angels are real - 26th week Wednesday 2013

Today we celebrate the feast of our guardian angels. Angels are real.  They are not just figments of our imagination.  They may not always look the way we expect angels to look like – dressed in dazzling white and with pure white wings but their presence in our lives speak to us about God.

First, the presence of angels speak of the abiding presence of God.  God is not just present occasionally.  God is not just present usually.  God is always present.  God is always with us, whether in our classrooms or in our homes, in the light or in the dark, whether we feel him or not, whether we like it or not, God is present.  Angels affirm the presence of God in our lives.

Second, they are called guardian angels because they are angels who guard.  Why are we guarded?  Because there is danger in the world.  Many of you are no longer afraid.  Many of us think that courage is everything.  Many of us are no longer afraid and we extol people who have nothing to fear.  But do you know that there is such a thing as the gift of fear?  Fear is a gift.  There is a philosopher who said, I think therefore I exist. But in reality we should also say, I am afraid therefore I exist. We still exist because we are afraid, and we are afraid for a reason.  We are living in a dangerous place.  Recover the gift of fear.  I heard a karate black belter saying, many times the best weapon is to run away.  The world is a dangerous place and I am not thinking of Al Qaida.  I am thinking of the so many things in our world that can kill the soul.

Third, the presence of the angels speaks to us of our need for a guide.  We are in need of a guide less we lose our way.  Usually the person who drowns know how to swim and those who do not know how to swim do not drown.  Why?  Because people who do not know how to swim do not go to deeper waters, only the swimmers go there.  A person too sure of himself will lose his way.

These are the truths affirmed by the presence of the angles.  let us always love and honor then saying: 

Angel of God, my guardian dear

to whom God's love commits me here.

Ever this day/night be at my side

to light, to guard, to rule and guide.

Amen.