Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - The Guardian Angels
[Zechariah 8:20-23 and Matthew 18:1-5, 10]See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.
Two Sundays ago, I met our new archbishop, Joseph Kurtz, for the first time and almost by accident. I was sitting in my living room prior to going over to celebrate Sunday Mass, and I noticed a car pulling into the parking lot by my house to turn around. The face of the driver looked familiar and I realized it was the new archbishop whom I had not yet met personally. He pulled up to get out of his car and go into one of the building entrances because he wanted to make a visit to the chapel. I had to explain there were two chapels and the building he was looking at didn't have either of those chapels! I took him in so he could make his visit. In the course of our conversation he was telling me that he was on his way to a parish in the nearby town of Springfield, KY. His car has one of those "global positioning" features which includes a voice that tells the driver when to turn and which road to take. It will also warn when the driver gets off the right way. In his case, when he spontaneously decided to turn off the highway into the St. Catharine campus, the voice became somewhat agitated and told him he was making a wrong turn and that he must immediately make a u-turn and return to the right way! I couldn't help but think of this in relation to the feast of the Guardian Angels! Jesus' comment about the individual angels takes place in the context of his teaching about God's loving care for all those who seek him or for the least of humanity, which, in Jesus' time, children were considered. God's providence is manifest in many ways and all of us probably have had experiences when we made a certain turn or decision which seemed to come to us unbidden and prevented us from grave harm. It is not unreasonable nor is it contrary to faith to attribute these instances to the influence of a Guardian Angel, but we must be open to the thought that this angel may not be wearing a gown, a halo and feathery wings. The angel might take the form of a bemused priest helping a new archbishop find his way to a chapel or an anxious recorded voice urging a u-turn! As first grade kids, we were urged by our teacher to make room in our desk for our Guardian Angel to sit down. While we may smile at that thought in our more "advanced" years, perhaps we should at least give a more mature thought to making space in our lives for God's providence in whatever form it comes. If that form is a Guardian Angel (we may even give it a name), all the better. AMEN
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