Spiritual Warfare Sunday: Guardian Angels

Within Christian history, there has been much speculation regarding guardian angels. We have seen it depicted in popular media as an angel on one shoulder, a devil on the other, each conspiring to either bring us towards the good or towards destruction. While this is obviously hyperbolic and fictitious imagery, it is shockingly not far off from the truth. We tend to focus on the works of the devil in our lives, the temptations, leading us to sin, deceiving us, and leading us away from God. But we rarely ever focus on the angels that stand alongside us, guarding us, protecting us, nurturing us, and pointing us towards the Master they serve with joy and adoration. Today, I want to take a deep dive into the world of Guardian Angels.

The foundations of the belief in guardian angels have much more to do with history than it does scripture, but that is not to say there is nothing concerning it within the Bible. The Old Testament has passages such as Psalm 91:11: “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” It can be inferred from this that God has commanded at least some angels to keep watch over humanity. We also see guardian angels in the book of Tobit, second temple period literature, wherein the angel Raphael helps Tobit to combat demonic forces. In the New Testament, we have explicit language from Jesus himself calling upon the fact that children, at the very least, have angels watching over them. Jesus says in Matthew 18:10: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” We can see from these verses that angels do guide and protect humans. Does that mean that every human being has their own guardian angel? Not necessarily. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t either. It is ambiguous at best. So, either believing in guardian angels or disbelief does not put one outside of the realm of biblical belief. It is an opinion one can hold either way and still be a faithful Christian. I am sure that people do, due to scriptural evidence and historic Christian teaching, as well as my own personal experience with guardian angels. I may get to that later, but first let’s touch on historic Christian teaching.

In Church history, we see the belief in a personal guardian angel appearing very early. Origen of Alexandria, who lived between 184 and 253, said: “Every believer, even the least, is surrounded by an angel as by a tutor and shepherd directing his life.” Likewise, Basil the Great, living in the mid-350s, wrote, “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.” The earliest Christian writers who spoke on this topic believed in guardian angels. They seemed to specify it was for Christians, but whether they believed they were there a believers entire life or just from the moment of their baptism onward is uncertain. We don’t even have to go all the way to the first few centuries to find Christians speaking of guardian angels. Modern saint and mystic Padre Pio was well known for having entire conversations with his guardian angel. St. Pio was famous for knowing things he shouldn’t have been able to know. People would go to him for confession, and then he would begin to remind them of sins they had forgotten to confess. When asked, he would occasionally say the penitent’s guardian angel told his own, who then told Padre Pio about the sin. Belief in guardian angels is not a new phenomenon; it stretches from Biblical times, through the earliest years of Christianity, all the way to us today.

If we believe everyone has a guardian angel, then the next question should be obvious: why? Why do people have guardian angels to protect and guard them? Can’t God do that without angelic intervention? Obviously, God can do anything he wants. Ontologically, God is the only truly “free” being there is, as he is the only one able to do anything at any moment in any way. However, God does not want to do it all alone. He can, he has the ability, but he delights in sharing his creation with the beings he created. God made mankind to bring Eden to the rest of creation. That was man’s original purpose. Could he have done that by himself? Of course, he could have, but he wanted to make us, give us a task, and share in the delight of bringing beauty to the world. Angels were made for specific tasks and purposes. Some to praise God, some to minister to nature, some to oversee the cosmos, and some to guide and guard humanity. God could have done it alone, but he made angels to be his agents in creation, a task they delight in, just as God delights in sharing that task with them. God is love. Love that is not shared is selfishness. The love of God flows between all three members of the Holy Trinity, and that overflow of love is further shared with angelic beings and with us.

Guardian angels work as the opposites of demonic forces. Demonic beings seek to turn us from God to bring us to destruction. Guardian angels seek to bring us closer to God, protect us from harm, and help us to realize who we are as beloved sons and daughters of God. In the same way demons lead us to deeper sin, angels will lead us to greater virtue.

The other night, my wife and I were discussing guardian angels. She brought up an excellent point, asking why we can discern demons acting in our lives but not angels. We have both had situations when we have sensed or detected demonic activity, but neither one of us could remember ever having discerned angels being present. I believe one reason is that we might have difficulty discerning between angels and the Holy Spirit at times, as angels act as the messengers of God, thus there inspiration IS the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or their actions are ones God has directly ordained for them to perform, and are thus the acts of God. My wife brought up another excellent reason. She said that maybe the reason we have such a hard time telling if angels are present is because they always are. We don’t know a good thing until it’s gone, and our guardian angel has never left our side. Demons, in contrast, are not always with us. They will oppress us or attack us at times, but they are not our constant companions as angels are. I think this is a truly beautiful way of looking at it. From first cry to final breath, you have a guardian in your life, chosen by God himself, to lead you closer to Him and to bring you home.