guardian angel, an overload of care - 26th week Monday 2017

In our gospel today, the disciples were warned not to despise the children, for as Jesus said, their angels in heaven always look upon the face of the Father.  It is an assertion by Jesus himself that each of us from the time we were born have been assigned a guardian angel to watch over us, to protect us and to offer prayers to the Father for each one of us.  What is the meaning of this?

First, if God is everywhere why assign to each one of us an angel?  St. Bernard answers this question by asserting that this is an excess of God’s goodness and love – an excess, superfluous, an overload.  This is how God cares for each one of us.

Second, it also means that there is great danger in the world.  Asserting the reality of goodness leads us also to assert the reality of evil in the world.  Asserting the reality of angels leads us also to assert the reality of the devil around us. Left on our own we cannot be truly good, and left on our own we cannot be truly evil either.  That is why we sometimes say how can this person be so good; and also we sometimes say how can this person be so vile and evil?  Today we are reminded that there are powers beyond us that seek dominance and control in our lives – it could be our guardian angels, the power of good; or it could be the devil, the power of evil.

And so at every mass we sing or at least recite the hymn of the angels in heaven.  In Greek we call this hymn the trisagion, the thrice holy, – holy, holy, holy Lord God of host.  The mass wants us to look forward to that day when we will sing this song with the angels before the throne of God in heaven, for with our guardian angels always at our side, the power of good will always prevail.

And so we honor our guardian angels today and everyday by praying together :

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.