Guardian AngelsAnswered

Does Jesus have a guardian angel, since He has a human soul?

A viewer asks whether Jesus has a guardian angel, since He has a soul.

Answer

No. Having a soul is not what gets a person a guardian angel, so it does not follow that Jesus would have one. In any case, the angels are subject to Christ rather than assigned to guard Him. No, and the reason is that the question rests on a faulty definition. Having a soul is not the criterion for being given a guardian angel. Every human being has a soul. That is not the same as saying every human being has an angel assigned to him. Look at how Scripture actually presents the matter. The angels' general commission is to advance God's creation toward the good, and their mission is specifically directed toward the human population. From the scriptural evidence it is relatively certain that each Christian either has his own guardian angel or has angels consistently sent to assist him in times of demonic attack. There is very little evidence in Scripture that unbelievers are assigned a personal angel. Where angels are given charge of unbelievers, they are assigned collectively, over nations, as in Daniel 10, and the only individual encounters unbelievers have with angels in Scripture are confrontational ones. Basil and Chrysostom held that only the baptized have guardian angels. Aquinas held the opposite. That there is a real dispute among the Fathers and the Doctors on who gets one should already tell you that the criterion is not "possessing a soul." Now consider what a guardian angel is for. The book of Tobit gives the fullest picture we have. Raphael recites prayers before the Lord for Tobit, watches over his son, warns him about sin and its consequences, exercises power over the devil, acts as an emissary, and initiates physical cures. Aquinas explains that the angel works upon our senses and imagination to incline us toward the right thing, but cannot act directly on the will, only by influencing the intellect. Every one of those functions presupposes a wayfarer: someone capable of being deceived, of sinning, of needing intercession and protection from demonic assault, of needing his imagination steered toward the good. Apply that to Christ and it collapses. Jesus is one divine Person. His human soul is sinless, incapable of sin, and united hypostatically to the Word. He does not need an intercessor before the Father, because He is the one Mediator. He does not need protection from the devil, because He is the one who casts him out. He does not need an angel nudging His imagination toward the good, because His human will is perfectly conformed to the Father's. A guardian angel is given to a creature who is on the way and who can fall. Christ is neither. There is also a question of order. The angels are servants and messengers, and they are under Christ, not over Him. Scripture shows angels ministering to Him after the temptation in the desert and strengthening Him in Gethsemane, and He says He could call twelve legions of them if He wished. A commander who can summon legions is not being guarded by one of his soldiers. When the angels come to Jesus they come as subjects attending their King, not as custodians looking after a ward. People sometimes push back with Matthew 18:10, where our Lord says the little ones have their angels who always behold the face of God, or with Psalm 91, which the devil quoted at Him in the temptation: "He shall give his angels charge over thee." That psalm is worth pausing on. Notice that Satan was the one who applied it to Jesus, and notice how Jesus answered: not by accepting the premise and refusing the stunt, but by saying "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." He identified Himself as the Lord in that exchange, not as the protected party. So the short answer stands. Jesus has a true human soul, a real human intellect and a real human will. He does not have a guardian angel, because guardianship implies a need He does not have and a subordination that does not run in that direction.

Dr. Robert Sungenis

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