IN DEFENSE OF THE ANGEL ;
Taking the Black off the Crow
A quick web search for “Angel” will produce as many webpages are there are stars in the sky – but it is not an exercise I would advise you to undertake. The relatively few websites that contain correct, authentic Judeo-Christian teaching on Angels are surrounded like Lot in Sodom by webpages devoted to science-fiction interpretations, New Age mythological retellings, explanations of Angels as aliens from another star, Witchcraft sites which claim that Angels will assist with spells and sorcerous incantations, and many more. And that is not even beginning to count the pages of companies with “Angel” in their name, the girls on MySpace called “CutieAngel7364” or the seeming-hundreds of pornographic starlets who have taken the – ironic – sobriquet “Angel”.
Even on a website devoted exclusively to correct, authentic teaching of the Catholic Church, a banner advertisement offered “Top Five Sites For Angels”. As a fool, I clicked it – the screen refreshed as a scroll does when it is rolled together and I was presented with five examples of what I cite above.
Even a more pedantic, narrow search - “Archangel Michael” - gives results that I certainly wasn't taught in Sunday school. According to certain people, the great Prince of the Heavenly Host is the lover of Lilith, is a powerful spirit able to send familiars to discerning Witches, will smite your enemies for a gift of grain and brandy. He is anything but the pious, humble, terrible warrior and soldier I know and love.
God made the Angels for one purpose – to enact His Will. That is it – there is nothing more to them. They were made – as we were – to love, honor, obey and serve Him and Him alone.
I am angry about this – Michael and his legions have defended me and mine for thousands of years, through dangers uncounted. When I was lost and lonely, when I thought I didn't have the strength to go on, when it seemed as if I had no allies left, God's legions were there for me. At the dawn of time, before the dawn of time, when the great rebellion happened and the spiritual war began, Michael was there on the front lines. He didn't complain, he didn't vacillate, he didn't ask why or how – he just went and he did what God told him to do; he fought the being that could have been his brother and was now a hideous, dark reflection of everything that a glorious Angelic being should be.
And now little girls who play with sticks of willow and pentagrams of salt, silicon-enhanced harlots with bleached hair and minds, and conspiracy theorists who have sniffed one-too-many Magic Markers malign him by calling him something he is not? You think I will remain silent, you think I'll let this slide, you think I am going to take this lying down?
And it's not just the obvious evils that trouble me – there are subtler, more seductive errors into which one can fall, and into which many do. There are the stories which sound quite Christian, quite religious. Apparitions never authenticated by the Church, tales of additional offices which sound quite Michaelite but categorically are not. You will find books who list the names and offices of Angels – taken from spurious visions and books of scripture never included in the Holy Bible. You can find guidelines on how to name your Guardian Angel.
Angels have names, and I am sure they have offices – but God only told us the names and offices of three of them. Sinful men should not seek to impose their own Wills and desires upon something greater than themselves.
Oh, but wait! Because there is a worse error open to you – the pendulum can swing too-far the other way, and therein lie true heresies. In trying to ensure that the Angels are not maligned, that their offices are made plain, that they are not cheapened or corrupted by petty falsehoods, the door to apotheosis is opened.
Apotheosis – god-making. Search hard enough, wade through the trash of the pretty websites and colorful paperbacks with little Fairy-like beings on their covers, and you will find those who call Michael and his ilk gods. You will find those who worship the Angels with the veneration we are explicitly told to reserve for one Being only. You will even find those who claim that Jesus Christ was merely the incarnation of the Archangel Michael.
Make no mistake – Michael is one of the greatest beings in Creation, he is greater than us, holier than us, more powerful than anything we can imagine. But he is a created-being – he is not God. He was made – as we were. He is a servant – as we are.
For those of you who want to worship Angels, remember the words of one of them to Saint John the Divine in the last book of the Bible; “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” (Rev 22:9)
How much clearer can it be made? Only one Angel has ever asked for worship, and – as far as I am concerned – he should turn in his wings. Michael has already spoken with him about this on a number of occasions, and each and every time the Adversary has come off worse.
Just so that you are aware, my anger at this transcends normality. I think your anger should too, but I recognize that my devotion to the Angels and especially to Michael is extreme. I understand them, I know the patterns of their thoughts and loyalty and wish I could reproduce it. Maybe it's a military thing, maybe it's a guy thing – I don't really care.
As far as I am concerned, this is a Christian thing, this is a Catholic thing. This is steering a narrow and difficult course between Scylla and Charybdis, between making Angels out to be unconnected with God and making Angels out to be gods themselves.
You do no favors to God or the Angels themselves by that. In so far as a being who knows God as intimately as an Angel does can be made angry, you invite their wrath. You certainly disappoint them. It is not what God asked for, it is not what He commands.
Do you want to make an Angel angry? You are braver than I if you do. Do you want to defy God's own words and instructions? You are more foolish than I if you do.
What the Angels are is very simple indeed – they are beings who obey the Will of God without question, without qualm, without reservation. We should spend a little more effort trying to make ourselves more like them, and a little less trying to make them more like us.