Do Angels Really Exist?
Put me on record as believing, yes. But not simply because the Church teaches so, or
because we implicitly confess their existence each week when, in the Creed, we say that
God created “all things invisible” as well as visible.
Rather, it is mere commonsense to believe that angels exist, for three reasons—first,
because otherwise the universe would be a strange and even a distorted place. If angels
did not exist, the only rational beings in the universe would be God and humans. This
would imply a vast, unaccountable gap in creation, because there is an infinite gap
between our weak and limited minds, and God. Yet that gap could easily be filled,
because a mind does not require a body to exist; and a mind which did not need to rely on
bodily sense-experience could in principle be much more powerful.
The most straightforward manner of existence of a rational mind is as something distinct
from anything material. It would be bizarre if God neglected to create anything of that
sort and instead created, as his only rational creatures, the paradoxically enfleshed unities
that we human beings are.
Second, it seems the almost universal testimony of human culture that something like
angels exist; and the best explanation of this, is that they do exist. Nearly every culture
has its lore about divine messengers, intermediaries, spirits, sprites, luminous beings, and
‘creatures of the air’. We intuitively sense that “we are not alone”. The Church’s
doctrine provides the correct interpretation of this common human intuition.
Third, there are countless particular reports of angels which, taken together, cannot be
dismissed as without basis. Mother Angelica’s story is typical. When she was a young
girl, she survived without injury a head-on collision by a speeding automobile.
Witnesses say that it looked as though she was picked up and placed down in another
spot. Mother Angelica credits an angel: “I will never forget that odd sensation of being
literally lifted.” Thousands of such stories exist, and they cannot be ignored.
These considerations only reinforce what Scripture says. Angels are intervening and are
active throughout salvation history. An angel expelled Adam and Eve from the garden;
an angel announced the gospel to Mary. It was an angel that warned St. Joseph and that
rescued St. Peter. Angels were the first heralds of the birth of the Messiah and of His
Resurrection. Christ claims authority over armies of angels, some of whom came to
assist Him after his prolonged fast in the desert.
Christ displayes a constant awareness of the existence of angels. If our task as Catholics
is to imitate Him, then surely we should be like Him in this also. To be Christ-like
implies thinking of angels not as pious fictions, or as beings who maybe did something
long ago in a distant land, but as real and active intelligences, powerful and present here
and now.
Everything that the Church proposes for us to believe is good for us to believe. Not
surprisingly, then, it is extremely helpful for a Christian to live with a lively awareness of
the reality of angels.
A Christian who believes in angels is led by that belief to appreciate that no prayer,
action, or sacrifice of a Christian is accomplished in isolation. Rather, everything that we
do as a Christian, we perform “in the sight of the angels” and as part of the “communion
of saints”. Very few people will do something disgraceful or irrational when other
human beings are watching: How many of us, then, will deliberately sin, if we are truly
convinced that holy, pure, and supremely intelligent beings are watching us?
The doctrine of angels includes the doctrine of demons: that malevolent spirits exist, who
seek our suffering and destruction. To believe in angels, then, is to understand,
correctly, that we live our lives in the midst of a supernatural battlefield, and that, from
the point of view of the demons, we human beings are no more than pawns.
But anyone who realizes this is thereby inoculated against much of the glamour of evil.
Tempted to commit adultery, fraud, or some other sin? From the viewpoint of angels,
that would not be some special gain for you. Rather, in a fairly commonplace way, you
would simply be making yourself the pawn of a supernatural enemy, who is happy to
dupe you as a means of waging a much bigger battle.
The best way for you, as a Catholic, to progress beyond a pious, ‘make believe’ attitude
toward angels, so that you have a real belief in them, is to pay attention to your guardian
angel. It is true: God appoints to each of us an angel to guide and instruct. We have this
on the express word of Christ: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I
say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father”
(Matt. 18:10).
Next time you are at dinner with your family, or in a meeting at work, look around the
room and count heads: then multiply by two, in order to discover the number of rational
beings who are present. Half of them, the guardian angels, are wholly on the side of any
good intention, thought, or plan you may form. Ask these holy beings for help—and you
may be surprised by what happens thereafter.