Angels: myth or reality?

IT’S DECEMBER, when Christmas and images of Jesus’ birth come to mind: the child in the manger, Joseph, Mary, the ox, the ass, the shepherds, and choirs of Angels in the sky above the little stable at Bethlehem.
The Gospel of Luke tells us that on the night Jesus came to earth, an Angel appeared to the shepherds who were watching over their flocks in the countryside and said to them: “Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you the news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”(Luke, 2:10-13; Jerusalem Bible). At that moment, the Evangelist adds that a great throng of the heavenly host had gathered around the Angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favour”(Luke,2:14).
But the Angels had already set themselves to work even before Jesus’ birth: one Angel announced the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah; the Angel Gabriel had announced Jesus’ birth to Mary and an Angel had informed Joseph that his wife was expecting. All the events preceding and following Christmas are populated by Angels.

Purification or loss?

What do these stories really mean? Who are the Angels? Are they real creatures or literary symbols used to express one of God’s interventions?
In the first centuries of Christianity the Church gave great importance to the Angels. The theologians of those times wrote volumes and volumes upon them. Saint Thomas Aquinas himself, in his Summa Theologiae, dedicates long chapters to them. Later on, though, interest on these heavenly creatures gradually began to subside, until the point that a number of theologians, mainly in the middle of the last century, expressed the desire to ‘purify’ the Christian faith of the presence of Angels and demons.
One of these purifiers was Rudolf Bultmann, a Lutheran, who lived from 1884 to 1976. He was regarded as one of the most prominent theologians of the 20th century, and was for this reason held in great honour and esteem even from Catholic quarters. Bultmann maintained that the whole choir of Angels and their fluttering in biblical and ecclesiastical skies was merely a naïve legacy from a mythical vision of life and history, a pre-scientific and symbolic collection, worthy of being dumped in the archives of theological curiosities. In 1966, the New Dutch Catechism was published in Holland. This document was commissioned and approved by the Episcopacy of that nation, and held that “the whole matter regarding the reality of Angels and demons is irrelevant for salvation”. Two years later, still in Holland, a book titled Angels and Demons, signed by various theologians, maintained the same principle.

Reaction of some saints

These avant-garde theologians, however, were to meet the opposition of some great saints living in the 20th century, chief of whom was Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, the stigmatised Capuchin friar, who was canonised in June 2002. Padre Pio was a contemporary of Rudolf Bultmann. While the German theologian was attempting to ‘cancel’ the Angels from theology, Padre Pio became one of their most enthusiastic and staunch defenders.
Angels were, for him, a concrete, living reality and an essential part of his daily spiritual life; especially Guardian Angels. He often said to his ‘Spiritual Children’: “whenever you need to talk to me but are unable to come, send me your Guardian Angel and I shall answer you through him”.
One of his fellow brethren, Father Alessio Parente, who for many years was closely associated with him, recounts that in the afternoons, when it was not too cold, Padre Pio was accustomed to stop at the convent veranda and converse with invisible beings. Father Alessio once asked him who he was talking to and Padre Pio replied: “I was busy with the Guardian Angels of my ‘Spiritual Children’, who come to me with their requests”. His faith in the traditional Christian truth regarding Guardian Angels was firm and sure. This truth holds that God entrusts a supernatural being to each person, with the task of ‘illuminating, guarding and helping’ during the course of human existence.
Padre Pio further explained: “since this task is ‘specific’ to that Angel, he does his utmost to fulfil it, because otherwise he would experience failure and his mission would have come to nothing. To be sure, he cannot act against the will of the person entrusted to him and who is gifted with free-will. He becomes, however, a most precious companion as soon as he finds even the slightest cooperation, and will go out of his way to fulfil his mission”. In his writings, Padre Pio maintains that the Guardian Angel was his playmate in his early childhood. He used to see him and talk to him. He then became his confident, his secretary, his helper, his messenger and defender. He even used to get his Guardian Angel to translate letters received in a foreign language. He maintained that the Guardian Angel gave him lessons in French and Greek. He made use of his Guardian Angel to send messages to his ‘Spiritual Children’ who were far away but also to forward letters to people whose address he didn’t know. The Angel defended him from the assaults of Satan and would comfort him for the sufferings inflicted on him by the devil.
Like Padre Pio, other saints of the 20th century have been ‘apostles’ of the Angels: Luigi Orione, Mother Teresa, Sister Faustina Kowalska, Maximilian Kolbe etc..

Popular subject

In very recent times, Angels have become a popular subject. They have become a fashion in the lay world and there are countless books, conventions, workshops, studies and essays on these supernatural beings. There are museums dedicated to them and even a new profession has arisen, that of ‘Angelology expert’.
The cinema, which is one of the most popular artistic expressions of our times, is deriving a lot of inspiration from the theme of Angels. One need only remember such works as Frank Capra’s masterpiece It’s Wonderful Life; Wings of Desire and Faraway, so Close by Wim Wenders; Angels, by the Walt Disney company; Date with an Angel, by Tom McLoughlin; Heaven can Wait, by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry; Heaven only Knows’ by Albert S. Rogell, Always, by Steven Spielberg; etc…
The syncretistic culture typical of our times, however, has broadened the concept of Angels, and has given it meanings which are unclear and shallow. According to some New Age masters, Guardian Angels are merely ‘energies’, and can be connected to the primordial elements of the universe and to the constellations, forming, in this way, a sort of ‘Angel-horoscope’. According to this system, there are supposed to be 72 Guardian Angels: 18 of which are connected to the element of Fire, 18 to the element of Water, 18 to that of Air and 18 to that of Earth. If we multiply 72 by 5, we get a total of 360, which is equal to the exact number of the degrees in the Zodiac Circle. Each Angel would therefore protect his faithful for five days a year.
This mass of inharmonious information has, in reality, produced incredible confusion. In the minds of most people, the word ‘Angel’, has lost its original religious meaning and has become abstract, empty and absurd. The reality of the ‘Angels’ has therefore once again been betrayed and emptied of any real meaning for the ordinary man-in-the-street.

