Memorial of the Guardian Angels

Today's Scripture

Today, the church remembers the guardian angels. And the regular readings for today is very appropriate for the feast of any of the angels. Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:5). We consider children angelic and believe that infants who die do become angels. So we can also conclude that angels are like children, only, they see the fullness of God’s glory in ways that we on earth do not. In this sense, they are fully alive to the mystery of God. True greatness lies, then, in one’s perfect knowledge of God. This provides the perfect in road to talk about today’s first reading.  

The people of Israel found themselves in captivity in Israel because of their pride, their self-dependence, and the resulting breach of their covenant with God. Now in captivity, they become aware of their sins. They pray,

 “Justice is with the Lord, our God;
and we today are flushed with shame,
we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem,
that we, with our kings and rulers
and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors,
have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed him.
We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God,
nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us.” (Bar 1:15-16).

If the humility that the people of Israel expressed in Babylon had been part of Israel’s spirituality from the beginning they would never have experienced the exile. On the contrary, as they were like the disciples in today’s gospel reading, asking, “Who is the greatest?” (Mt 18:1). In fact, sometimes they thought they were even greater than God. They disobeyed God and strayed from the life peace and prosperity that God had laid out for them. As a result they found themselves cut off from God during the exile. But now they pine for God. But they must humble themselves to be like little children, (Mt 18: 2), like angels to once more experience the presence of God.

Because the reality of our human condition seems more real to us than the spiritual realities of heaven, it is possible to we too loose sight of the life of peace and love and God has laid out for us. It is easier to trust in short term benefits than trust in long tern vision. It is easy to trust in the here and now than in the eternal. It is easy to put our trust in the concrete realities than to rely on spiritual realities. We can achieve the long term vision, the eternal and spiritual truth if we can be like humble like little children – like angels. Then  as Jesus promises in today’s gospel reading, we will enter the kingdom of God. We too can share in the life of God like the angels do.

Fr. Satish Joseph