“…he shall give his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways” (King James Bible, Psalm 91:11)

The angels have always been a familiar reality in the lives of Christians, from Our Lady and the Apostles to the present day.  Indeed, they played a prominent part in the history of the first years of our Holy Faith – the announcement to Zechariah of the birth of John the Baptist and to Our Lady of the Birth of Jesus; the Nativity in Bethlehem, the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, Our Lord’s temptations in the wilderness, his agony in Gethsemane, his Resurrection on Easter Day, his Ascension into Heaven, and, after the establishment of his Church, the escape of St Peter from prison on the eve of his execution – all these events were attended by God’s angels, acting sometimes as his messengers, sometimes as his appointed guardians.

It is chiefly in this latter capacity that they share our lives, for each one of us, at our birth, was assigned a Holy Guardian Angel to be our personal protector.  It is in this way that God sees to the safety of our souls and bodies and looks after us in danger and temptation – just as he also uses the services of people for the same purpose.

This fact was given prominence by Our Blessed Lord in his warning against despising the spiritual welfare of little children.  “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven” (NRSV, Matthew 18:10).

But this saying also contains the fundamental purpose of our human life by setting alongside – as it does – the beginning of our life as little ones in this world, with the end to which our life is meant to lead – with the beholding of God himself, that is, to the Beatific Vision.

The nearest approach to that which we reach in this life is the worship of the Eucharist where, with the angels and archangels and with all the company of Heaven we come before the very Throne of God, which is visible to them who stand there at our journey’s end, though invisible as yet to us who are still on our way.

The angels also remind us of something else – the sort of people we must become before we can ourselves reach the Beatific Vision of God.  Our Lord has told us that it is the pure in heart who shall see God.  And when we remember that even the pure and holy angels, who have never once fallen into sin, veil their faces before the dazzling sanctity of their Maker and ours, then we realise the kind of perfection that will be required in us.  For, in the words of Holy Scripture addressed to the most Holy God, “Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing” (NRSV, Habakkuk 1:13.  “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil will not sojourn with you” (NRSV, Psalm 5:4).

That unchangeable feature of the Nature of God – his unyielding sanctity – is the basic fact of the Universe and therefore of our own lives in his sight.  God can never come to terms with evil in any shape, and when he meets it there is conflict.

An example of this is to be found in that strange, supernatural struggle when “war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.  The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven” (NRSV, Revelation 12:7,8).

And there was conflict again when God the Son came into the world and confronted Satan on his own ground – on the hill of Calvary.

Nor, being God, can he overlook, still less condone, even the faintest shadow of sin in ourselves.  And when he meets Satan in our own souls that same conflict breaks out and discloses itself to us as the familiar struggle between conscience and temptation.  When conscience wins, we have thrust out Satan: when temptation wins, we have thrust out God.

For that reason perfection can be attained only by faithfully and persistently resisting those evil promptings which seek to deface the image of God in our souls.  As St Peter puts it, “Discipline yourselves; keep alert.  Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, steadfast in your faith…” (NRSV, 1 Peter 5:8,9).

Without that spiritual struggle we shall never reach Heaven, for the soul that has ceased to struggle is being carried off as a defeated prisoner in the opposite direction.  Of this truth we have Our Blessed Lord’s own assurance: “Fight your way in at the narrow door…” (Luke 13:24 – see note), “…for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.  For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (NRSV, Matthew 7:13,14).  And, indeed, there are few who want to find it.

But Our Lord Jesus Christ trod the way that led to Calvary so that we could tread the way that leads to life, the life in his visible Presence with the blessed Saints and angels.

And if we faithfully keep close to him, within his Church, the power by which he mastered evil then will be given to us also, and under the protection of our Holy Guardian Angel, we can reach our true journey’s end.

Note

From the New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ translated from the Latin Vulgate by Knox, R. (1948) London: Burns Oates and Washbourne Ltd.