HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY ANGELS (2)

HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY ANGELS

HOMILY THEME: Behold I will save my people and their angels stand before me always.

BY: Rev. Fr. Callistus Emenyonu, cmf

HOMILY: READINGS: Nehemiah 2: 1-8, Ps. 137, Luke 9: 57-62

The song is true of what God does in our lives: “The steadfastness of the Lord never ceases, or does the mercy of our God come to an end; they are new every morning, new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness oh Lord” There is no other god known to humans in history that is so loving and caring, so faithful and merciful like this God of ours. We are always unfaithful but he is always faithful and does not disown his very own- his creatures.

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the guardian angels. This feast is a reminder of the goodness of the Lord to us his children. It is an assurance of his love that knows no end and good plans and solid mighty will for us. He knows that the world is evil and that we cannot make it alone but need heavenly guards who do the divine guidance and protection of us against the snares of the devil. God at the creation of everybody appointed ministering angels who are among his household or who are heavenly members of his divine court to take care of us. He assigned each of them to each person so that none of us shall be left alone without heavenly watch and care. What a mighty God we have. These heavenly creatures are God’s deputies who faithfully do this duty assigned them by God and have no right to do otherwise or take their own decision except to do what God has asked them to do. Their duty is to save us from evil and remove us from the way of sin, help us overcome temptation, assist us hear the voice of God and cooperate in his will for us. He makes them supervise the words of our mouth in prayers and bring them to his throne on our behalf. They fight our battles and give us courage. Like God, they do not sleep nor slumber and do not leave us even when we sin.

Beloved, part of the work of the Guardian angels is that they help us to receive divine unction and positive insight on what that is good to be done. They help us resist evil and sinful things and awaken in us the spirit and desire for doing good things. It was the aid of the guardian angel that made Nehemiah to notice what the Lord demands from them at that time to do. The action of the Guardian angel made Nehemiah to become restless and be downcast and so he laments the ruins of the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. The guardian angel makes us zealous for the house of the Lord and to have strong and convincing spirit to do something practical and good for the Lord and his people. It gives us courage as it did to Nehemiah and he became bold to ask the King Artaxerxes to allow him go back to Judah and rebuild the ancient city and the Sanctuary of the Lord that was in ruins. The Guardian angel helps us to have contrition and then start rebuilding of our spiritual ruined walls and then make holy again the sanctuary of the Lord that is our body and spirit.

The guardian angel makes us to desire to be with the Lord and to follow him and his ways. This was what we saw in today’s gospel when a man saw Jesus and was attracted to him and made request to follow him wherever he goes. The one with the spirit of the guardian angel will not allow family and work to deprive him of the priority and important work of following the Lord. It makes us who have put our hands on the spiritual plough not to go back for the sake of any worldly attachment. Even when it is inconveniencing and painful following Jesus the future joy would lure us to keep following him as Jesus said: foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Such conditions and utterances cannot prevent the one with the direction f the guardian angel to go back.

I pray that the Lord would make us cognizant of the presence and importance of the guardian angels in our life. I pray that we may become obedient to the commands and directives of the guardian angels in all that we do so that we may not derail but find ourselves in the place of rest on the last day, Amen.

Rev. Fr. Callistus Emenyonu, cmf

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