LEND ME YOUR EAR: ON THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS

Most of us are aware that there are bad angels as well as good. Bible readers know Satan was a fallen angel who rebelled against God and fell from heaven to eternal damnation. But we still picture an angel as a winged creature clothed in a long white robe crowned with a golden halo. This is the angel we've seen in Bible stories and Christmas pageants, and the one we used to find on everyone's tree during the Christmas season.

The angels sold as Christmas tree ornaments in stores today are not necessarily garbed in the manner of those we associate with the story we learned in Sunday School, and I doubt that the little stranger who sent me a handmade greeting for Thanksgiving, with a pretty crayoned flower in the center and a heart-warming message penciled inside, wears a long white robe to school. But I can easily visualize this thoughtful second-grade pupil at Trinity Lutheran School, who signed herself Kristen Richards, playing the part of the angel in our children's Christmas program.

According to St. Ambrose, everyone has a guardian angel assigned to him at birth for special care and protection. An unidentified writer has written that "angels are radar echoes caused by a physical phenomenon not discernible to the eye." My guardian angel is not discernible to the eye, but I can recall numerous occasions that revealed him or her to be more than an echo. Take the time some decades ago when I had to make a trip to our basement, and for the first time since childhood I turned the light on at the top of the stairs. Surely it was my guardian angel who kept me from tripping over the row of empty glass jars lined across the top step. Empties were kept in the basement, and our housekeeper, I could only hope, was trying to save energy, her own, if not electrical. But never again did I risk a trip to the basement without making sure the light was on to guide my way.

Angels have always played prominent roles in our daily lives and culture in literature, music, theatre, in the naming of people, places, plants, even foods (never mind that devil's food often wins out over angel food) and in everyday expressions such as, "Be an angel and do this for me." "Welcome aboard, angel!" is a greeting we hear regularly on a TV airline commercial.

Clara Barton, who founded the American Chapter of the Red Cross after having served in both the Civil and Franco-Prussian Wars, was named Angel of the Battlefield. The U.S. Air Force Aerobatic Team that performed at fairs and exhibitions was nominated the Blue Angels. An imaginary sail flown atop the topmost yard on a full-rigged ship is called the Angel's footstool. The financial backer of My Fair Lady was known as the Broadway Angel.

In 1929, we who were old enough to read adult literature were deeply affected by Thomas Wolf's still-memorable novel Look Homeward Angel. An enduring song of the sixties was titled "Angel of the Morning." The Angel Eloa was a female angel allegedly born of a tear shed by Jesus in Alfred de Vigny's poem "Aloa."

Perhaps few Americans have heard of Angel Falls, located in southern Venezuela. Angel Falls is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world, and at 3,000 feet keeps its head in the clouds most of the year. Closer to home is Angel Island, the largest island in San Francisco Bay. Closer still, to me, is the City of Angels Los Angeles because of memories associated with the university that awarded me my master's degree under the supervision of the ever-quotable Dr. Frank Baxter.

The University of Southern California was established by the Methodist Church, but it was St. Thomas Aquinas who was called the Angel of the Schools. It was the famous British statesman and author Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew, who gave us the familiar phrase "on the side of the angels" in an effort to settle the question raised by Darwin's Origin of the Species: "The question is this," announced Disraeli in a speech at a Diocesan Conference in 1854: "Is man an ape or an angel? Now I am on the side of the angels."

To people of all faiths the world over, best wishes for all the blessings of Christmas!