The earliest references to angels could be found in the Book of Genesis. After Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit and were punished by God with their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
God therefore posted two cherubim at the gate to prevent them from eating from the tree of life.
Our modern day representation of cherubim as baby angels with wings raises a question as to how such creatures could frighten adults.
In the Old Testament days their impression of cherubim was dragon-like creatures with characteristics of wild beasts. That is why the Cherubim could frighten Adam and Eve from entering the Garden.
The Bible is not consistent about the physical appearance of angels. Sometimes they are described as having wings such as the angel who announced the resurrection. Other times they appear to have human appearance such as the case of angel Raphael who travelled with Tobias. It was after being together for months that he had to tell Tobias that he was an angel.
Angels of the early Church
The Lord addresses each of the seven early Churches by means of instructing angels to record His dictation. These 'secretary' angels are the angels of the Churches:
• Church of Ephesus (Rv 2:1)
• of Smyrna (Rv 2:8)
• of Pergamum (Rv 2:12)
• of Thyatira (Rv 2:18)
• of Sardis (Rv 3:1)
• of Philadelphia (Rv 3:7)
• of Laodices (Rv 3:14)
Angels As Special Creatures
The Catholic Church teaches that God created out of nothing-pure spirits called angels. It is believed He did so sometime during the six days of creation mentioned in Genesis 1, but prior to the creation of man. He made the angels immortal and endowed them with an intellect and a will more perfect than those he would give man, yet infinitely less perfect then the divine intellect and will.
The Creator Himself is so powerful and glorious that He cannot be approached in person by human beings. He alone "hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto: whom no man hath seen, nor can see (1 Timothy 6:16). Angels do not have man's shortcomings, and can therefore act for God and represent Him when communicating with men and women. They bridge the huge gap between the holiness and perfection of God in heaven and the shortcomings of dying people on this planet. Angels were made immortal (that is, never to die).
Their eternal quality was spoken of by Jesus when he said:
"They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God. being the children of the resurrection." (Luke 20:35.36)
Jesus was saying that, in the same way as the angels (the children or "sons" of God) live for ever and are of one gender, so those who will be called the "sons" and "daughters" of God when Jesus returns will also live for ever and will not marry.
That God created the angels is something we can know only from Divine Revelation. It is implied in Exodus 20:11: "For in six days Yahweh (God) made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that these hold." St. Paul explicitly says so in Colossians 1:16: "For in him (Christ) were created all things in heaven and on earth, everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, dominations, principalities, powers."
Christ attests to the angels' immortality: "Because (the resurrected) can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels" (Lk. 20:36).
Christ confirms the blessedness of the good angels: "See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of the Father in heaven" (Mt. 18:10). He likewise attests to the eternal damnation of the bad angels or demons: "Next (the Son of Man) will say to those on his left hand, 'Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt. 25:41).
Scripture calls the angels spirits. Paul distinguishes "the spiritual army of evil in the heavens," that is, the bad angels who in early Christian times were thought to live between the earth and the heavens where God dwells, from "human enemies," that is, man (Eph. 6:12)
The superior knowledge of the angels is referred to in 2 Samuel 14:20: "But my Lord has the wisdom of the angel of God; he knows all that takes place on earth." Psalm 103:20 tells of the might of the angelic will: "Bless Yahweh, all his angels, heroes mighty to enforce his word, attentive to his word of command."
That the angels' intellects have limitations ought to be clear from 1 Corinthians 2:11:"
The depths of God can only be known by the Spirit of God," that is, by no one else, neither human nor angelic. That the angels have mutable wills ought to be evident from the fall of the evil angels (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6).
The number of the angels is exceedingly great. Scripture speaks of millions (or myriad) in Hebrews 12:22. Daniel 7:10 speaks of "ten thousands times ten thousand" of them, as does John in Revelation 5:11. Christ, in Matthew 26:53 speaks of "twelve legions of angels" (Six thousand made up Roman legion).
Divine Nature Of Angels
The Church teaches that God created all of the angels in the state of sanctifying grace, that is, with a personal participation in his own divine nature. He did so because He wanted them to attain the supernatural end He established for them, the Beatific Vision in heaven.
In his City of God, St. Augustine (A.D.403) teaches that the angels were given sanctifying grace to make them good and actual graces so they would be able to stay good (Book XII, 9). St. John Damascene (d. A.D.749) also teaches: "All the angels were created by the Word and perfected by the Holy Spirit through sanctification; corresponding to their dignity and to their order of rank they became participants in the illumination and the grace" (On the Orthodox Faith II, 3).
Having infused the gift of grace into the angels, God then required that they, by means of their free will, merit their ultimate end, the Beatific Vision. So, He gave them a moral test. The good angels passed, and as a reward were allowed to enter into the eternal beatitude of heaven (Mt. 18:10); the bad angels failed, and with Lucifer, their leader, were eternally condemned to hell.
