Do angels watch over us?

After three years of restoration, the statue of the Archangel Gabriel will soon return to “watch over the people of Lille”, according to a press release from the diocese. An approach far from any idolatry, which on the contrary uses a very ancient tradition to attract the graces of God.

The existence of angels is attested by Scripture in both Testaments. The book of Tobit thus tells the story of a young man to whom God sends the help of the angel Raphael, to protect him and enable him to marry Sarah (Tb 3:17). The Gospel of Matthew has Christ saying “take care that you do not despise even one of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 18, 10). In the Acts of the Apostles, it is through the intervention of an angel that Peter is released from prison (Acts 5:18-20). The Bible includes many other interventions by angels, including the very famous Annunciation of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary.

Tradition also gives angels a special place. Thus the Creed speaks of the Father “creator of the visible and invisible universe”, while the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “the existence of spiritual, non-corporeal beings, which Holy Scripture usually calls angels, is a truth of faith” (CCC 328). The whole Church recognizes and celebrates these purely spiritual creatures, who are “servants and messengers of God, workers of his word” (CCC 329).

A precious help for men

From the verse of Matthew cited above was born the tradition of “guardian angels”, according to which each human is assigned an angel particularly responsible for protecting them, interceding for them and leading them to God. In his Theological SummaSaint Thomas Aquinas specifies that “God has given a guardian angel to every man as long as he walks on the path here below” (Summa theologique, Iae, q113, a.4). According to the angelic doctor, angels contribute to the sanctification of man by illuminating his intelligence, by acting on his imagination or on his senses. They can also incline the will of men to good by making it desirable for them, or by arousing in them just passions (desire, anger, etc.) which push them to good (ST, Iae, q111, a.2).

Would man then be a puppet in celestial hands? No, because if the angels are there to invite him to act well and thus allow him to go to heaven, they cannot constrain the human will, which remains fundamentally free to refuse this assistance. Saint Thomas thus explains that “the guardian angel never completely abandons man, but he sometimes leaves him partly to himself, to the extent that he does not prevent him from being subjected to a tribulation or even that he falls into sin” (ST, Iae, q113, a.6).

Ask for help from angels

Devotions to angels are common in the Church. Thus Saint Michael is frequently invoked to protect himself from the devil. The prayer of the Angel of God (Angele Dei), attributed to the monk Reginald of Canterbury (1050?-after 1109) states: “Angel of God, who is my guardian, and to whom I have been entrusted by divine Goodness, enlighten me, defend me, lead me and direct me.” Much more recently, on the occasion of the Feast of the Guardian Angels of October 2, 2018, Pope Francis invited the faithful to pray and listen to their celestial protector: “We must pray to him. We must listen to his inspirations, which always come from the Holy Spirit but which he inspires us (…). The angel is the daily door to the encounter with the Father. He helps me move forward, because he looks at the Father and knows the way.”