Eve and Mary (the New Eve)

"The knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith."

                  - Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons
                    Against Heresies, Book III (180-199 A.D.)

I have meant to write this post since the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec.8th).  The readings at Mass that day contrasted humanity's disobedience in the Garden of Eden with Mary's obedience at the Annunciation.  

In both stories an angel spoke to a woman, a sinless woman fresh from the hands of God.  In the first, it is a fallen angel speaking in his own name, but in the second an archangel speaking in God's.

In the first, Eve gave her husband fruit to eat from the forbidden tree.  Mary offers us fruit as well, the fruit of her womb, Jesus (Lk.2:42), given to us as "real food" in the Eucharist (Jn.6:55).  But we must join her at the tree of the Cross to receive Him.

Eve did not believe God's word, that the fruit of the tree would bring death.  She did not trust in His love for her or her spouse, and was willing to believe that He was keeping them from true fulfillment.  She wished to put herself in the place of God.

In the sharpest contrast imaginable, Mary took God completely at His word - believing that even a virgin could conceive a child.  And Mary placed herself completely at God's service, "I am the handmaid [literally "slave girl"] of the Lord; let it be to me, according to your word.  

Both women became Mothers of the Human Race but in different ways.  Eve became mother of the fallen human race, but Mary the mother of the redeemed human race (Rev.12:17), redeemed by its union with her Son . 

Mary, "blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!"

Holy Spirit or Guardian Angel?

Something a friend emailed me earlier today spawned this post.  Let me frame the question:  When you need guidance, to whom do you pray - the Holy Spirit or your Guardian Angel?

I never directly ask my Guardian Angel to do anything for me - or the Blessed Mother or any of the saints for that matter.  I ask them to intercede, to pray for my needs and others.  The Book of Revelation shows the saints and angels offering our petitions to God (Rev.5:8; 8:4), and the angels carrying out missions at God's command; but Scripture never portrays them simply responding to requests a person directed toward them.

Each of us has a guardian angel, from the moment of birth until death (Mt.18:10; CCC 336).  God has entrusted us to their care.  Like a good "babysitter," they take their orders from the Parent, not the child.  (Angels execute the will of God, not ours - thank Goodness.)  We ask them to intercede for us, but we don't issue them directives.  I ask the Lord to protect me and guide me through the work of my angel.  I have also asked my angel to intercede for these things, "Please ask the Lord to empower you to protect me in this situation," and "Please ask the Lord that He allow you to guide me through this."

Most of the time however I simply ask God for His help.  I ask the Holy Spirit to give me His grace - illumination to know what I need to do and the strength to do it.  I leave it up to the Lord whether He chooses to effect these things directly in my soul, or whether he does so through the mediation of my angel.  It's the Lord who answers the prayer.  He may do it with His "bare Hand," or a with a gloved hand (my guardian angel), but it's ultimately His action.  

Painting by Pedro Berruguete

Reflect on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane:

[He] knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. (Lk.22:41-43).

1) He petitioned the Father, and 2) even though His human soul was united to His Divine Person, his soul was strengthened for what lay ahead through the mediation of an angel.  If such was the case for Jesus, I have to imagine it is for you and me from time to time too.  So ask the Holy Spirit for His inspiration, allow Him to deliver it how He wishes, and give Him thanks when it comes.  (And every now and then thank your angel for how he faithfully loves you and delivers God's helps.)

"Oh come on, Guardian Angels?"

Image courtety of Wolgfang Sauber

You'd better believe it.  Seriously, you should - Jesus talked about them, "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" (Mt.18:10).

So what are these mighty creatures doing acting as "ministering spirits" to us lowly humans (Heb.1:14)? I think it's the same principle at work that Jesus laid down for the Apostles - " whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt.20:26-27).  God is Trinity, a Communion of Love, and He desires His children to be the same.  He humbled Himself to the point of becoming one of us - a Child Who needed to be nursed and have His diaper changed! (Phil.2:6-10)  

There has been speculation that the Incarnation lay at the root of the angel Lucifer's rebellion - how could God become a human being?  How could Lucifer ever stoop to serving, seeing to the needs of, men and women, creatures inferior to himself?  And that one of them, a lowly peasant girl, would be made Queen of the Angels - too insulting to even entertain!  Speculation arises from a passage in the Book of Revelation:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.  She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.  Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne ... Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan ... and his angels with him. (Rev.12:1-7)

The passage can be interpreted different ways, but you can understand how it has led to speculation over the why of Satan's rebellion.  Kind of intriguing to think about spirits, pure intelligences engaging in battle, no?  A war of ideas - of reason and willful blindness.  Perhaps the fierce interior battles we sometimes face between what we know God wants us to do versus what we want to do, can serve as an analogy.

