CATHOLIC CATECHISM

by HFH Reuvers



ANGELS AND GUARDIAN ANGELS

Rudolf Steiner taught in his anthroposophy every man has a spiritual origin. Building on Plato and Goethe and others, he said each man brings remembrances from heaven.
This is not the Catholic standpoint. Thomas Aquinas taught, following Aristotle, each man comes into the world as a blank sheet of paper.
What is my own experience? When I first fell in love, and it was love at first sight, it seemed I already knew that girl since a long time. But, of course, this knowledge may have been a childhood remembrance.
A son of ours passed some time in an anthroposophic clinic. The doctor asserted our son had developed a tumor because he didn't feel at home on the earth. This is the world upside down, isn't it? I think he didn't feel at home on the earth because he had developed a tumor.

Like the supporters of anthroposophy, I do believe there exist angels. For we have seen our souls are spiritual creatures that can continue to exist without the corresponding earthly bodies, so there may also exist spiritual creatures that have never been attached to some earthly body. Then we can take seriously what many people have testified about these messengers from heaven. God makes use of them whenever He wishes to make some direct communication. Indeed, He is too great to make Himself visible.
Thus, the bible informs us about archangel Gabriel, who brings the glad tidings to virgin Mary (Luke 1, 26-38). We also learn about archangel Michael, whom we will speak about in some later section, and about archangel Raphael, who accompanies Tobias as a guardian angel.

Then I also know I have a personal guardian angel, as in the short prayer I learned as a child: "Angel from God who art my guardian, and to whose charge God's goodness has committed me, enlighten me, guard me, lead me and direct me. Amen." Every time I'm standing before a choice, he encourages me to make the good choice.


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