Ranking
The ranks of angels are given in Scripture: Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. Principalities, Powers, Dominations, Virtues, Archangels and Angels. Among these choirs, the archangels were seen as very powerful messengers of God.
Only three archangels are named in the Bible namely Michael, Raphael and Gabriel.
Ancient Jewish writings also mention another four; Uriel, Remiel, Raguel and Sariel. This would have made the archangels seven in number which is the number for perfection.
It is worthy to note that all the names of the archangels end in 'el' which means God in Hebrew and each name proclaims something about God.
Raphael means that God is a healer; Gabriel means that God is a great warrior and Michael means that no one is like our God.
Role Of Angels
The primary role of the good angels is to glorify and serve God their Creator. That they glorify Him and also serve as God's messengers to man is demonstrated in the Scripture.
The English word "angel" comes from the Greek angelos, which means 'messenger'. In the Old Testament, with two exceptions, the Hebrew word for "angel" is malak, also meaning 'messenger'. The prophet Malachi took his name from this word. He was himself a messenger, and he prophesied about the coming of "the messenger of the covenant", Jesus Christ (Malachi 3:1).
An angel carried the good news to the parents of Samson that they would soon have a child; angels prevented Abraham from sacrificing his son on Mount Moriah; the angels also announced the birth of Jesus Christ to the shepherds in the fields.
The secondary role played by the angels is to protect and lead men to salvation. "The truth is they are all spirits whose work is service, sent to help those who will be the heirs of salvation" (Heb. 1:14). The angels also present man's prayers to God (Tob. 12:12), preside over the destiny of the nations (Dan. 10:13-21) and beginning with Zechariah, explain to the prophets the significance of their visions (Ezek. 40:3ff: Zech. 10:8ff).
The angels will gather the elect and turn away the reprobate from God's Kingdom at the Resurrection on the Last Day (Mt. 24:31, 13:41ff).
From the Resurrection on, God the Father, has subjected the angels to his Son Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:20ff). They acknowledge his power (Rev. 5:11ff; 7:11ff) and will form his escort when He comes on the Last Day. And so, the angels are subordinated to Christ, whom they have contemplated.
Who are our Guardian Angels?
According to traditional Catholic teaching, every person, no just Catholics, has been assigned by God, a guardian angel. This belief is rooted in the bible (Mt. 18:10; Acts 12:15). A heavenly spirit assigned by God to watch over each of us during our lives. The doctrine of angels is part of the Church's tradition.
The role of the guardian angel is both to guide us to good thoughts, works and words, and to preserve us from evil. Since the 17th century the Church has celebrated a feast honouring them in October throughout the Universal Church. Since the last calendar revision this feast is Oct 2
No evil shall befall you, nor shall affliction come near your tent, for to His Angels God has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways. Upon their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Psalm 91: 10-12
He has charged His angels with the ministry of watching and safeguarding every one of His creatures that behold not His face. Kingdoms have their angels assigned to them, and men have their angels; these latter it is to whom religion designates the Holy Guardian Angels. Our Lord says in the Gospel, "Beware lest ye scandalize any of these little ones, for their angels in heaven see the face of My Father." The existence of Guardian Angels, is, hence a dogma of the Christian faith: this being so, what ought not our respect be for that sure and holy intelligence that is ever present at our side; and how great our solicitude be, lest, by any act of ours, we offend those eyes which are ever bent upon us in all our ways!
We should ask our angel for protection, with the following prayer.
Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
to whom God's love commits me here,
ever this day be at my side,
to light and guard,
to rule and guide. Amen.
Fall Of The Bad Angels
The Catholic Church infers this moral testing from the fact that some of the angels obviously fell. Divine Revelation does not specify the exact nature of the angel's test. However, because they are spiritual beings, it undoubtedly was a spiritual test, and the sin of the bad angels, pride.
The fall of our first parents helps shed some light on what may have been the nature of the angels' testing. The devil, in the guise of a serpent, tempts Eve, saying: "God knows that on the day you eat it (the forbidden fruit) your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5).
Eve believed the serpent, took the fruit took the fruit and gave some to Adam; both, in their pride thinking they would now attain to more knowledge than God had originally given them. The devil, having himself fallen through pride, was successful in getting man to fall in the same way.
The bad angels wanted, in their pride, to be equal to God, having all knowledge, yet, because of their intelligence, they knew this would be impossible. So, they simply rebelled and refused to serve Him. Instead, they followed their leader, Lucifer. Michael the archangel defeated them and cast them out of heaven into hell.
Catholic tradition sees in the sin of Adam and Eve a reflection of the prior sin of the bad angels. In fact, the primary role of the bad angels (the demons) is to tempt men to pride and thereby lead them away from God.
We acknowledge reference to the writings of Msgr. Richard M. McGuinness, Rev. John A. Quill and Fr. Jude Winkler, OFMConv in the preparation of this article.
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