Position of Church

The Church has, however, turned its attention again to this subject, after a period of apparent neglect, and has reaffirmed a few fixed points. The II Vatican Council has specified that the fundamental truth on this subject is the one contained in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, regarded as the ‘magna Charta’ of the Faith. This Creed is still recited in churches every Sunday during Mass. It affirms that: “God is creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible”. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published specifically for the purpose of giving precise answers to the doubts and questions aroused by the Council, has this to say in connection with the Angels in Paragraph 328: “The existence of spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls ‘Angels’, is a truth of faith”. When explaining the nature of these creatures, the Catechism states: “Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures… The Angels surround Christ their Lord. They serve him especially in the accomplishment of his saving mission to men… As purely spiritual creatures, Angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendour of their glory bears witness”.
This, therefore, is the Christian faith.
However, in order to deepen our understanding of the true and concrete teachings of the Church contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we have applied to a famous American theologian, Father Jude Winkler, of the Order of Conventual Franciscans. He is already known to the readers of this magazine on account of the clarity and precision of his brilliant articles.
Father Jude Winkler, from the statements of the II Vatican Council, and from those of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, must one conclude that the existence of Angels is an article of faith and therefore that every Catholic should believe firmly in the existence of these heavenly creatures?
Yes, we are called upon to believe that God created these spiritual creatures who serve His will in adoring Him, as messengers, as Guardians, etc. They are not simply a literary device (an image or symbol used to express God’s care for us). They are real creatures.
At the same time, there are different levels of importance in our beliefs. The Trinity, the fact that Jesus took on our human nature and died and rose for us, etc. – these are the highest levels of our beliefs. The existence of Angels is not quite at that level. It does not mean that we can pick and choose what we want to believe, but it does mean that not believing in Angels is certainly not as serious as not believing in some of the highest levels of beliefs in our faith.
The Catechism defines Angels as spiritual, incorporeal creatures ... gifted with intelligence and will-power. In what things are they similar to us humans and in what do they differ?
Angels and human beings were both created by God. We can both agree to live in God’s love, or we can rebel (which for both of us is an act of self-hate, for it is a denial of what God created us to be). We both have a God-given task to complete.
Unlike Angels, we will die (our physical bodies, not our immortal souls). We are subject to the weakness of our human fallen nature (that we often misuse the gifts of God’s creation). We are subject to the limits of time and space, which Angels are not.
Jesus, true God and true man was certainly gifted with intelligence and will but also with ‘feelings’, emotions. Do the Angels have feelings? Are they capable of love?
The question of whether Angels have feelings and can love is complicated.
First of all, love is most of all a choice, not an emotion. This is one of  the great mistakes of our modern world, confusing sexual and emotional attraction with love. These attractions are good and can lead to love if we use them well, but they are not love in itself. Love is the willingness to live and even die for another not because we feel good about it, but because we know that this is what is good. If love were only a feeling, then how could we possibly love our enemies or people who have hurt us?
Whether Angels have emotions is even more difficult to answer. Greek philosophers at the time of Jesus, especially the Stoics, believed that emotions were sign of our brokenness. They sought to escape from the world of emotion (we still use the word Stoic to denote a person who does not show much emotion). Since they believed that spiritual creatures were superior to material creatures, they posited that spiritual creatures could not experience emotion. Thus, they would argue that God (and Angels) do not have feelings.
Biblical revelation would not agree with this. The Bible speaks of God being joyful, angry, regretting, jealous, etc.
Furthermore, if we are created in the likeness and image of God, and emotion is part of who we are, then it must also express who God is. Granted, we humans are weak and we often express our emotions inappropriately (e.g. mixing the expression of our emotion with unhealthy doses of self-interest). Yet, emotion is not sinful (what we do with it might be, but not the emotion in itself).
Therefore, scripture and our human nature would both argue that God (and Angels) experience emotion. It is expressed at a higher level than we can (for we are broken), but God (and Angels) must certainly rejoice at the conversion of a sinner.
In order to indicate the work of Angels, the Catechism says: They glorify God incessantly and serve His Plan of Salvation for the benefit of other creatures .. They surround the Christ, their Lord. They serve Him, above all, in the performance of His mission of salvation for all men. Are these words a specific reference and confirmation in the traditional belief in Guardian Angels?
The Catholic Catechism speaks of Guardian Angels in Paragraph 336 when it states: “From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. ‘Besides each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life’(Saint Basil). Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of Angels and men united in God”.
The Catechism also maintains that Angels surpass in perfection all visible creatures. The radiance of their glory is witness to this. No human creature will therefore ever reach the perfection of an Angel: no saint, not even the greatest, will get anywhere near the greatness of an Angel. Therefore, if God has placed at our side a Guardian Angel, then it means that each one of us can dispose of a ‘body guard’, a personal protector, a very dear friend of inestimable value and power. Is it really so?
Our Church teaching tells us that we have a Guardian Angel, but I think that an equally important proof is our own experience. Have you ever been pondering a course of action and suddenly have known the right path? Have you ever been in danger and been liberated from the danger by what could either be an extraordinary coincidence, or what must have been a heavenly intervention? Have you ever asked your children’s Guardian Angel to watch over them? Some would call this all wishful thinking. I would call it everyday life teaching us the lesson that we are not alone. God protects us with His Angels.