VATICAN - AVE MARIA: Mgr Luciano Alimandi -
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The great doctor of the Church, abbot Saint Bernard, urges us to show affection for the Angels and to trust these heavenly spirits given to us by God to accompany and protect us on our journey through life: “We should then, my brothers, show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father. We are God’s children although it does not seem so, because we are still but small children under guardians and trustees, and for the present little better than slaves. Even though we are children and have a long, a very long and dangerous way to go, with such protectors what have we to fear? They who keep us in all our ways cannot be overpowered or led astray, much less lead us astray. They are loyal, prudent, powerful. Why then are we afraid? We have only to follow them, stay close to them, and we shall dwell under the protection of God’s heaven” (cfr. Office of Readings for the feast day of the Guardian Angels).
The feast-day of the Guardian Angels, 2 October, is a call to renew our devotion to these heavenly companions which Divine Providence has placed at our side to accompany us along the path, at times impervious, of life. In God's plan for the salvation of the whole of humanity, Angels play no minor role. They guide us towards our destination: eternal happiness. They already live this happiness to the full since, as Jesus says, “ they are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven” (cfr. Mt 18, 10), and they long for us to be with them and with the Saints in Heaven to praise the Lord and live with him in unending happiness.
The Angels are messengers of happiness who show us the way to choose good and to avoid evil, living the freedom of children of God. In all our trials they are at our side to protect us from the spirits of evil and support us in the hardest battle of all, our struggle with selfishness.
In our quest for “well being”, satisfaction and realisation, we should join the Angels and let them guide us towards the happiness we seek continually.
The happiness of man – as we heard from the Holy Father Benedict XVI - has a name and a face, known to the Angels and to those who listen to divine revelation: “ Dear friends, Jesus is your true friend and Lord; enter into a relationship of true friendship with him! He is expecting you and in him alone will you find happiness. How easy it is to be content with the superficial pleasures that daily life offers us; how easy it is to live only for oneself, apparently enjoying life! But sooner or later we realize that this is not true happiness, because true happiness is much deeper: we find it only in Jesus. ” (Benedict XVI, Message to the young Catholics of the Netherlands, 21 November 2005).
Only when speaking of the Jesus, the Word of God says: “ Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received -one gift replacing another, for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.” (Jn 1, 16-17). It is to the Apostles, those men who will be the first 'consecrated' by Jesus in the ministerial priesthood, the Lord explains the work of the Angels: “ 'In all truth I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending over the Son of man.' ” (Jn 1, 50-51).
The grace of the Year of the Priesthood can help all Catholics, and we who are priests first of all, rediscover how Angels cooperate with the priestly ministry. If we rely on their help we become more aware of our identity in order to announce to the world that Christianity is a “religion of happiness”: “The priest, certainly a man of the divine Word and the sacred, must be more than ever today a man of joy and hope. To men and women who find it hard to understand God as pure love, the priest will always affirm that life is worth living and that Christ gives life its fullest meaning because He loves all men and women. The religion of the Cure d'Ars is a religion of happiness, not a morbid yearning for mortification, as people once thought: ‘Our happiness is too great; no, no, this is something we will never understand (Nodet, p. 110), St Jean Marie Vianney used to say”. (Benedict XVI, Video Message to participants at an International Retreat for Priests in Ars, France, 29 September 2009). (Agenzia Fides 2/10/2009)
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