Angels are the link between God and humans. Most of the books of the Bible mention stories where angels are present or which illustrate angelic activity. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). By “heavens” the author could not have intended the “skies,” as the creation of the skies comes later in Genesis 1:8. St. Augustine also taught that God’s command “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3) was actually the decree by which he made the angels. When Genesis describes the separation of light from darkness (v. 4), it is recounting the rebellion of Satan and the demons: "His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth" (Rev 12:4). This must have preceded the sin of Adam and Eve, because the first couple gave in to demonic temptation (Gen 3:1–6).
All of the stories that we find in the Bible about angels make us realize that they must be real. But before we go any further, we need to answer this question: "What is an angel?" An angel is "a spiritual, personal, and immortal creature, with intelligence and free will, who glorifies God without ceasing and who serves God as a messenger of His saving plan" (CCC-Glossary).
An angel is a spiritual being. Sometimes they may take human form for our benefit because honestly, if they were to appear to us in their spiritual form we would probably faint. "Tobias went out and found the angel Raphael standing in front of him; but he did not perceive that he was an angel of God" (Tobit 5:4). Pictures portray angels as these beautiful little cherubs but they are anything but. They are huge and scary, that is why, every time they appear to someone in the Bible in their natural form, the first words out of their mouths are usually: "Do not be afraid."
"The first generation of Christians enjoyed the service of the angels and observed a remarkable degree of familiarity with them" (4-Ch 6, pg 78). After an angel frees Peter from prison, he goes to the door of the house church. There, the congregation cannot believe it’s really Peter—but they have no trouble concluding that they are seeing his angel (Acts 12:13–15).
An angel is a personal being. Each angel is an individual person created by God. "He commanded and they were created" (Psalm 148:2-5). Angels are a very personalized expression of God's love who have intelligence and free will. Imagine how much God loves us that He has placed these creatures at our service to guide and to guard us. God wants to bring us home and He places at our command everything that we need to help us find the way to our heavenly home.
God created angels to be our guides and guardians. Every Sunday if we attend mass, we profess our faith in God who created "all things visible and invisible." We shouldn't miss out on their much needed help simply because we cannot see them. Our guides and our guardians will be walking with us on this journey to Christmas. Let's be open to their help and counsel.
Sources:
1-The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible
2-Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
3-"Entertaining Angels" by Mike Aquilina (Catholic Scripture Study International 2013)
4-"Angels and Saints" by Scott Hahn 2014
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