When we die, one of the bigger shocks we will have is to meet our guardian angel. Life, like baseball, is a game of inches. Some of you may have been shot at, or been in near accidents or accidents in which a few inches made the difference between life and death.
All of us have been in situations where a change in circumstances, one way or the other, would have led us to meet or not meet people we love and those who would go on to change our lives. And there are the important times when a change of heart moves us to a meritorious act of virtue rather than a grave sin. Aren’t these things to thank your guardian angel for?
It is an act of humility to recognize that our talent and experience are not enough to help us reach our goal. “The reasoning of men is unsure and our intentions are unstable,” Wisdom 9:14. Of course, angels can’t read our mind, will, or conscience unless we share them or God permits them to. Respecting our freedom, angels can draw us quietly to God and enkindle any dwindling fire in our hearts. If we let them, they are an ally to remove pessimism, scatter confusion and inconsistency, and keep our imagination from running wild.
Our guardian angel helps us to keep the presence of God throughout the day. Besides helping us not wander off course, our angels can help us offer up well-done, honest work, carried out with great love and charity as a fitting sacrifice to God: To be more Able than Cain.
Guardian angels serve as a reminder to all people that they should help one another. As the Angelic Doctor, Thomas Aquinas, wrote 750 years ago, “The protection of men by the angels is a specific manifestation of divine providence. In the present life, man is, as it were, on the road to his fatherland. Many dangers, both internal and eternal, threaten him along this road, as the Psalm says: “On the way where I shall walk they have hidden a snare to entrap me (Psalm 141:4). Just as guides are provided to those who have to traverse unsafe pathways, so to an angel has been given to each man to guide him as long as he is a wayfarer.”
When you face God in the final judgment, your angel, as a friend, will remember the kind deeds you performed. This will be a counterpoint to the devil, who is unable to do good and can only accuse in a last-ditch attempt to destroy a soul’s eternal happiness. By nature and grace, your guardian angel is equipped to assist in this battle. As St. Peter wrote to the first Christians, “Your enemy the devil is prowling about looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Just as angels guarded the passage through the Red Sea, a symbol of rising from spiritual death through baptism, so they guide each of us through the sea of life. As St. Paul said, “For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness of this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens” (Ephesians 6:12).
Call on the help of your guardian angel throughout the day. Call on the help of the guardian angel of those you meet or will meet to help smooth the way. Ask for the favors you need for family and friends. Ask your guardian angel to accompany you in prayer. In a world starving for friendship, this is one friend easily at hand who will never fail.
Related: If Man is the Measure of All Things, We Are Screwed
How many times have you given advice at work or in the family and wondered, Why doesn’t anyone listen? But isn’t it true that very things that irritate us most are things we ourselves do? Do we listen to those humble, quiet prompts of our guardian and companion?
They are far more intelligent than any human. It is also a widespread belief that institutions, such as countries, also have guardian angels to help protect them from evil and guide them to do good. Again, do the nations listen? Psalm 2 has a lot to say on that topic. However, that is for another day, when my old class notes are more organized! Needless to say, Bishop Sheen says it better with his chalkboard angel.
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