Guardian angels and children: Daily Mass Homily--Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 (Feast of Guardian Angels and school Mass)

            As we celebrate the feast of our Guardian Angels, can someone tell me what an angel is?  Someone who protects us.  Someone who prays for us.  Someone who keeps the devil away.  And what does an angel look like?  And don’t say your Mom.  They have wings.  They are bright white with yellow eyes.  Well I am wearing bright white right now, am I an angel?!

            Know this—angels are not cute.  In the Bible, men and women who have seen an angel are somewhat scared because they are powerful.  They are strong!  And while we picture them with wings, they don’t actually have bodies because they are pure spirit—try to wrap your head around that one.  God loves us so much that He has given each of us our own angel to protect us and pray for us!

            I want to focus on something very powerful from our Gospel.  I’ll need a volunteer [kids hands shoot up]—an adult volunteer!  [Adult comes up].  Pretend that N is a disciple and I am Jesus.  What did the disciples ask Jesus in the Gospel?  Who is the greatest?  Yep.  And do you remember how Jesus answered this disciple?  N [first grade student], come up here.  Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.  And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”  [Pointing to first grade student…]  You are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven!  (Thanks for coming up, you can sit down now).

            Why does Jesus point to children as the greatest?  What do you think?  Because we can do things longer and pray longer.  And you aren’t afraid to speak your mind!  Why else?  We pray.  I hope so!  Let me ask you this—when was the last time you paid for groceries?  The mortgage for your home?  Gas for the car? 

            Jesus points to children because they are completely dependent on someone else.  Your food, clothing, house and transportation is provided for you, out of love, from someone else.  We adults must remember that everything we have is a gift from God and we must remember to be childlike in our dependency on Him.  Now this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t grow up.  You must grow up to be good citizens and, please God, faithful members of the Christian faith.  Yet as our responsibilities grow as we mature, we can never forget we are completely dependent on God.

            We ask our guardian angels to help us remember this!