Lent /
Tarot / Angels: Temperance
The
Temperance card uses an image of an angel to communicate its message of balance
and moderation.
I
don't know much about angels. I don't think about angels a lot. I tend to
relegate angels to the fringes of belief.
In
recent years, New Age has adopted angels as its own. New Age authors and
believers attribute all kinds of supernatural power to angels. On the one hand
New Age tries to reject, overturn, and slander the Judeo-Christian tradition.
On the other hand, New Age wants to pillage the Judeo-Christian tradition. You
go into any New Age shop and you can find, along with the crystals and wind
chimes, a wide variety of angel products: angel statuettes, angel pictures,
even a field guide to angels.
The Judeo-Christian
concept of God is overwhelming. The idea that an all-powerful, all-loving,
all-knowing God allows suffering and injustice to happen takes a toll. I think
sometimes people use belief in angels as a way around the harder parts of
belief in God. God may be seen as remote and uncaring, but angels are beautiful,
nearby, and comforting. That's certainly how Wim Wenders depicted angels in his
1987 film Wings of Desire. In one
achingly poignant scene, an angel, Cassiel, sits with a suicidal mortal, trying
to prevent him from killing himself.
Cassiel
is unsuccessful. The man, who appears to be mentally disturbed, does kill
himself. Cassiel is distraught. We can imagine an angel becoming distraught
over one human's fate. It's hard to imagine God being distraught.
The Catholic
Encyclopedia has an excellent and exhaustive page on angels. It's here.
The Vatican
offers a summary of the angel resume:
"Angels
have been present since creation and throughout the history of salvation,
announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of
the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar
and her child; stayed Abraham's hand; communicated the law by their ministry;
led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the
prophets, just to cite a few examples. Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the
birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus himself."
A Biblical
Concordance reveals that some books mention angels more than others. This
concordance records no mentions of angels in Mark, but there are multiple angel
mentions in Luke. Revelation appears to be the book with the highest percent occurrence
of angel references.
Years
ago, I had an experience that … well … I've told this story before. I'll just
tell it again.
The
events I will describe, below, happened one summer. A hot summer. A really hot
summer. This is the Midwest. A skillet baking under the sun, a dry poplar leaf
trembling in wait for the next tornado. The only cool it will give you till
autumn are the thunderstorm hailstones that pelt down on your shoulders, making
you wonder when the frogs, locusts, and rivers of blood show up. The Midwest
knows how to do summers that make you beg for mercy.
This
summer was a particularly dark chapter. Several loved ones died within months
of each other: my mother, whom I held in my arms as she died, my best friend in
Bloomington, David, my oldest living relative, my best online friend, and a
friend I had left behind in another state.
During
this difficult summer … Strangers smiled and waved.
Yeah,
that's it. Strangers smiled and waved.
No,
no, not that kind of smile. Not that kind of wave.
People
I'd never seen before, and would never see again, went out of their way to make
contact with me, to meet my eyes, and to smile at me in a way that said,
"I KNOW you. I APPRECIATE you. I know what you are facing. I know it's a
drag. And I know – and I know in your heart and soul that you know this, too –
we know that it is going to be okay. No matter how bleak it looks now, it is
going to be okay."
These
weren't the smiles that strangers smile at each other. These were the smiles
that confederates, compadres, co-conspirators for the good, smile at each
other, when they are downed behind enemy lines, and they run across a comrade,
and they want to convey warmth, encouragement, and connection, without breaking
cover.
I
remember two of these smiles. Once, I was in line at the Bloomington Bagel
Company, where I used to go for lunch. The man in front of me, looking very
much like any given man in the Midwest – white, conservatively dressed, about
my age, reasonably attractive but not movie star handsome, suddenly turned
around, and, without his eyes wandering around the room for even the briefest
second, he targeted my eyes, made eye contact with me, and smiled.
Enthusiastically. Beautifully. Beneficently.
I
said nothing, and neither did he. After we shared this smile, he turned back
around, and we made no further contact.
???
Another
event:
It
was high summer. IUB's campus was deserted. It just lay there motionless,
baking under the sun. I was walking from my job, across campus, to the main
drag in town.
Up in
the distance, a bit ahead of me, was a beautiful, young, blonde woman in what
looked to me like a red, designer dress. Not a ball gown, but, rather, a chic
little-black-dress type dress, except it was red.
What
the hell was she doing on campus? No one else was around. No classes, no
conferences, no games.
There
was no way she could have heard or seen me. We were separated by the length of
oh, say, two large suburban homes with lawns.
And
then, as if she were quite conscious of what she was doing, she stopped, turned
around, immediately made eye contact with me across the distance between us,
and smiled, and waved.
What
the … ???
I was
really confused. I had no idea what to make of this. I walked on and so did
she. Campus buildings intervened. I was approaching the student center, a
large, rambling building surrounded by lawn.
Heck,
there she was again. Again, up ahead of me, again, that distance between us.
And she did it again. Moved as if planned, as if quite conscious, turned, made
eye contact with me, smiled, enthusiastically, warmly, smiled, and waved. In an
equally casual and unhurried manner, she stopped, turned back around, and went
on her way.
Yes,
I did think she was probably an angel.
Or, I
thought, maybe these smilers and wavers are all just Hoosiers, just humans, but
some angel whispered in their ear, in a frequency they could subconsciously
understand, "See that human over there? Your fellow human? Having a tough
time. Give her a smile. Give her a wave. That's right; that's the spirit.
Thanks."
Because
it wasn't just the oddness of it all. It wasn't just the smile, the wave.
It
was how sweet and good I felt after each one of these stranger-smile-waves. I
felt as if my finger had been dipped in the celestial honeypot. I felt as if my
quiver's stock of arrows had been renewed, and I could get it together, slay the
final dragons, and get the heck out of Bloomington, which I did shortly do.
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