There Are Angels in Our Midst

Do you believe in angels? The earliest historicalOne wintry night long ago, Jill had to pull our
reports of angels date back to the year 2200 BC.overheated station wagon off the highway. Two
Art and literature abound with references to thepeople stopped to offer assistance. As the
winged marvels, whose name derives from theyounger of them pulled up the hood, a
Greek angelos, meaning "messenger".badly-limping older guy approached with a jug of
There are more commonly used references, suchcoolant. He said he thought he had broken his leg
as Fallen Angels, The Angel of Death, Hells Angels,working for the gas company, and was on his
and my all-time favorite, George Bailey's buddyway to the hospital. After ministering to our car,
Angel Second Class Clarence Oddbody. Heckhe bade the younger man to wait until Jill could pull
we've even had Charlies Angels and Angels in theoff, and then staggered away...
Outfield. But as usual, I digress.The next day, she called all the local hospitals and
The religion of Islam believes that there are twoeven the gas company to find the name of the
angels, one on our right and one on the left,Good Samaritan. "No one came in with any
whose job it is to record our good and bad deeds.problem of that nature," and "sorry ma'am, we
Budhhist's see them as "exemplars of grace andhad no reports of an employee injury last night,"
innocence." The Bible has both Old and Newwas all she got in response. An angel? I believe
Testament accounts of angels, like the archangelthey are in our midst.
Michael, who knocked Satan and his bad boys forRecently, at Mass, Grandson Patrick kept turning
an eternal loop. This time of the year, we recall aaround to look at a wizened old man in the pew
wingman named Gabriel, who is famous forbehind. He'd turn back, his mouth twisted up, and
delivering what has to be one of history's mostshake his head. Finally, his dad Brett whispered,
astonishing but nonetheless wonderful of"What's wrong, Bubba?" The little guy looked up
messages to a young Jewish girl from Nazareth.and said, "We need to make that old man some
Growing up, I remember my mom telling me tocookies." His dad asked why. "Because he is sad. I
pray to my guardian angel, who was always therethink his wife went to see God." An "exemplar of
to protect me. Creeped me out a bit at the time,innocence", perhaps?
and I'd try to turn around real fast to catch aYes, angels are among us, in all shapes and ages,
glimpse of him (or her?). But considering some ofjust as they were in the starry skies above the
the stupid stuff I lived through as a kid, I thinkshepherd boys on that wondrous night which we
she was on to something.celebrate next week. "Peace on Earth" they sang,
Some of us have even been touched by an angel,"Goodwill Toward Men."
and I don't mean the TV show.(Suburban Journals, St.