“God will put His angels in charge of you to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands to keep you from hurting your feet on the stones” (Psalm 91:11)
Today’s computers claim to offer instantaneous information on any topic imaginable. One need only to access a topic using the search engines, among the best being Google, the contemporary version of the old-fashioned encyclopedia. It’s actually a parody of the encyclopedia. Remember the old song: “Barney Google with the goo-goo-googley eyes?” Same idea. Same root: Cyclops.
So I accessed the topic Angels. And true to form I had an answer. In fact a variety of answers:
Angels: Anaheim Angels; Charlie’s Angels; Hell’s Angels; More.
More did not lead me to the angels I was seeking, only more of the same—tickets to the Anaheim Angels ball park, listing of the TV shows and films of the female sleuths, and description of the infamous motorcycle organization. Refusing to be daunted I pursued my quest and was taken to a site where I was inundated with a variety of saccharine verses including the word “angel” for various occasions.
How did it happen that many have lost touch with the Biblical angels sent by the Lord as messengers for the salvation of human beings, who announced to certain persons what their role would be in God’s plan for mankind, accompanying our Lord, God and Savior at His entry, mission and ascension from earth? Prayers for their guidance and protection are in every Orthodox Christian prayer book. In our churches akathists are addressed to the angels. Even in western Christianity, at least in the past, they were taken seriously. Recall when Hansel and Gretel in the opera by that name were lost in the forest, they took comfort in knowing that fourteen angels surrounded them as they slept. Yet now in these times angels appear only during the period between Thanksgiving to Christmas. It happened over the centuries. When western Christianity considered it an advance in spirituality to abandon their interest in the transcendent realms and chose instead to lower their vision to concentrate on the world and exclusively human interests, the existence and functions of the bodiless beings ceased to be of concern. As one writer put it: The proper study of mankind is man.
The demons had lost their power to intimidate and terrorize. They were demoted from monsters of the night and incubi of nightmares to the gargoyles in the gutters of cathedrals, and eventually to the ghosts and red imps of Halloween, more charming than frightening. In the culture we live in dominated by western Christianity, we are conditioned neither to fear the powers of darkness nor pray to guardian angels. May they have a revival in our spiritual development.
Angels have become a euphemism for something positive. But oddly enough, demons and devils are not considered negative, just adventurous. In a society that has no place for sin, a professional hockey team will call itself “Devils” to suggest a roughhouse, don’t-give-a-care attitude to opponents. How many Blue Devils teams, bands, and organizations cherish that name? Fathers encourage their sons, and in these days daughters as well, to show spirit. “You little devil!” is a sign of approval for evidence of combativeness and shrewdness. The terms “angel” and “devil” have lost all of their original meaning, along with virtue and wickedness, good and evil, salvation and sin.
The irony of it all is that we claim to be a society of believers, and Christianity is the stereotype for American faith in God. In the street, to proclaim an active, consistent and serious communication with the angels, to confess that you include in your daily prayers an appeal to your guardian angel to protect and pray for you, to thank your angel and patron saint for their concern for your soul is to expose yourself to criticism if not ridicule from modern “Christians.” But not to take into account the presence of the angels and their role in your salvation is to abandon yourself to the spiritual myopia of our society.