Ernest Shackleton and the Angels of God
Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you—T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
Though I am a lover of poetry, I must confess that my first reading of Eliot’s The Waste Land left me confused and unsure of the meaning behind his many enigmatic vignettes. Famously, however, the poem was published with notes written by Eliot himself explaining certain allusions. In his notes, Eliot tells us those “lines were stimulated by the account of one of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one of Shackleton’s): it was related that the party of explorers, at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion that there was one more member than could actually be counted.”
This phenomenon—experiencing the presence of another person when you are at the edge of your strength—has been termed “the third man factor” after Eliot’s poem. It turns out that Eliot’s seemingly insignificant footnote became anything but. And while he was correct about the name of the explorer, he is almost certainly wrong in his characterization of this phenomenon as a “delusion.”
Shackleton certainly didn’t describe it in that way.
On the contrary, he writes, “I have no doubt that Providence guided us…I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three.”
Would Shackleton be likely to have such a delusion? For those unfamiliar with Ernest Shackleton, he has been called “the greatest leader of men.” After his ship—fittingly named Endurance—became trapped and destroyed by pack ice, he and his men spent nearly two years living on ice floes and small boats at the most desolate place on planet earth. Shackleton fully realized that losing his nerve for one moment would inevitably result in the death of all twenty-seven of his men.
But Shackleton never did lose his nerve. Nor did he lose his men.
Not one. Twenty-seven men came home.
Delusional? Hardly. A delusional leader would get his men killed. The men of the Endurance survived precisely because they were led by one of the most fearless, clear-eyed, and methodical men to ever live. As another Antarctic explorer once asserted, “Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”
Is it not possible that Shackleton was deluded? I concede that it is certainly possible, even for someone of Shackleton’s fortitude. What seems impossible though is for all three men to independently share the same delusion. For, each of the three men confirmed after their harrowing trek, that each had experienced the presence of a fourth man. That this confirmation happened after the fact is critical, because it removes all possibility of the weary men convincing each other of the truth of a mirage. On the contrary, here we have all three men, months and years later independently confirming what they each experienced.
Three men, and yet a fourth angelic-like presence appears. This scene may sound familiar. In the book of Daniel we read:
“Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” He replied, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god…Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him.
Indeed, throughout the Old Testament, we find many instances of angels being sent as messengers, guides, and guardians, as in the book of Daniel. Psalm 91 makes the startling claim, “[H]e will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.” That any angel—who are far above us in the created order—is sent to serve us is itself an extraordinary sign of God’s love and the angel’s humility. However, Jesus reveals—and reminds us—that God’s love is boundless. He reveals that angels are not merely sent as messengers when the need arises, but that each soul has their own guardian angel. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”
You have your own angel.
I wonder if the Jews who heard this revelation gasped. I wonder if we do. We should. For, not only is God teaching us about himself and his angels, but he is revealing something about us: “Great is the dignity of souls, for each one to have an angel deputed to guard it from its birth,” as St. Jerome observes.
You have your own angel. Then, the three men walking across their own wasteland were not in a party of four, but of six. One may imagine that each man felt the presence of his own guardian angel. For, in every moment of their lives, these angels had been guarding and protecting them.
In his 2009 book, The Third Man Factor, author John Geiger recounts dozens of examples of angels—or what Christians would call angels—coming to the aid of those in extreme peril. Interestingly, as in the case of Shackleton, many of these individuals are those who trained to stay calm under stress: mountain climbers, sailors, and polar explorers like Shackleton. While this tends to belie the notion of delusions, perhaps we might be tempted to wonder whether our guardian angels intercede for us in only the most extreme circumstances?
The Church teaches the opposite. The Church lovingly grants us a partial indulgence “to the faithful who devoutly invoke the care of their guardian Angel with a duly approved prayer (e.g. Angele Dei).” The Angele Dei requests that our guardian angel “ever this day be at my side, to light, to guard, to rule, and guide.” Although we may not realize it, at every moment of the day, until we take our last breath, our guardian angel is lovingly guiding us.
St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, explains, “Man while in this state of life, is, as it were, on a road by which he should journey towards heaven…And therefore as guardians are appointed for men who have to pass by an unsafe road, so an angel guardian is assigned to each man as long as he is a wayfarer.”
I think it’s critical to remember that our guardian angels are beholding the face of our Father in heaven precisely because they answered, “I will serve.” St. Michael casts into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wickedly declared, “Non serviam.” Ministering to us is for them neither toil nor drudgery, but their joy. It was this willingness to serve that led to their beatitude, and it is this willingness to minister to us on behalf of God’s providence that gives them their happiness.
Therefore, we should never hesitate to approach them; their service is their joy. Perhaps we might better understand this truth by reflecting on the name given to St. Michael, which means, “Who is like God?”
Isaiah tells us that Lucifer said “I will make myself like the Most High.” To this, Michael replies, “Who is like God?” Michael’s name is a rhetorical question, and yet, one may ask, in all humility, “Who is like God?” Jesus tells us that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” At the Last Supper, He served the apostles by washing their feet. St. Paul tells us that He “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” Michael answers the question, “Who is like God” in his very person. His willingness to serve is precisely what makes him closer to God, whereas Lucifer’s unwillingness to serve is precisely what keeps him from being like God.
God’s entire providential plan is to make us more like Him, so that we can be united more to Him. Therefore, he has deigned to let men and angels share in the communication of His love. Our angel then delights in nothing more than sharing God’s love to us. The angel sent to Daniel tells him, “Do not fear, greatly beloved, you are safe. Be strong and courageous!”
It is reported that when Shackleton’s friends praised him, he would stop them by quietly replying, “I am not entitled to all the credit.”
The truth is that when we finally enter the kingdom of heaven, we must certainly echo those same words. For, when we look ahead up the white road, there will be another one walking beside us. But this time, our angel will not be our guardian—for there is no need of guardians in that place. Instead, our angel will ensure us, “Do not fear, greatly beloved, you are safe.”
