Knowing your Guardian Angel

 

I had another question posed to be about Guardian Angels:

How do you find out the name of your Guardian Angel, who your Guardian Angel is?

 My response:  

It is generally not a good idea to attempt to find the name of your guardian angel. Most of the angels in the Bible aside from the Archangels and Lucifer (the Fallen angel) are ever specifically named. In fact, most times in the Bible, angels specifically do not give their names, and often rebuke people who ask for their names. 

Partially, this is because angels, despite the cultural depictions of chubby cherubs that look like babies or blonde dudes in robes, are very likely not what we envision at all. In fact, Biblical descriptions of angels when they are not temporarily assuming human form, are quite unusual. Ezekiel's depictions are of light "wheels within wheels" and "full of eyes all around." Other places in the Bible text describe them as "living creatures" with multiple pairs of wings. Now, I can go off into the weeds with the various Catholic teachings on the throngs and gradations of angels, but my point is that cute little chubby cherubs with arrows they ain't. 

There is also the issue of the Biblical idea of the power of a name. This is not just the central names like Jesus or the Tetragrammaton, YHWH (sometimes spelled with a J in older translations.) In Biblical theology, names hold profound significance. Names reflect  the character, destiny, or divine purpose of individuals and places. The power of a name is a recurring theme throughout the Bible. This is why when something happens, particularly in the Old Testament, the character names the specific place. Usually in English translations, we usually just get a transliteration of the Hebrew or Greek which in English might as well be "Billy Bob" or "Jimmy" for all it means in English. But the names always illustrate the authority, identity, and relational aspects inherent in the naming.

For example, in Genesis, Jacob has a vision of a ladder going up to heaven (known as Jacob's Ladder). He names the place Bethel, but what does that mean? To us, it just sounds like an old fashioned lady's name like Margery or Ozell. In Hebrew, בֵּית-אֵל (Bethel), Beth or Beit means "House of" and "El" which was an early name for God, probably stemming from Elohim, which is an interesting singular plural word with seems to mean "God of gods" or "God of the heavenly host." It's almost literally "One God who is Many." In any event, Jacob names the place Bethel-the House of God, because of the vision he had of angels going up and down to the Holy of Holies in heaven above.  By naming the place, Jacob is endowing and sanctifying the place with a heavenly name. 

Likewise, in the Creation story, God brings the lower animals to Adam to name. Adam does not get to name the angels or higher spiritual beings. Likewise, it is not within our authority as humans to give names to, or find out the names of, creatures that are of a higher created order than us. To know an angel’s name is to discover much more about their identity than is the case with human beings. It's like when you walk into court, you don't address the judge by his first name. Maybe after court and you meet him at the pub, you might do so, but not while court is in session. 

Angels are simply God's Messengers. They point people to God, but they are not to be known in a colloquial sense because such a familiarity would take away from their mission of being the Messenger of God. Perhaps one day when we are in heaven, we may be allowed to  know the names of our Guardian angels, but in the here and now, that has generally not been something that Biblical theology has particularly counseled as a good idea or moral course of action.