The Memorial of the Guardian Angels, Wednesday, October 2, 2024

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.”

Although the origins of the modern feast of the Guardian Angels are found in the late 1400’s and early 1500’s, devotion to them goes back to the early years of the Church, and local feasts were celebrated in their honor from the early Middle Ages.  Pope Paul V added it to the General Calendar in 1607 and the feast has been kept on this date ever since.  We find references to angels throughout the Old Testament, and even particular mention of angels acting as guardians of individuals (such as Raphael protecting Tobiah) and nations (such as Michael protecting Israel).  The understanding that God assigned angels to all his people arises from here.

“See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.”  The First Reading for the Mass for this feast shows how the Lord guarded the Hebrews from danger during the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land.  Almighty God stationed his angel in a pillar of cloud as a sign of his care for the people: “Then the angel of God who went before the host of Israel moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel” (Exodus 14, 19-20).  We note that he does not show them the angel in a more graphic form in order not to cause them to fear.  At the time the Egyptians pursued the Hebrews across the parted Red Sea, “the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians, and thwarted the host of the Egyptians, clogging their chariot wheels” (Exodus 14, 24-25), that is, the Lord acting through his angel.  And then, as we recall, the Red Sea, held back by God’s power, crashed together upon them, saving Israel.

The Lord God says to us all today as he said to the Hebrews thousands of years ago: “See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.”  He sends his angel “before” us in the sense that he leads us through life, guiding our conduct, inspiring us with thoughts of God and pointing out to us virtuous works that we ought to do.  He defends us against the fierce and cunning attacks of the demons, who would tempt us to disaster.  Our angels are to bring us to the place God has prepared for us, the Promised Land of heaven.

“Be attentive to him and heed his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin.”  Our guardian angels lead us, inspire us, protect us, but they do not interfere with the exercise of our free will.  If we are bound and determined to sin, they will not prevent us, but will pray for our repentance.  “My authority resides in him.”  Our angels do not work for us as though we can order them around, but they work for God and strive for the greater glory of God to aid us in our struggle to be saved, and we should take our angel’s inspirations as coming from God himself.

“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.”  These ancient enemies of Israel which committed horrific sins and crimes against nature in the practice of human sacrifice, parents often sacrificing their own children, as well as incest and worse actions, signify the demons who would destroy us without hesitation if they were allowed.  But God in his mercy restrains them through our angels so that, cooperating with grace, we may pass unharmed through all threats to our eternal safety.

As I write this, a terrible war is on the verge of breaking out in the Middle East.  Let us pray that Almighty God, in his mercy, will protect all those who love him.