The awesome truth is that God surrounds us with the care of His angels throughout our time on earth - "older, stronger, wiser brothers" if you will, who look out for us and help direct our steps Home.  Each morning on the way to school, my kids and I include our Guardian Angels in the litany of saints we ask to pray for us.

Speaking of my kids, I came across a great prayer online:

I humbly salute you, O you faithful, heavenly friends of my children! I give you heartfelt thanks for all the love and goodness you show them. At some future day I shall, with thanks more worthy than I can now give, repay your care for them, and before the whole heavenly court acknowledge their indebtedness to your guidance and protection. Continue to watch over them. Provide for all their needs of body and soul. Pray, likewise, for me and my whole family, that we may all one day rejoice in your blessed company.  Amen.

You've heard the proverb "It takes a village to raise a child"?  In this day and age, it takes a heavenly army - thank God each family has one!

What Do Angels Look Like?

Photo by Louise Docker

We could also ask, "What does a thought look like?"

Angels came up during last night's dinner with friends.  We talked a little about the difference between popular culture’s understanding of angels and the historic Jewish and Christian understanding.  Jews and Christians, for example, do not believe that human beings “become” angels.  Angels and humans are two different “species” if you will, but both adopted children of God. 

We human beings are a union of spirit and body; that is our nature.  Even the saints in heaven await the resurrection of their bodies.  They are perfectly happy in contact with God, but they are not all they were created to be.  Angels on the other hand, are created spirits; that’s their nature.  Pure intelligences if you will.  So what’s up with the wings, right?  If angels do not have bodies, are not composed of matter, then why did people in the Bible (and all the centuries since) report seeing angels?  If they are immaterial, then how did an angel roll the stone away from Jesus’ tomb?  Valid questions.

There are some great books out there (Mike Aquilina’s Angels of God: The Bible, the Church and the Heavenly Hosts and Jean Danielou’s The Angels and Their Mission: According to the Fathers of the Church), but let me throw some thoughts out there “off the cuff”:  

First, how do people see angels?  Is it with the eyes or the mind?  I would wager that the majority of the time it is the mind.  For us, being present to one another in an intimate way means physical presence – sight, voice, touch.  When God desires an angel to communicate something to us in a spectacular way, it discloses itself to our mind through images and words we can understand.  Angels are immaterial and yet seen in human form – such as the young men at Jesus’ tomb.  When Elisha the prophet faced an invading force, he looked up and saw “the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around,” far outnumbering his enemy (2 Kings 6:17).  God had sent angels to protect him and it was communicated to his mind by the sight of an army composed of fire.  

To get a bit technical, “angel” is the term used for the spiritual beings sent by God to men and women.  (Angel comes from the Greek word angelos, "messenger.")There are beings much mightier and powerful than the angels with which we have dealings.  I am thinking of the “cherubim” seen by the prophet Ezekiel, "In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings ... Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle ... The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches" (Ezekiel 1:5-6,10,13).  The cherubim are creatures of intelligence (face of a man), authority (lion), strength (ox), and swiftness (eagle).

But how can an immaterial being, pure spirit, interact with matter?  To go back to my earlier example, how did that angel roll the stone from the entrance to Jesus' tomb?   Let me answer with another question:  How does your soul, your own immaterial center, start the firing of the neurons in your brain and cause your arm to move?  The realm of spirit is apparently able to affect the material.  What the specifics are, your guess is as good as mine.  My point is simply that if you believe you have a soul, and that your soul affects your body, then you shouldn’t have a problem believing that angels can affect things in this world.  And if our little human souls can bring about amazing shows of physical strength, just imagine what a higher-level spirit can do!

Some theologians have even speculated that angels may “make use of a body.”  No, I’m not talking about “possessing” someone – that’s the style of fallen angels.  There has been speculation that some angelic appearances may not be images infused into the human mind, but God allowing an angel to exert its power upon the material world and fashion atoms into a temporary body through which, for a brief time, it carries out its mission.  Now that’s speculation; but it seems within the realm of possibility.  (When we discuss angels the realm of possibility is wider than for most subjects.)  If, when, or under what circumstances God would allow such a thing isn’t available to us, at least not at present.