At Christmastime, angels and the role they play in the history of salvation is highlighted both in the Scriptures as well as Church teachings.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states unequivocally: “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.” (Paragraph 328)
Quoting the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, the Catechism continues: “Angel is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is spirit; if you seek the name of their office, it is angel: from what they are, spirit;, from what they do, angel. (Paragraph 329)
The very word “angel” is derived from the Greek angelos, the word for a messenger. In Hebrew, the word for angel is malak, used to denote both those totally spiritual beings in Heaven who act as God’s mighty messengers as well as the earthly prophets who announce His Will to His Chosen People.
From the dawn of creation when the Evil Spirit (himself a fallen angel) successfully seduced humanity to sin against the Creator’s Will, to the Incarnation announced by the angel Gabriel, angelic spirits are an essential part of Messianic history.
Since the coming of Christ, angels are more than ever the messengers of the Good News which they first announced to the shepherds at Bethlehem.
In our modern culture, there is such a preoccupation with human psychology and physiology as to almost exclude the whole world of reality which is at once intelligent and deeply involved in the affairs of men. Even in Christian circles, there is only token attention paid to the existence and the ministry of angels among theologians.
Ironically, there exists at the same time an avalanche of modern day cults and movements which have gone to the other extreme. Preoccupation with the invisible powers of the world has produced scores of pseudo-religions that have also penetrated Catholic circles.
The New Age movement, borrowed from the Oriental non-Christian world, has deeply penetrated Catholic thinking in Europe and North America.
As we celebrate the Nativity of Christ, we take note of the many occasions upon which the angels were called upon by Our Heavenly Father to prepare for and to announce the Fulfillment of the Promise of Redemption.
And while angels appear frequently in Scripture, only Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are named.
Michael appears in Daniel’s vision as “the great prince” who defends Israel against its enemies; in the Book of Revelation, he leads God’s armies to final victory over the forces of evil. Devotion to Michael is the oldest angelic devotion, rising in the East in the fourth century. The Church in the West began to observe a feast honoring Michael and the angels in the fifth century.
Gabriel also makes an appearance in Daniel’s visions, announcing Michael’s role in God’s plan. His best-known appearance is an encounter with a young Jewish girl named Mary, who consents to bear the Messiah.
Raphael’s activity is confined to the Old Testament story of Tobit. There he appears to guide Tobit’s son Tobiah through a series of fantastic adventures which lead to a threefold happy ending: Tobiah’s marriage to Sarah, the healing of Tobit’s blindness, and the restoration of the family fortune.
The memorials of Gabriel and Raphael were added to the Roman calendar in 1921. The 1970 revision of the calendar joined their individual feasts to Michael’s.
The Church encourages devotion to the angels. In this context, devotion is to be understood as an expression of love which can manifest itself in different ways.
We show our devotion to the angels by our prayer, our imitation, and our angelic apostolate.
The single most Catholic feature of praying to the angels is invoking their help. Our faith tells us that the angels are powerful intercessors with God. We in invoke them, and they intercede for us. They constantly see the face of God. They have access to His wisdom and power. Through them we can obtain so many things we need, provided we ask them to plead for us before the throne of God.
The most fundamental imitation of the angels that we are to practice is their humble submission to the Divine Will. After all this is the basic difference between heaven and hell. The angels and saints are in heaven because they were obedient to the will of God. The demons and others in hell are there because they refused to submit to His divine majesty.
Moreover, there is one feature of angelic life that we are especially to imitate. They are always beholding the face of God and unceasingly meeting our many needs. Our task in life, therefore, is to imitate the angels by living in the divine presence while constantly serving the needs of others.
Finally, there are two basic graces that human beings need to reach their eternal destiny: they must know the truth with their minds, and choose what is truly good with their wills. Thus, we engage in the angelic ministry by sharing with others what our faith teaches us about the Lord and His love for all humanity.
We rejoice in proclaiming the existence and ministry of the angels and welcome the care they offer us individually and collectively as the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.
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