ONE way to destroy sacred mysteries is to cloak them in an excess of feeling.
The doctrine of guardian angels has been subjected to this phenomenon of sentimentality, partly in an effort to appeal to children, who are instinctively drawn to angels. But it’s adults who have made it drippy and superstitious. (See lots of examples of this on Youtube if you look up angel hymns.) Too much feeling is just as bad as too little.
One must tread very carefully around the subject of angels because of how much it has been abused by statuettes of cherubs and other inferior artworks, which tend to make angels less majestic, beautiful and awe-inspiring than they are.
It is not true that the angel is here only to comfort. The love of the guardian angel for the human being is not unconditional. “It is to be feared that the angels, who are at present our guardians, will become our accusers at the day of judgment,” said St. Aloysius Gonzaga.
And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Matthew 25:31-32 [bold added]
Beneath the sentimentality lurks vanity — the belief that we will soar to heaven someday with our angel by our side because we are just so darn wonderful. The painting above by Domenico Fetti, The Guardian Angel Protecting a Child from the Empire of the Demon (1615-18) succeeds in avoiding sugary indulgence, I think. The angel points to what is higher. In the background, you see the enemy in shadow. The angel is beside us to warn.
We can’t fully understand the doctrine of angels and should not expect to in this life. The best way to comprehend it is through prayer, to which the worldly, the sappy, the sentimental and egotistical have little or no attraction whatsoever.
Pray to your guardian angel. “For my angel is with you.” – Bar. vi. 5 Pray that, through his intercessions, he save you from sentimentality’s animalistic attack on the holy and sustaining spirit of reverence that lies within you.
In every lodging, in every nook, have reverence for thine Angel. Dare not to do in his presence what thou wouldst not dare to do in mine. Or dost thou doubt whether he be indeed present, because thou seest him not? What if thou heardest him? What if thou touchedst him? What if thou smelledst him? Behold, not by sight alone is the presence of things made manifest.
— St. Bernard of Clairvaux
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