About Guardian Angels

 

 

 

October 2 is the Feast of Guardian Angels, but how much do we know about guardian angels? In recent years, two things have happened. Outside of the Church, theology about the role of angels has been twisted and altered to fit in with New Age ideas or else toned down so that angels are thought of as nothing more than kind, smiling “guys in sparkling pajamas,” as a child in the 90’s remake of the film Angels in the Outfield describes. As a result, Catholics have either adopted some these views, or on the other side, have taken a hands-off approach, backing off from the subject out of caution.

 

However, belief in angels has been a part of our faith since the very beginning, even well before the time of Christ. The angels played roles throughout the Old Testament and the New. To briefly summarize the Catholic doctrine that angels were created, as was man, and that angels are pure spirit, the Catholic Encyclopedia states:

 

“The angels are represented throughout the Bible as a body of spiritual beings intermediate between God and men: "You have made him (man) a little less than the angels" (Psalm 8:6). They, equally with man, are created beings; "praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts . . . for He spoke and they were made. He commanded and they were created" (Psalm 148:2-5; Colossians 1:16-17). That the angels were created was laid down in the Fourth Lateran Council. The decree "Firmiter" against the Albigenses declared both the fact that they were created and that men were created after them . . . We mention it here because the words: "He that liveth for ever created all things together" (Ecclesiasticus 18:1) have been held to prove a simultaneous creation of all things; but it is generally conceded that "together" (simul) may here mean "equally", in the sense that all things were "alike" created. They are spirits; the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister to them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14).”

 

Furthermore, Catholic doctrine states that within the realm of angels, there is a hierarchy:

 

 

It is believed, as discussed in Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, that guardian angels are part of the lowest order in the hierarchy. The focus in this article is on guardian angels, but you can read more about the other angels in depth in books such as The Angels and Angels and Demons: What Do We Really Know About Them?

 

While belief in guardian angels has been in the mind of the Church since the earliest days, the notion that each soul is assigned an angel from birth to death has not been explicitly defined by the Church, and so is not a definitive article of faith. The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls "angels" is a truth of faith (Catechism of the Catholic Church 328), but as the assignment of guardian angels is not overtly defined, the greatest Catholic theologians have discussed this at length throughout the Church’s history.

 

There were some who believed guardian angels were assigned only to some people and not all men. In large part, this claim was made because Jesus is greater than all angels, and so it seems he would not have need of one, and that Adam and Eve, while still innocent would not need a guardian angel. St. Thomas Aquinas answers these ideas eloquently in his Summa. Christ indeed is greater than any angel. However it is written in scripture that God sent angels to minister to him, and so angels were appointed to Christ, though they were inferior to him, where angels are on a superior level to other men. St. Thomas also explained why the first man and woman would indeed have need for angels:

 

 

Some also believed that unbelievers may not be appointed angels, such as Origen, who like some others, at times said that sinners were excluded from the privilege of angelic ministry. St. Thomas also answers this in his Summa: