Feast of Holy Guardian Angels

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Monday, 2 October 2023 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, commemorating all the Angels that God has placed in our midst, guarding each and every one of us. The Holy Guardian Angels protected all of us from the constant attacks and assaults by the forces of evil, from Satan and all of his fellow fallen angels, demons and evil spirits, who are all hell-bent on bringing about our destruction and downfall. They watched over us and kept us on the right path of God, whispering to us God’s words and reminders, whenever temptations come to our way, and whenever the devil and his forces came to tempt and mislead us down the wrong paths in life. They truly guarded us and kept us safe each day and every moments of our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Exodus in which the Lord reassured all of His people of His continued guidance and protection as they journeyed towards the land that He has promised to them and to their ancestors. Back then, the people of Israel had been taken out of the land of Egypt by the Lord Himself, Who sent Moses, His servant to carry out His will and to help lead His people out of their slavery in Egypt. He showed all of them His power and providence, having smittened Egypt and its Pharaoh, its armies and chariots under His might, crushing them with the Ten Great Plagues and other signs, and with a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud leading the people on their journey towards the Promised Land.

This supernatural presence of the pillar of fire at night and the pillar of cloud at day represents God having been ever present among His people, and how He has set and sent His Angel to be with them, to guard them and to go ahead of them on their journey, clearing their path and way before them. This is what the Lord assured them all as we heard in our first reading passage today from the Book of Exodus. The Lord reassured the people that His Guardian Angels are always ever ready to stand by them, to guard and protect them, showing the protection, love and grace of God, ever generously shown and manifested to His beloved ones, and the Lord would go on to send His Angels to help guard and protect the Israelites throughout their long journey and detour in the desert for the whole forty years and afterwards, during the time when they conquered the Promised Land for themselves.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the words of the Lord speaking to His disciples and all the people assembled, while He was speaking and interacting with the young children who came to Him, seeking Him and loving Him. He told each and every one of them that He welcomed and desired children to be in His Presence and to come towards Him, telling them all that their faith and love for Him should indeed be like those children, or else, they cannot come close to the Lord. Why is that so? That is because the faith of those young children are indeed genuine and pure, being innocent and untainted they still are, by the vile things and wickedness of the world. When such a young child believes in something, he or she will truly believe it with all of his or her heart.

That is why, all of us should also heed the Lord’s words and reminders, for us to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and with great and genuine faith. Each and every one of us should do our best so that we may indeed live in the path that the Lord has set before us, striving to be true and committed Christians, in all things and at all opportunities. All of us should do our best to inspire all around us with our actions and way of life, that our lives, actions and works should be truly devout and committed to God, and that we may show the love and truth of God through each and every small little things that we do, and in whatever we say and how we interact with each other. We should always strive to do God’s will in all opportunities and to obey Him wholeheartedly in all our hearts.

In relation to our Holy Guardian Angels, let us all heed their reminders and words in our hearts and minds, as they ceaselessly protected us against all the harm coming from the devil and all of his wicked forces, desiring our downfall and destruction. Let us all be reminded and be turned from our evil, wicked and disobedient ways, heeding our Guardian Angels instead of the lies and the falsehoods spread by the ones who tried to tempt us away from the path of God and His salvation and grace. Let us all strive to keep ourselves blameless and free from those evil and wicked things, and resist the many temptations that may undermine our faith and distract or prevent us from truly being able to be faithful to the Lord in all of our ways.

Let us all be thankful to our Holy Guardian Angels, and let us all remember how they constantly and ceaselessly stood guard by our side, at all times, be it when we are awake or when we are asleep, or be it when we are happy or when we are sad and sorrowful. Let us remember the care and love which each and every one of our Guardian Angels have shown us, and be touched by their dedication and love, so that we ourselves may also strive to be truly faithful and loving towards the Lord, our God, Who has sent us these Holy Angels to be with us, to protect us and care for us, in their own way, from the invisible harm by those who sought our destruction and downfall. Let us all deepen our love for the Lord and be ever more faithful to Him.

Let us now pray the prayer to our Holy Guardian Angels, asking them to intercede for us always in our daily struggles in life. Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

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Monday, 2 October 2023 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 18 : 1-5, 10

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you, that, unless you change, and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble, like this child, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child, in My Name, receives Me.”

“See that you do not despise any of these little ones; for I tell you, their Angels in heaven continually see the face of My heavenly Father.”

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Monday, 2 October 2023 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 90 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 10-11

You, who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who rest in the shadow of the Almighty, say to YHVH, “My Stronghold, my Refuge, my God in Whom I trust!”

He will rescue you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions and give you refuge under His wings.

You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrows that fly by day, nor the pestilence that stalks by night, and the plague that destroys at noonday.

No harm will come upon you; no disaster will draw near your home. For He will command His Angels to guard you in all your ways.

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Monday, 2 October 2023 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Exodus 23 : 20-23

See, I am sending an Angel before you to keep you safe on the way and bring you to the place I have made ready. Be on your guard in his presence and listen to him; do not resist him for he will not pardon your wrongdoing, for My Name is in him.

If you listen to him and do what I say, I will be the enemy to your enemies and the opponent of your opponents. My Angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; all these I will destroy.

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Sunday, 2 October 2022 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are reminded to be ever faithful and committed to God, in our daily living, even if we are beset by various troubles and trials, challenges and obstacles. We should not be afraid or be deterred by the opposition and the hardships which we may encounter in our journey of faith through life. We must remain resolute in our faith and dedication to God, believing wholeheartedly in His path and not be easily swayed and tempted by all the traps and the other things that the devil and his wicked allies and forces had placed before us all. We must hold on to that faith which we should have in God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Habakkuk in which the Lord spoke and interacted with Habakkuk, a prophet who was active in the land of Judah during its final years, and whose life and ministry revolved around the sufferings and oppressions endured by the followers of the Lord at the land where the people refused to believe in God, where the prophets were persecuted. And not only that, Habakkuk was also referring to the sufferings of the people themselves, who at that time were brought under the dominion of the Babylonians and their king, Nebuchadnezzar.

The prophet Habakkuk pleaded before God for His intervention and help, saying that he and the people have suffered, and were in need of God and His help. But God reassured Habakkuk and also the people, by saying that, whatever He would reveal through Habakkuk himself, everything would come in due time, just as whatever He had spoken through His earlier prophets like Amos and Isaiah, among others. Everything will happen as God wills it, and eventually, all those who remain faithful in God will be redeemed and will enjoy the fullness of His grace and love. God will not forget or abandon those who seek Him, even if they themselves had abandoned or forgotten about Him before.

In our Psalm today, we heard the exhortation for us all, God’s beloved people to rejoice in Him, in His faithfulness and love. We are all reminded to focus our attention to Him, to serve and glorify Him, and to praise and worship Him at all times. We are also reminded not to be like those who rebelled against God as at Massah and Meribah. At Massah and Meribah, the very ungrateful Israelites rebelled against God and complained against Him, because they refused to obey Him and follow Him, and complaining that they were deprived of what they wanted to have, when God had taken care of them day after day, month after month, and year after year, feeding them all and guiding them to the Promised Land.

We are all reminded through these that often times, we are ourselves our own greatest opponent and obstacle, especially in our pride, ego and desires. It is our pride and ego which prevented us from seeing how faulty our lives can be, and led us to stubbornness and rebellious attitudes, as we often did not want to admit that we could have been wrong in our ways. We ended up refusing God’s ever generous offer of love and mercy, hardening our hearts against Him as what the Israelites had done in the past, at Massah and Meribah and during the time of the prophets like Habakkuk. Their refusal to abandon their pride and ego led to their downfall.

While their attachments to their desires, to the many pleasures and allures of this world misled them down the wrong path, as they preoccupied themselves with the pursuit of power, knowledge, glory, wealth, affluence and fame, status and many others. They gave themselves to the worship of false idols and false gods to satisfy their own desires and wants, and refused to follow the Law and precepts that God had set before all of them. This is what has happened to us as well, and will continue to happen to us if we are not vigilant in living our lives in our present day world. If we allow ourselves to be swayed by the many concerns and attachments, ambitions and desires we have, we will likely end up being lost from God.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord speaking to His disciples when they asked of Him to increase their faith. The Lord reminded them all that if they truly had genuine faith, even no matter how small it may seem to be, everything will be possible. Again, the Lord was actually reminding all of His disciples that they should not treat faith as a tool for their own self-benefit and ambition. For at that time, the disciples had followed the Lord for various reasons, and likely many of them were also spurred by the desires they had for power, influence and glory, as is common for any groups and movements, just as the history of the world and our Church have shown us.

As the Lord told His disciples that after everything that the servants had done, they were after all just servants of the Master. Any glory they have done and any great things they had performed, all these were due to the Master and not themselves. The Lord reminded His disciples and all of us through this parable, that all of us as the servants and followers of God ultimately live our lives at the command and charge of the Lord, and everything we say and do, all of our achievements and greatness are ultimately not due to ourselves, but due to God, attributed to Him and should have been offered to Him, rather than to make ourselves bloated with pride and ego.

Again, as I mentioned earlier, pride and ego are often obstacles and barriers that kept us away from God. Due to those, we often enclose ourselves in our own cocoon, in our own comfort zones, seeking to attain our own personal comfort and satisfaction rather than to do the will of God. The Lord reminded His disciples to be wary of these temptations that they do not seek for glory and acclaim in life, and whenever they do His will, they should do it because they want to do it for the glory of God and for the good of their fellow brothers and sisters, and not for their own selfish desires and ambitions instead. St. Paul his Epistle to St. Timothy, in our second reading today, also echoed the same thought, that we ought to follow the Lord and His ways, and not to give in to worldly ways and desires.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard all of these, we are now then called to reflect on our lives and discern carefully how each and every one of us should proceed forward in our respective lives. The Lord has called on all of us to follow Him and we should answer His call with faith and commitment. We should do whatever we can in life, even in the smallest and seemingly least significant things so that our lives, our every actions, our words and interactions with one another bear within them the light and truth of God, His hope, His love and His way. Through us, the Lord can touch so many more other people in this world, and this is our calling as Christians, to do God’s will and to live our lives faithfully in the way that He has shown and taught us to do.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Church and in our respective involvements, in our Church ministries and organisations, there should be no quarrel, infighting and power-playing that unfortunately often happen because we as fellow Christians, instead of dedicating our works and efforts to serve the Lord and focusing our attention on Him, we focus our attention on ourselves instead, and seeking to satisfy our own personal ambitions and desires. That is why we end up having so many issues and conflicts, factionalism and infighting even among the members of the Church and its various communities and bodies.

Not only that, but even outside the Church, and within our own respective circles of friends and families, we should be the ones to bear forth the goodness of God’s love and truth rather than being the source of division or suffering for others. Too often we have heard how people were being scandalised and turned off by the actions of Christians who did not live their lives as how Christians should, and instead they lived their lives in the manner of the world, and often even worse than how non-Christians behave themselves. This is why, each and every one of us, whenever and wherever we are, we have to do our best to live our lives righteously and worthily in the manner that God has shown us.

May the Lord our most loving God and Master continue to watch over each and every one of us, and may He strengthen us all with the courage and resolve to follow Him and to walk ever always in His path and presence, resisting the many temptations present all around us that we do not end up falling into the traps that the evil ones had intentionally set before us to bring about our downfall. Let us all seek the Lord ever more fervently and spend more of our time and effort to do His will, and to glorify Him by our lives, now and always. May God bless our every good works and endeavours, for His greater glory. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 October 2022 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 17 : 5-10

At that time, the Apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” And the Lord said, “If you have faith, even the size of a mustard seed, you may say to this tree, ‘Be uprooted, and plant yourself in the sea!’ and it will obey you.”

“Who among you would say to your servant, coming in from the fields after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Go ahead and have your dinner?’ No, you tell him, ‘Prepare my dinner. Put on your apron, and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink afterward.’”

“Do you thank this servant for doing what you told him to do? I do not think so. And therefore, when you have done all that you have been told to do, you should say, ‘We are no more than servants; we have only done our duty.’”

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Sunday, 2 October 2022 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

2 Timothy 1 : 6-8, 13-14

For this reason, I invite you to fan into a flame, the gift of God you received, through the laying on of my hands. For God did not confer on us a spirit of fearfulness, but of strength, love and good judgment. Do not be ashamed of testifying to our Lord, nor of seeing me in chains. On the contrary, do your share in labouring for the Gospel, with the strength of God.

