We have this way of looking at the angels that alternately makes too much of the them or too little. Either we wind up worshipping the angels or we glibly dismiss them as a childish fantasy along the lines to Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny - cute stuff for little children to believe in, but not for us scientifically sophisticated adults. Angels pose something of a problem. First there is the persisten problem of preciousness - turning the sacred and holy into the cute and cuddly. The popular view of angels tends to be informed more by the Gospel according to St. Hallmark rather than the Scriptures - chubby cherubs with wings and harps, floating on the clouds with blissed out smiles on their faces or the electric ones hoisted atop our Christmas trees.
Angels are at an all time high in the popular opinion polls.
There is even a TV show about angels who go around doing nice things for people. Never a mention of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the center of the angels' attention, however. All of these are a far cry from the frightfully impressive angelic creatures that Isaiah, Ezekiel, and St. John saw, a sight that left them shaking in their boots and flat on their faces in holy fear. Alongside the problem of preciousness is the strange notion in our popular culture that we become angels when we die. This is especially true when someone dies a tragic death.