Papa Malliaros writes

5th October

I believe in Angels

I’ve been asked to publish my thoughts about angels from last week’s sermon, so here goes. The context here is that Sunday was the feast of St Michael and All Angels (Michaelmas), so our readings were of Jacob dreaming about angels going up and down a ladder, Revelation reporting Michael being involved in a war in heaven, and Jesus telling Nathaniel that he would see “angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

To start with, a quote from ABBA.

I believe in angels;
Something good in everything I see.
I believe in angels.
When I know the time is right for me,
I'll cross the stream; I have a dream.

Do you believe in Angels, as ABBA famously sang? Or is it just a dream?

Every so often, there’s a story in the news about how many people believe in angels. Some are slightly concerning: “More than twice as many Americans believe in angels as in Climate Change! A 2015 survey found that 59% of Britons believe in angels, and a third believe they have a personal guardian angel. Even among those without religious affiliation, many still believe in angels or spiritual forces.

But what does this really tell us?  What it actually tells us is that public polling is rubbish. The way a question is framed is what influences the answer. If asked whether I believe in angels while being shown a Renaissance painting of cherubs, I would say no, despite being a priest. I believe in angels—just not the kind portrayed as chubby infants or whimsical beings from pop culture.

Angels often appear in popular culture, but not always realistically. Movies like City of Angels and Michael depict angels in romantic or quirky ways. Dogma features banished angels seeking a loophole to return to heaven, while The Preacher’s Wife and It’s A Wonderful Life show angels answering prayers to earn their wings. I ought to add that if you’re easily offended, you should avoid Dogma.

However, these portrayals are far from the reality described in scripture.

In the Bible, angels are agents of God’s will—messengers, warriors, and protectors. Revelation reminds us that God uses angels to watch over us, both directly and indirectly. While angels are depicted in art as humans with wings to show that time and space do not constrain them, swords to signify their power, and dazzling apparel to represent their ability to enlighten faithful humans, scripture portrays them as beings far beyond our comprehension, appearing when we least expect them, carrying out God’s will, and fighting against sin and evil on our behalf.

 

The word “angel” is from the Greek Angelos, which means “messengers.” They are messengers from God, sometimes visible, sometimes invisible, who may take human or non-human forms. In the Hebrew Scriptures, sometimes a character sees someone who speaks to them with authority, who they later realise was no mere human but a messenger of God. We may be aware of them, or we may not: the message will be delivered. If the message gets through, the messenger has been successful. If God's message gets through to you, there has a messenger, an angelos. An angel.

Of the many angels mentioned in the Bible, only four are called by name: the three Archangels, Michael, Uriel, and Raphael, and the Angel Gabriel. (Contrary to popular Western opinion, Gabriel is not an Archangel - Luke and the writer of Daniel are very clear on that point.)

In Jewish tradition, it’s Michael who intervened in the sacrifice of Isaac, wrestled with Jacob and saved the three young men from the fiery furnace in the Book of Daniel. In Christian tradition, Michael is regarded as a warrior—defeating Satan in the battle in heaven. Michael also appears in the Epistle of Jude. Michael is a fearsome warrior, very different from the cute Renaissance images.

Traditionally, Raphael (the name means “God heals”) is the one mentioned in the book of Tobit, where, disguised as a man, he accompanies the young Tobias on a mission, enables him to accomplish it, and provides medication to treat the blindness of his aged father.

Uriel (which means “God is my light”) is mentioned in 2 Esdras, and that is pretty much all our canonical scriptures tell us, though he and Raphael turn up sometimes in—how shall I put it—less reliable sources.

Gabriel is much more familiar to us because of his appearance in our Christmas nativity narratives. Gabriel (the name means “God is my champion”) is considered the special bearer of messages from God to men. He appears in Daniel 8 and 9 to explain some of Daniel’s visions. In the first chapter of Luke, he announced the forthcoming birth of John the Baptist to Zachariah and Jesus to the Virgin Mary.

The Bible tells us many stories of angels involved in the work and will of God. Abraham entertained angels; Angels gave Joshua instructions; Elisha commanded an army of them; angels set Ezra riddles. The writer of Daniel credited the fall of Babylon to their actions, and they appear to protect the eponymous hero in the lions’ den. Peter was sprung out of jail by an unnamed angel, and of course, angels were there at the resurrection.

Many faithful Christians struggle to believe in the reality of angels; to them, angels are as unbelievable as unicorns, gryphons, or phoenixes. The depictions of angels on the big screen and in saccharine nativity plays do not encourage us to take them seriously. But perhaps we should.

Undoubtedly, many of the scriptural references to angels are metaphorical or are simply the writers struggling to put into words something that defied rational description. But people continue to experience things that, while they might have a physical, scientific explanation, can be better described philosophically in terms of the actions of an agent of God.

To use one of my favourite quotes, Teresa of Avila famously said,

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.”

We are the mechanism by which God blesses all the world.

God continues to be interested in this, his world, and he continues to intervene through the actions of agents: you and me, and maybe through other channels as well. God uses human agents and sometimes acts through natural agencies, too.

I believe in Angels.

I’ve experienced moments where God’s message came through clearly, whether through the kindness of another person or an inexplicable feeling of divine presence. Sometimes, we are prompted to act in ways that seem beyond our understanding, only later realising the importance of that act of kindness. In those moments, we may unknowingly serve as angels.

And so this is the real message for today. In the difficult times, there will be angels around you, messengers, agents from God, doing God’s will on your behalf, fighting for you. And don’t be surprised if many of those angels look like people you know. God still sends them to you to give you the message of hope that God is on your side.

So many times when we read scripture, we find that he sent his angels to minister to the needs of his servants, to deliver the right help or the right message at the right time. Should you ever need such divine assistance, be assured that an angel of some description will be there.