Follow the pattern of the sound doctrine which you have heard from me, concerning faith, and love in Christ Jesus. Keep this precious deposit, with the help of the Holy Spirit, Who lives within us.

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Sunday, 2 October 2022 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 94 : 1-2, 6-7, 8-9

Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful sound to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him giving thanks, with music and songs of praise.

Come and worship; let us bow down, kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God, and we His people; the flock He leads and pastures. Would that today you heard His voice!

Do not be stubborn, as at Meribah, in the desert, on that day at Massah, when your ancestors challenged Me, and they put Me to the test.

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Sunday, 2 October 2022 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Habakkuk 1 : 2-3 and Habakkuk 2 : 2-4

YHVH, how long will I cry for help while You pay no attention to me? I denounce the oppression and You do not save. Why do You make me see injustice? Are You pleased to look on tyranny? All I see is outrage, violence and quarrels.

Then YHVH answered me and said, “Write down the vision, inscribe it on tablets so it can be easily read, since this is a vision for an appointed time; it will not fail but will be fulfilled in due time. If it delays, wait for it, for it will come, and will not be deterred. Look : I do not look with favour on the one who gives way; the upright, on the other hand, will live by his faithfulness.”

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Saturday, 2 October 2021 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we all celebrate the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, celebrating those innumerable Angels that God had sent to us to be our protectors and guides, as each and every one of us has a Guardian Angel assigned to us by God to watch over us constantly at all times. Although we cannot see them, our Guardian Angels never ceased to watch over us and to protect us from especially the attacks by the evil one and all of his wicked forces.

Why do we need protection, brothers and sisters? That is because if we have not realised it yet, we are constantly under attack and being targetted by the ones who sought to see our downfall, desiring to drag us together with them into the fires of hell. The devil and his fellow fallen angels have always sought our destruction and they did not want us to be saved. Right from the beginning, as he and his forces had been cast out of Heaven for their rebellion, Satan has targetted us as God’s most beloved creation and sought to undermine God’s plans for us.

That was why he tempted Adam and Eve, and brought them into their downfall through disobedience. By listening to the sweet lies and falsehoods of the devil, they had turned away from God and fell into sin. Yet, God Who dearly loved us desired for us to be reconciled with Him, to turn away from our sins and from our wicked paths, and to stay true to the path that He has shown us and revealed to us. That is why He put the Guardian Angels by our side to protect us and guide us through to the right path.

We have to realise just how fortunate we are for having the Lord and His love, His most generous care and concern for us. That He has provided an Angel to take care of each and every one of us is the proof of just how much He cares for us, and yet we often rejected His love and attention, and many of us have persisted in our erroneous path of sin, in refusing to obey His Law and commandments, and in preferring to listen to the lies and the temptations of the devil and his fellow fallen angels.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we celebrate this Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, let us first of all give thanks to the Lord for having loved us so generously all these while. Let us thank Him for the gift of life and for having been so patient with us despite our constant waywardness and disobedience. And let us then also thank our respective Guardian Angels whom God had placed by our side and who had tirelessly protected us in the constant spiritual warfare and battles raging around us for the fate of our souls.

Then, let us commit ourselves to the Lord, to His path and His truth. Let us all strive to do the will of God and to obey His commandments from now on. Let us resist the temptations of our flesh and all the efforts of Satan and all the wicked ones who sought to turn us against God. Let us be exemplary in our actions through life so that we may be inspiration to one another in how each and every one of us ought to live out our faith. Let us also listen to our Guardian Angels and allow them to guide us to the right path.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on our lives and our path and choices in life. Let us all realise that all of us are called to holiness and to follow the Lord, and everything has been provided and given to us, that we even have guidance from our Guardian Angels all the time. Yet, it is really up to us in the end whether we want to listen to their urgings and reminders, and to heed the Lord’s call or whether we prefer to continue to live in the state of sin. The choice is ours, brothers and sisters in Christ.

May the Lord, our ever loving God and Creator, Who has graciously provided us all with our Guardian Angels, continue to bless us and strengthen us through those same Guardian Angels, that we may persevere in life and remain faithful to Him at all times. O Holy Guardian Angels of God, watch over us and protect us always from the snares of the evil one and his forces, and continue to guide us patiently and help us whenever we falter and fall, that we may continue to struggle and strive to do our best for the Lord. Amen.