VATICAN CITY (EWTN News/CNA)—Pope Benedict XVI used his Sunday Angelus address on Oct. 2 to remind Christians to call upon their guardian angel for help throughout life.
“Dear friends, the Lord is always near and active in human history and follows us with the unique presence of his angels, that today the Church venerates as ‘guardian’; in other words, those who minister God’s care for every man,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square.
“From the beginning until death,” he said, “human life is surrounded by their constant protection.”
The Pope’s comments come on the feast of the Guardian Angels, a day celebrating the Catholic Church’s teaching that each person is assigned an angel to help protect and guide them through life. It was Pope Clement X who first extended the feast day to the entire Church in the early 17th century.
Pope Benedict also reflected upon the day’s Gospel, which contains a “particularly severe warning by Jesus, addressed to the chief priests and elders of the people,” for their lack of generosity towards God.
“Therefore, I tell you,” Christ says in the Gospel of Matthew, “the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it,” comparing the Jewish religious authorities to vineyard workers who reject the will of the owner.
“God has a plan for his friends, but, unfortunately, man’s response is often driven to infidelity, which results in rejection,” the Pope said, noting that “pride and selfishness prevent us from recognizing and accommodating even the most precious gift of God: his only begotten Son.”
“These words make us think of the great responsibility of those who, in every age, are called to work in the vineyard of the Lord, especially in a role of authority, and they push us to renew our full fidelity to Christ,” the Holy Father said. He observed that the “rejected and crucified” Christ is now “the ‘cornerstone’ on which the foundation of all human existence and the whole world may rest with absolute certainty.”
This was the Pope’s first Sunday Angelus address since returning from his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, 15 miles to the south of Rome. Some 20,000 pilgrims gathered to hear his address from the window of his study at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.
Pope Benedict said that the faithful must be “anchored in faith in the cornerstone who is Christ, abiding in him like the branch that cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine.” He urged those assembled to be faithful to Jesus because “only in him, through him and with him is the Church, the people of the New Covenant, built.”
“The Servant of God Paul VI wrote about this,” the Pope said, quoting his predecessor: “The first fruit of the deepening consciousness of the Church itself is the renewed discovery of its vital relationship with Christ. A well-known thing, fundamental, essential, but never quite understood, meditated upon, celebrated enough.”
Pope Benedict concluded by imparting his apostolic blessing to those assembled.
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Demons told St. Padre Pio that if we could see them, they would blot out the sun. We, foolish souls in our wayfaring state, think that we walk along on the surface of the created earth in broad sunlight, emerging, say, from Holy Mass on a nice Sunday morning. And yet the demons who would kill us, body and soul, if God did not restrain them more than He does, “blot out the sun”: we are walking in pitch blackness. Only the light of Christ illuminates that complete darkness. Only each soul’s guardian angel walks with us in that complete darkness. Oh souls, let us pray to God for His merciful help. Let us thank our elder brothers, the angels, for their assistance, which is pure charity toward pitiable, lesser beings.
I once saw my Guardian Angel in the guise of a patrolman who stopped his patrol car behind me and flashed his lights right after I asked him for help. He gave me perfect directions when I told him I was hopelessly lost that allowed me to make Midnight Mass in a distant city on time. I asked him why he stopped me – He said I had my bright lights on. I looked in the rear view mirror to watch him leave and he and his car had vanished. Imagine what they can do when you are in danger when they are so attentive on minor problems like this one. I am Consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary through Opus Sanctorem Angelorem. I highly recommend the organization, and the Chaplet of Saint Michael.
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