angels. But a quick
look at the books on offer make you realise that the New Age understanding
of angels stretches from ‘listening to the light within’ to the fully
fledged summoning up of the ‘dark angels’ in other words, modern
angel-ology is the stuff of fantasy, neo-gnosticism and a rather
nasty occult religion.
In the face of this phenomenon
Catholics might be inclined to steer clear of angels altogether.
But that would be to
throw the angel out with the exorcism. The story of Christmas reminds
us that from the beginning angels have been part of our revealed
religion. It is an article of the Catholic faith that angels are
real. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "The existence
of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually
calls 'angels' is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as
clear as the unanimity of Tradition." (CCC para. 328) Other
Christians agree. A survey amongst Christian denominations discovered
that most Christian denominations agree with the Catholic Church
on the basics about angels.
They all agreed that angels
are created by God. They
dwell in His presence. They are sent as His messengers to earth.
They are of superior intelligence. They have no bodies, but can take
visible form. They also agree that while there are good angels, there
also exists a band of fallen angels who have similar powers, but
have twisted their energies against the good.
The best way of recognising good angels is to understand
their role in the economy of redemption. To do this we need to know
and understand not only that angels are real, but how they have interacted
with the human race down through history. To do this we have to look
at the Scripture record.
Angels appear in the Bible story from the first pages
of Genesis right through to the final pages of the Book of Revelation.
But it is Jacob's dream of angels ascending and descending to heaven
that gives us the best picture of the role of angels. We learn from
Jacob's dream that angels are messengers of heaven. They communicate
between heaven and earth at God's command for the benefit of human
beings. Continuously through Scripture the angels protect, lead and
guide God's people.
In the New Testament the angels are integral to the
mystery of the Incarnation. They are present to give God's message
of the incarnation, first to the Blessed Virgin Mary, then to Zachariah,
then to Joseph, finally to the shepherds. During Jesus' life they
were there at his conception, his birth and his trial in the wilderness.
They strengthened him in the Garden of Gethsemane and were present
to proclaim his resurrection. An angel delivers Peter from prison
and angels surround the throne of God in John's heavenly vision in
the Book of Revelation.
Angels fulfil three roles in the Scripture and these
roles help us to understand their proper role in our spiritual lives.
The word angel comes from the Greek word angelos which means
'messenger', and all through the Scriptural account the angels were
God's messengers to mankind. In each situation the angels were not
only God's messengers, but they were also channels of peace and joy.
In every instance they serve God and point back to his glory. They
do so because they are creatures of praise. So angels proclaim and
they praise.
Thirdly, the angels are sent by God as our spiritual
guardians. The Archangel Michael is the protector of Israel (Dan.
10.13; Rev.12.7) and Jesus himself affirmed that we all have our
guardian angels (Matt. 18.10). The angels are there to encourage
us in our Christian life. The writer to the Hebrews calls them, 'ministering
spirits sent forth for the sake of those who will obtain salvation'
(Heb. 1.14).
These three roles of the angels--messengers,
worshippers and guardian-guides reveal the proper ways for us to
interact with
the angels. First, the angels' whole existence is to praise and
worship God and do his bidding. So we work with the angels when we
enter into worship. In worship we sing with the angels in heaven; "Holy,
Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts." With the angels of the Nativity
we sing "Glory to God in the Highest." Whenever we worship
we are working with the angels. We are coming alongside them, and
they are joining with us in the worship of the ages-- the cosmic
liturgy of the Lamb.
Secondly, we work with the
angels whenever we proclaim God’s message. The angels' message always
points to Christ. Throughout the Scriptures the message of the angels
was interwoven with the
coming of Christ--either in the Old Testament salvation history or
in the New Testament gospel account. The two-fold task is expressed
in the phrase, 'Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to his people
on earth.' in the first phrase we praise. In the second we proclaim
peace to his people on earth. Proclaiming the gospel with our words
and in our lives is the second way we work with the angels.
The third way we work with the angels is to ask for
their protection, guidance and help. This is where Christian practice
sounds a bit similar to New Age practice. But there are some important
differences. We do not ask the angels to help us 'affirm the God
that is within us' like New Age religion does. Neither do we summon
the angels and open our lives to them. The Holy Spirit may dwell
within our hearts, but angels don't. They guide and guard us by walking
beside and before us. In this respect it is especially good to invoke
St.Michael and our guardian angel. When we are in a time of danger
or temptation we can ask their help as we would ask the help of an
experienced guide while climbing a mountain. They are there to lend
us a hand, point out the way and to help keep us from falling.
Praise and Proclamation and
Protection may not seem quite as exciting as ‘listening to the light within’ or summoning
up dark spirits, but our faith is incarnational. The child in the
manger reminds us that Christianity is real and practical not esoteric
and otherworldly. We have real bodies and live in a real physical
world, and our religion does not help us to escape this, but to enter
into it more fully. The angels respect and admire our physical bodies.
They love our physical-ness because their Lord took on human flesh
and was born of a woman. Angels do not wish for us to go above the
physical and ordinary things of life. They know that it is in flesh
and blood and sweat and tears that we find God. As the poet Henry
Vaughn has written, 'Here in dust and dirt, Oh here! the lilies of
His love appear.' And it is in this dust and dirt of ordinary prayer,
and pleas for protection that we co-operate most powerfully with
the angels in heaven and make the simple story of Christmas come
alive in our lives.
