Memorial of the Guardian Angels
(Exodus 23:20-23; Ps 91; Mt 18:1-5, 10)
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A young boy asked his parents to be alone with his newly born baby sister. The parents listened in and heard him say to his little sister, “Quick, tell me what God is really like. I’m starting to forget.”
That little story, which might even be true, connects with the statement of Jesus that closes today’s gospel, “I tell you, their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.” It also invites us to believe in, and walk with, our guardian angels.
We struggle to believe in angels in our materialistic culture, yet the phenomenon of interest in angels is very present, especially some years ago when there were all kinds of angel memorabilia for sale in stores, and books on them seemed to proliferate.
More biblically, in Exodus, God tells Moses that he will send an angel to guard, guide and teach him and the people of God. All Moses has to do is to believe and be attentive, to listen to the voice of that angel who would accompany them through that desert period of their lives.
Jesus links little children to angels and uses a child to describe the attitudes that one must have to live within the kingdom of God. He calls for conversion, change, metanoia, a transformation of attitudes. We must become childlike, not childish. To be childlike is to trust in God completely, to be humble, innocent, open, pure of heart. These are kingdom qualities that we must cherish and nourish within us if we truly want to be in that kingdom.
Ron Rolheiser OMI wrote an article on how we move from childhood innocence to a sophistication later in life during which we lose that innocence. Our second half of life task invites us to arrive at a post-sophistication when we come back to that childlikeness from a different perspective. As he puts it, we believe in the Easter Bunny again!
Fr. Gerry LeStrat OMI shared at our Eucharist this morning in our community chapel a French prayer to the guardian angels that he vaguely remembered as a child, but somehow forgot, about the time he entered the seminary (perhaps his period of sophistication). He recounted how the priests had placed a large picture of that prayer and a guardian angel with some children in the dorm at a residential school. Lucie Leduc, who was present, spontaneously prayed it in English: “Angel of God, Guardian dear, to whom His love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide.” Perhaps this prayer can help us move into post-sophistication and childlikeness again!
Angel with eagle wings in Mexico
In the end, Jesus puts the emphasis on humility. Humility is the root out of which all the other virtues can grow. It is the key to healing. A humble person is open, transparent, has a beginner’s mind, and allows the Holy Spirit free reign to do whatever the Spirit of God wants to do within that person.
Sometimes, angels can be other human beings that share a message with us that otherwise would not make sense. Recently, a young South African Oblate, Fr. Bonga, who animates the Oblate renewal program at Aix-en-Provence in France where the Oblates began, conducted a retreat for Oblates and lay associates at the Star of the North Retreat Centre in St. Albert. He mentioned three types of crosses that we carry – those imposed on us by others and circumstances, those that we impose on others sometimes unknowingly, and those that originate within our own personalities. That could also be expressed by the statement that “the enemy is us, within ourselves.”
As a young priest, I was counseling a grade eleven student when she suddenly uttered the words, “You’re not finished yet.” I was stunned, partly because those words came out of nowhere, totally out of context with her situation that we were discussing, but also because I immediately sensed they might have something to do with a struggle I was having with my own personality at that time, involving my stubborn self-will. Her statement led me to stop resisting and agree to go to a prayer meeting in Saskatoon with Sr. Gabrielle Simard SGM that weekend, and there, I received a healing of precisely that defect of my character when a priest and lay couple prayed over me. That student was an angel for me at that time, for which I am grateful to this day.
This memorial of the role of angels in our lives also reminds us of our dignity as human beings, for the angels are our ministering servants – they minister to us!
The Eucharist is, as Rolheiser puts it, our one great act of fidelity. It is an occasion when we see the angels of God ascending and descending to and from heaven, as we join them in their celestial praise of the goodness of our God.
So, may this memorial strengthen our faith in these benevolent spiritual beings sent to guard and guide us, and empower us to be more childlike, trusting, innocent and even believe in the Easter Bunny once again.
Well well Bishop I learn to pray the Guardian Angel that prayer since Childhood; it does help. I’ve always trusted God even when something is bothering me and I always called on the guardian angel by my side. What a lovely message and teachings about guardian angels through difficult times. Trying to be a child or have childlike symptoms is a way to let go of pain or sufferings and emotional problems. Loosen up think of happy and wonderful times.. Most of us have forgotten about these scenes, the society is full of trouble….. Amen. Thanks again for the wonderful homily and you should thank yourself for all these homilies.