(Homily. October 2, 2023. Feast of the Guardian Angels.)
[To seminarians in the fourth week of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius]
Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels. I don't know if you believe in guardian angels.
When I was eight years old, my father was still in the Philippine foreign service. At that time, he was assigned to Honolulu, Hawaii. When I visited him one summer, I almost drowned in Waikiki beach. I was taken out to sea by an undertow; then, I really didn't know how to swim. After taking in too much salt water instead of air, I remember saying an Act of Contrition. Then I passed out. I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was on the beach in the midst, I recall, of many legs! They told me later a native of Hawaii had rescued me, carried me to shore, and began applying artificial respiration. While he was trying to revive me, a doctor came around and pronounced me dead. But the native continued to apply artificial respiration till I recovered consciousness and could be brought alive to the hospital. Later, my father searched the beach in order to find this native lifesaver. He could not be found. The next day, the local papers reported, "Boy pronounced dead, revived!" Many have told me since that the native Hawaiian who saved my life was my guardian angel.
Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.
In our first reading, the Lord says, "See I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way, and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and hear his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin. My authority resides in him. If you heed his voice and carry out all I tell you, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes" (Ex 23:20-22). The passage is from the book of Exodus. The angel that is sent is less the angel of an individual person, but the angel sent to guard and guide God's Chosen People on their way to the Promised land. The angel is the messenger of the Lord, but also his warrior, sent to fight the enemies of his people, the spoilers of his plan for them, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites. The angel of the Lord destroys them, and with them all of their false gods. The main message of the angel of the Lord then is: There is only one God, one Lord, his is the Power and the Glory; this Lord chooses you, this Lord loves you, this Lord brings you to where he wishes to bring you; when you go astray, he seeks you out to find you; he guides you along the right path to his Promised Land, to reconciliation with yourself and with your God, to the end of a Long Retreat, to ordination, to competent and loving service in the Church. Today, do not ignore the guardian angel of the Lord that the Lord sends you. Do not fail to notice how, against many of your enemies it is the Lord who fights for you.
Our gospel also has an urgent message. Placing a child in front of him and all his listeners, Jesus says, "Amen I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And whoever receives one child as this in my name receives me" (Mt 18: 3-5). There is in this statement an admonition addressed to us; it is based on the image of a child that is not to be despised, for, in Jesus' words, "their angels in heaven always look on the face of my heavenly Father," their guardian angels attending to the will of the heavenly Father are ready to intervene for them, to protect them, to do battle for them." In your lives, especially in your service of your Lord and King, God is ready to intervene, to inspire you, protect you, and fight for you, if you turn – be converted – and become like children – entering the Kingdom of God.
Meaning that often, we are not like children, but quite the mature adult. We are now senior seminarians already exposed to the liberal arts and all manner of formational programs; we are readers of literature, writers, philosophers, theologians, deacons, at the threshold of priestly ordination. We have become aware of ourselves, are comfortable with ourselves, and are anything but children. If that is so, if the point has come where it is not you who serve the Lord because of his excellence, but you now believe the Lord must serve you in all your excellence, you are now no longer like the innocent child whom the Lord put in the midst his listeners. Your prayer is not the child's, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done!" It is rather the adult's "My kingdom come, my will be done!"
As your long retreat ends, have you become as an adult or have you become as a child? Have you come to a point where despite the cold nights and dreary days you can smell the flowers, differentiate the trees, rejoice in the chirping of the birds and appreciate the incessant sound of living waters washing you clean? Have you come to a point where considering all of creation and redemption worked out for you in Love by the Father in Jesus Christ, this objectively awesome but profoundly personal enterprise is from God for you, its recipient, its beneficiary, its servant, its exponent, its evangelist? Have you come to a point where you can gaze at the God-man gazing at you from the Cross, even now – or especially now - that you know he has been resurrected, and feel the warmth and power of his love, inviting your necessary response: "If you have done this for me in love, Lord, what have I done for you? What am I doing for you? What ought I do for you?" (cf SpEx, 53). "Ought": does this ought determine my response to his invitation to walk with him today still carrying his Cross to establish His Father's Kingdom among the many circles of people entrusted to me in my life? Does it determine the "standard" I choose – riches, honor and pride or poverty, insults or contempt and humility? (cf. SpEx 143-147). Does it unite me with the Lord in his proclamation of the Kingdom, his dying for it, and being raised from the dead in his fidelity to it? Do I appreciate that in his redemptive action he has reconciled not only humanity but all of creation with it to himself, so that in a contemplation of the Creator's redeeming love, it is genuinely possible to find God in all things (SpEx 230-237)?
To all these questions, do I say yes or no as an adult – or as a child?
From heaven before the Lord, your guardian angel prays you do so as a child. In God's power, he even intervenes in your life as a child when you are drowning. And carries you safely to shore.
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