Angels' Wings

Today is the “Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels,” and our Gospel from Matthew (18:1-5,10) reads: The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

“I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”  With that understood, we should consider the role of angels.  According to Professor Bernard Cooke in his 1996 book Why Angels? Are They Real…Really Needed?! (begin): “In the history of early Christian belief, angels don’t seem to be all that prominent, though there is some mention of them as taken for granted. They only started to assume importance when, in the wake of the Council of Nicaea and all the insistence on Christ’s divinity, people began to picture the risen Christ as far away in heaven.  In heaven, of course, he reigns as the Lod of the universe and the supreme judge of human behavior.  

And so, the risen Christ became not only “geographically” distant but psychologically less approachable.  The imposing, even threatening, pictures of Christ of glory on the ceiling of Romanesque chapels in medieval Catalonia make it unmistakably clear that the fear of the Lord Jesus is truly the beginning of wisdom. With believers still left on earth; heaven quite far away; and all of three divine persons ‘up there,’ there was a gap to be filled if people were to remain in contact with the divine.

Enter the angels, especially that great adversary of Satan, Michael the Archangel.  The prominence of Michael in Christian art and piety over the centuries is truly amazing.  So, once again the gap had been bridged; there was a ladder of beings stretching from heaven to the needy mortals here on earth, a steady commerce of angels carrying God’s help to us and carrying our prayers to the throne of God.  This is where many people still are today in their thinking about angels.” (end) 

Cooke’s perspective is interesting.  Nevertheless, our belief in guardian angels must never override the fact that we all must act as angels to those in need, as noted in this Pearls Before Swine cartoon.  There is no magic involved.  We already have wings [of angels, not fairies]. We just need to unfold them and then fly.

Deacon David Pierce