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Congregation for the Clergy on the Memorial of the Guardian Angels
October 2nd, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
It is only by this growth and conversion in God's love that life, together with every natural and supernatural means, is given to us. To this end, the Lord wanted to make these angelic creatures, in particularly the Guardian Angels, care for us so that we can be illuminated, guarded and guided on the road to sanctity.
VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven." (Mt 18:3)
In Today's liturgy , whilst we celebrate and invoke the intersession of our Guardian Angels, we hear the Lord's invite to us to adopt, what the Christian Tradition refers to as, "spiritual infancy" or "spiritual childhood". What is spiritual childhood? Spiritual childhood is that extraordinary attitude that we can admire in all the Saints and especially in the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, St Francis, St Thomas Aquinas, St Teresa of the Cross and the Blessed John Paul II.
We can contemplate spiritual childhood by looking at the purity and total faithfulness with which Mary of Nazareth welcomed the Angel's announcement and stayed at the foot of her Son's Cross. Alternatively, we can consider the enthusiasm and promptness with which Levi left the tax office in order to follow Our Lord and become St Matthew, the Apostle and Evangelist.
There are also other examples like St Francis who removed his clothes in the Piazza of Assisi in order to wed Mother Poverty. Spiritual childhood is that intimate security with which the martyrs have welcomed a violent death to be Christ's witness. Throughout the history of the life of the Church we can also propose numerous other examples.
If spiritual childhood shines forth in the lives of God's servants and seems so natural to them, almost like their innate nature, we must recognize how, in truth, it is a goal to which we are all called. This call to spiritual childhood is born primarily from a Christian's recognition of his condition as a creature who has received everything as a gift from the Most High God.
That recognition, in so much as it concerns the invisible and eternal realities, cannot be only the fruit of our will and intelligence but is also a gift of the Holy Spirit that we should continually request and welcome from God.
What is this "spiritual childhood" and what does the Lord definitely ask of us? Spiritual childhood, which means to become like children, means to radically belong to Christ and to recognise that without Him we would not even exist.
That belonging and faithfulness recognises that in Him everything was created. As St Francis would say "you are Goodness, all Goodness, you are the highest Good." That radical gift of one's life, the abandonment of one's affections and goods allows "us [to] rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us" and so to race with an undivided heart towards God to love Him and serve Him all the days of our lives.
It is only by this growth and conversion in God's love that life, together with every natural and supernatural means, is given to us. To this end, the Lord wanted to make these angelic creatures, in particularly the Guardian Angels, care for us so that we can be illuminated, guarded and guided on the road to sanctity.
Let us thank God for this great gift and let us learn to pray to and love our Guardian Angel. May we learn the spirit of true and continuous adoration from our Guardian Angel so that we may we be able praise God whilst we await our definitive meeting with Him and Most Holy Mary, Queen of the Angels, in heaven. Amen!
Citations of:
Ex 23,20-23: www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/9a43nuw.htm
Mt 18,1-10: www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/9absihr.htm