Angels & Steinbeck

Back in college I read "Travels With Charley" by John Steinbeck. I was surprised to see him lamenting how few fire and brimstone sermons around; he actually went in search of them. I thought he was crazy. Who wants to bathe in the news of possible hellfire and damnation? Who wants to be reminded of our suckiness? For similar reasons I was put off by the Book of Revelation, which can seem cold and severe.

I couldn't understand, then, how a certain spiritual torpor can so easily take over, and how perhaps there's a need for the stiff drink of awareness of God's power.

My view of my guardian angel has morphed a bit as well. It's so easy to take one's angel for granted and to think of our relationship as a one-way street, with the angel our servant even. But yet even in the famous prayer it's not quite so: "...to light and guard, to rule and guide." The "to rule" part gets lost in the shuffle. See also the prayer of St. Peter the Studite concerning his guardian angel:

...Pray for me, your sinful and unworthy servant that, through your help, I may become worthy of the grace and mercy of the most Holy Trinity.

Having an angel is one of the most beautiful and consoling teachings of the Church, not far from our having been given a Mother and given Jesus in the Eucharist, of whom Mother Teresa said,

"When you look at the crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then. When you look at the sacred Host, you understand how much Jesus loves you now."