October 1, 2023
Twenty-Sixth sunday of ordinary time
by Fr. Boniface Endorf, OP
Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,
We stand between two feast days related to angels: last Friday was the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael and this Monday is the memorial for Guardian Angels. We don’t often think of angels anymore, but they do play an important role in our lives. God created angels as pure spiritual beings, meaning that they don’t have physical bodies. But they are powerful: more powerful and intelligent than humans. They see God directly and can intercede with God for us. They also carry out God’s will, acting as intermediaries between God and men. Thus St. Gabriel played an important role during the Annunciation, when he spoke with Mary and announced God’s will that Mary become the mother of His Son, Jesus.
Because we can’t see angels, we often never think of them. That’s unfortunate because angels can and do help us in life. Each of us has been given a guardian angel who watches over us. We should be thankful for that and willing to request help from our guardian angel. There is an old Catholic prayer to our guardian angels that goes: “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, rule and guide. Amen.” My guardian angel has helped me before. For instance, whenever I needed get up unusually early for something important, such as for a flight, I would pray to my guardian angel to help me get up on time. So far it has worked every time (and I’m not a morning person!)
It can seem strange, even naive, to believe in angels in our jaded and cynical age. However, angels are real and important. We celebrate them in the liturgy, and they are mentioned at every Mass in the preface (that part of Mass before the Eucharistic Prayer that includes ‘Lift up your hearts to God…We lift them up to the Lord.’) The preface almost always ends with something like ‘the cherubim and seraphim adore you,’ meaning those types of angels are worshipping with us at the Mass. Let us see reality in its fulness: that we are not alone because God has created a world that includes angels. Let us be friends with them as we with the angels look towards God in His Goodness.
God Bless,
Fr. Boniface
Mass Tidbit:
After we proclaim the Mystery of Faith, the celebrant prays: “Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed Passion, the Resurrection from the dead, and the glorious Ascension into heaven of Christ, your Son, our Lord, we, you servants and your holy people, offer to your glorious majesty from the gifts that you have given us, this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation.”
That’s quite a sentence! It first recapitulates what has just happened at Mass: we have celebrated, at the consecration, the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s suffering, death, and Resurrection, and His Ascension into heaven. We stood present at those events liturgically and have experienced the grace that comes from them through the Mass. Notice also that the priest is talking directly to the Father: “of Christ, your Son, our Lord.” We are offering to Him, as His holy people, the gifts of the Mass: the bread and wine that have become the Body and Blood of Christ. Christ offered Himself to the Father on our behalf and we are taking part in that offering—appealing to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice on our behalf, a “pure victim,” “a holy victim,” “a spotless victim,” the unblemished lamb who offered Himself to save us. Thus the Mass is a sacrifice that partakes of Christ sacrifice on the cross. The purpose of the sacrifice is to obtain for us everlasting salvation. Christ is thus the way to eternal life. We are following that path in the Mass—partaking of the salvation won for us by Christ.
