Saturday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, October 2, 2021

The Feast of the Guardian Angels

Exodus 23:20-23

Thus says the Lord: “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 heed 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. My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites; and I will wipe them out.”

Belief in guardian angels already existed among the Jews when the Lord Jesus was born, and he teaches about them in Matthew 18, 10: “See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”  We see guardian angels at work in the Acts of the Apostles, as when St. Peter’s angel releases him from prison (cf. Acts 12, 3-29).  Devotion to them spread under the Franciscans and, later, the Jesuits, through the Middle Ages into the days of the Counter-Reformation.  Local feasts in honor of these angels sprung up here and there, and then in 1607 a universal feast for them was established by Pope Paul V.  The popular “Angel of God” prayer was written in the early 1700’s at the latest.

The theology of the guardian angels is well laid-out in the text of the First Reading for today’s feast, although the angel spoken of is protecting a nation rather than an individual.  “I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.”  Almighty God was speaking to the Hebrews at the time of their exodus from Egypt and their wandering in the wilderness, and we can understand him speaking to us now.  In his marvelous Providence, Almighty God sends an angel from heaven — that is, he assigns and dedicates an angel in heaven — to go “before” each of us as our leader and guide “on the way”, that is, during our pilgrimage to God which we make throughout our lives.  He will “bring” us to the place God has prepared for us.  The angel will not force us to go or defend us against our will.  He will bring us to this place prepared by God.  Of this place “prepared” for us, the Lord Jesus himself says that he will address the righteous thus at the final judgment: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).  A marvelous destination, indeed!  On that day, the just will declare, “He has set me in a place of pasture. He has brought me up to the water of refreshment” (Psalm 23, 2).  The Lord urges us, “Be attentive to him and heed his voice.”  Our guardian angel speaks to us in the depths of our conscience, helping us to understand what to say or do, or whether to act at all.  He helps us to know how to act or speak when we know that this is necessary.  He warns us of dangers to our soul and of occasions of sin.  “Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin.”  To rebel against our guardian angel is to rebel against God, with whose holy will his is perfectly aligned.  Our rebellion is thus not so much against the angel but against Almighty God, and so we do not ask the angel’s forgiveness but God’s.  “My authority resides in him.”  The Lord entrusts the guardian Angel with great responsibility and the angel carries it out perfectly.  It is we who fail and fall into sin. Because divine authority is given to the angel, we have greater reason to obey 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.”  Our enemy is the devil.  If we set our will to resist the devil, we will see how God acts as our champion through our guardian angel.  “My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites; and I will wipe them out.”  A single angel suffices to “wipe out” the hordes of these peoples, so how superior he is to a single demon tempting us.  The various peoples mentioned in this verse can be understood as signifying the demons who assail us on a daily basis, but as “the angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him: and shall deliver them” (Psalm 34, 8), we have nothing to fear, and, in due time, God will wipe them out — remove us from them, drawing us into heaven where we will join with the angels in proclaiming his glory.

The traditional prayer for this Feast: 

“O God, who deigns, in your ineffable Providence, to send your holy angels to guard us: grant to your suppliants that we may ever be guarded by their protection and to rejoice in their eternal company.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”