Where Angels Fear To Tread

Understanding the activity of the angels in our lives

01/14/2025

Mark 1:21-28 Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are– he Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet!  Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

I was talking to a local high school student recently who made the off-handed remark, “We don’t believe in demons any more. What the Bible describes as demons today we know are psychological or emotional illnesses and can be healed by science.” Have you heard that or similar comments before? And I do not think her comment is entirely wrong. But it is not entirely correct either. How so?

Well, some disorders in the past, in a pre-scientific age, may have indeed been psychological or emotional. But without the tools of psychology they were lumped in with spiritual maladies. But I would suggest to you that today we run the risk of the opposite danger: lumping all non-physiological disorders into psychological or emotional categories. If the pendulum had swung too far to the spiritual side in the past, it has swung too far to the scientific side today.

Keep this nuanced perspective in mind as you read today’s gospel. St. Mark records: “In their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit…Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Quiet! Come out of him!’ The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.” Now, my high school friend would say those behaviors are symptoms of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, etc.

And perhaps she is right and St. Mark did not have the benefit of modern psychology so he just attributed the man’s erratic behavior to the work of an unclean spirit. But I would supplement that psychological interpretation by adding that in some instances people in the Bible were indeed possessed by unclean spiritual forces. This, as you know, is the perennial teaching of the Church, our faith.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states categorically: “The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls ‘angels’ is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition” (n. 328). In other words, just as there are good angels that do God’s bidding, so there also exist unholy angels that try to thwart his plans.

Sometimes it’s easier to see how the evil angels undermine God’s grace in us by studying how our Guardian Angels enhance God’s grace operating in us. Recently I have enjoyed reading a book by the French theologian Jean Danielou called The Angels and Their Mission. He highlights how the early Church Fathers understood the activity of the angels.

He writes about our Guardian Angels: “They protect the soul against troubles from within and without; they reprimand and punish the soul that turns aside from the right way; they assist it at prayer and transmit its petitions to God” (p. 73). He summarizes these 3 angelic activities as peace, penitence, and prayer.

Have you heard that little voice in your head that tells you to read the Bible more, to stop in church and say a prayer, to invite Fr. John back over for supper? That is the voice of your Guardian Angel speaking. On the other hand, the voice that tells you to steal or lie or be unfair or cheat is the unclean spirit active in our lives. And as he did in the gospel, Jesus silences the voice of the unclean spirits through the grace of the sacraments like confession and the Eucharist.

In other words, we can accept and benefit from the great advances in psychology and psychiatry while also recognizing the unchanging truths of faith. When psychology tries to entirely dismiss spirituality, or spirituality tries to debunk all psychology, both over step their bounds. And perhaps that is also “where angels fear to tread.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!