Monday, October 2, 2023
Memorial of the Guardian Angels
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Angels watching over me
I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun. I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem, where they shall be my people, and I will be their God with faithfulness and justice.
The Bible is full of what sound like God’s rash words, as if he is a parent appeasing his rebellious children with promises that might always remain unfilled but at least serve to lift up the childrens’ spirit. But that’s no way to read the Bible. If the words of God aren’t true, what words are?
Ours, however, is not to reason why. To continue paraphrasing Tennyson, ours is but to do and die.
Our sin is what dies. This battle lasts all my life. But  I’m happy to live in the knowledge that in my struggle against the dark lords of the high places, and in my struggle against my own fallen nature, there are angels watching over me. They are my guardians, and yours too – and today we honor them.
There is a prayer of sweet and simple rhymes:
Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom his love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.
There is a reward, called a plenary indulgence, if several conditions are met.
And there is a meditation, written by Il papa buono (Pope John XXIII), which reads in part:
We must remember how admirable was the intention of divine Providence in entrusting to the angels the mission of watching over all mankind, and over individual human beings, lest they should fall victims to the grave dangers which they encounter.
Again I think of Paul’s words to the Ephesians about our struggles …
…. struggles not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
First we put on God’s armor, and then we place ourselves in the hands of our angels. Evangelist Charles Finney, before whom half a million people confessed Christ, called on his converts to “become sinless here and now to the extent of their knowledge.” Angels throw themselves into this fray between good and evil. They remind me that I am never alone. God is with me always.
Trusting the angels with my physical and spiritual life changes how I see the world, how I see myself, how I see the time I live here on the earth. The world’s dangers are “grave,” as the good pope says. But as grave as are the dangers, so wide are the angels’ wings. Under those wings we cannot be harmed, fear has no place to hang onto, peace reigns. Death has no dominion. In time we like Elijah are carried into heaven. And who does the hard work?
The angels, of course.
(Zechariah 8, Psalm 102, Psalm 103, Matthew 18)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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