A Flea Market Angel: The Archangel Gabriel, As I Once Understood Him

I have been seeing angels everywhere - in rock, and paint and plastic - and last weekend I saw such an angel in jumble of holiday decorations on a flea market table, holding a tin horn and looking like he didn't belong.  

"It's Gabriel," I said as if I had run into an old friend unexpectedly and I suppose that the truth is, I had.

Only a few minutes before, I had told my family that I was looking for an angel, for my online shop or for myself.  That Gabriel would be that angel was a happy surprise.  I knew he was a keeper.

Gabriel was the first angel who caught my interest. The messenger who came to the Blessed Mother and to Zacharias. The warrior of Daniel.

Among my books, I have an orthodox Jewish prayer book. Toward the end of the bedtime prayer, the text asks God to protect and guard our souls through His holy watchers, the angels, who walk through the night. It goes on to call "Michael to my right side, Gabriel to my left, Uriel before me, and Raphael to my back."

Of these four, it is Gabriel who appears most often in the Hebrew bible and biblical commentary. He is first mentioned by name in the Book of Daniel.  After Daniel experiences a vision, Gabriel comes to him and tells him what it means (8:16).

A year later, Gabriel appears again  telling Daniel that He has "been at war, and going to fight those who remain" (9:27). No further details of this war are given and Gabriel's name is not mentioned again in the Hebrew bible.  But he is referenced repeatedly in the rabbinical literature as a warrior and a holy protector.

In the Book of Enoch, Gabriel is an avenging angel, sent to provoke sinners to war. In the Talmud, God sends him to smite the Assyrians, and Gabriel answers God by saying that him sword "has been sharpened since the six days of Creation." Which is to say that he was born to fight.

Consistent with this declaration, most traditional Jewish sources describe Gabriel as the emissary of God's power. And the Hebrew name Gavriel, or Gavar El, means "God's might." He is represented by the element of fire in some Talmudic references and in others by water. In all instances, he is among the strongest of the seven archangels and a force to be reckoned with.

Be that as it may, it important to remember that when we first meet Gabriel in the book of Daniel he appears as a messenger and a translator of visions.  And this is fitting.  Communication being the divine purpose of angels.

When I first met Gabriel in Scripture, he served in this capacity.  I was lonely and discouraged and the idea that angels existed filled me with hope.  And, in some ways, that feeling has never entirely left me. 

Even so, I've been feeling lonely these last few weeks and in the midst of this sense of separation from others, I am seeing angels of almost every description.  Some are innocent children and others are beautiful women but few resembled the angels of Scripture.

This weekend's flea market angel was different. His wings were battered and his garments were faded but his face was beautiful and strong and really, surprisingly, just as I imagined it.  I count his unexpected appearance a message and a reminder: Angels are emissaries and we are never really alone.

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Please note, while Catholic tradition tells us that there are seven guardian, Uriel is not mentioned in Scripture and therefore not mentioned in Catholic sources.