GUARDIAN ANGELS FOR WHOM?

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Wednesday, October 2, is the feast of the guardian angels. For most of us, I suppose, the notion of "guardian angels" evokes images of winged figures watching over small children, like heavenly babysitters. But, as is often the case, there is some deep theology going on in this traditional idea.

Let's start with the idea of the "Good News" that Jesus came to announce. We too often grab this stick by the wrong end, and think that it means that we fortunate ones can escape the earth and go to heaven. But it's really the other way around: the Good News is about heaven coming to earth. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Most people are holding the wrong end of the stick. But one of the central beliefs of Judaism is precisely this, that heaven touches earth. This happens in the temple, and also in the Torah, the Law. God comes close to us in these ways -- heaven touches earth. The Hebrew God intervenes in history to deliver his people through the Red Sea and guide them through the wilderness, and so on. It is against this backdrop that we should understand the belief in angels. Look at these texts: 

God uses an angel to guide the Israelites in the wilderness. "See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and obey him. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin. My authority is within him" (Exodus 23:20-21). 

In the Psalms: "He commands his angels... to guard you in all your ways" (Ps.91)

In the gospels Jesus says: “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" (Mt 18:10).

In the book of Tobit, the Lord sends the angel Raphael to guide and guard the young Tobiah on his journey.

Notice that these angels are sent to guard not children, but adults. Jesus refers to his disciples as "little ones" (in Greek, mikroi): "And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward” (Mt 10:42).

A footnote in the New American Bible says, "The high worth of the little ones is indicated by their being represented before God by these heavenly beings." But, then, think about it: WE are the "little ones," WE are of such "high worth" that each of us has his or her own heavenly representative before God, and who watches over us and who is sent by God to show us the right path. How cool is that!

So the feast of the "Guardian Angels" is not about God's care for little children as much as it is about God's care for us who are striving every day to live the gospel in our adult lives, and to hasten the arrival of the Kingdom, when for one last, definitive time, heaven will touch the earth.