Angels and Demons (Part 2 of 2)

We are all given a guardian angel. “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.” (Exodus 23:20) The Old Testament is full of accounts of angels assisting men in accomplishing God’s plan. God’s overall plan for each of us is the salvation of our souls. “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4) So our guardian angels are tasked mainly to help save our souls and enter heaven. Thus, they most often help us avoid sins by inspiring us to overcome temptations. When we are tempted to do something bad, we should pray to our guardian angel to not let us fall into sin. The act of praying itself is a good sign of not wanting to commit a sin. When Eve was tempted by the devil to eat the forbidden fruit, she never prayed, and thus easily fell.

We don’t have a guardian devil. Any devil can just tempt us. At times it can be a group of devils. The devil tempts us through our memory and imagination, making us see the pleasure and joy of sin. But after we fall for his enticements, he becomes an accuser pinning us down to make us hopeless and miserable with our faults. He is never a friend to men. He only appears as a friend when he tempts us but becomes an enemy afterwards. Devils don’t even love each other. They only work together because of a common enemy.

Devils can’t harm our will or our power to make choices. Thus, they can’t force us to sin. Devils can’t read our thoughts unless we allow them to; which is of course a foolish thing to do. If you sort of befriend them, you would be in danger of getting possessed especially through interest in satanic groups, talking to dead spirits, and engaging in witchcraft. The spiritual writers would often compare to devils as a “barking dog”. If we don’t get close to it, it will not bite you. And if we are close to God, devils would even be afraid of us.

Our guardian angel would pray for us and would also do us favors both material and spiritual. Spiritual favors could be helping us do well during an exam. Material favors can be asking them to get us a jeepney or bus ride when it is hard to get one especially during rush hours.

There is a famous story of a prayerful girl by the name of Noma who doubted the existence of angels. One late evening she had to cross the Central Park in New York alone, a place notorious for muggers and rapists. She crossed paths with a man, who seemed dangerous from afar but just went by at her. The following morning there was headline on the newspaper reporting a girl who was raped and killed at Central Park. Noma saw the face of the captured killer on the news and to her shock it was the same guy whom he met walking that night. She had the chance to ask the rapist why she did not assault her but attacked another girl instead. The rapist replied “How could I attack you when you were with a big guy?” From that day on, she would pray to her guardian angel.

Important people or the VIP’s of this world have bodyguards, but each of us is so important to God that He has given each of us a Heavenly soul-guard, our guardian angel. (Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo)