Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

 Lectionary: 459/650

“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.

Old people are said to become childlike as world-weariness grows, and managing becomes more complicated. It's hard to make sense of everything that is happening, might be happening, and happened already. The elderly remember much and not every memory is fond. War, for instance.

Deja Vu becomes normal as we watch old mistakes repeated repeatedly. Twenty five years ago, I watched the United States invade Afghanistan and Iraq; and asked, "Haven't we made this mistake before, in Southeast Asia?" But little was said about Vietnam in 2001. And little was said about 9/11 in August 2021, when we again discarded tons of military equipment in a wasted country.  

We tell our children that the US continues in the glorious history of ancient Athens. But the history of that city's failures and fall should teach us that democracies are impulsive and genetically fickle. They remember little of the past, and are often compelled by fear and greed with little concern about the inevitable consequences of every decision and action. They've no time for assessing the past, much less studying history. 

Indeed we need the Lord's guiding, guardian angels who see far beyond the horizons of space and time to guide us along the everlasting way. Given their knowledge of the past and present, and their eternal perspective, they see the end as well as the beginning. Our rationality, pathetically helpless before greed and fear, works well only with divine assistance.  

Today's responsorial Psalm, taken from Psalm 139, teaches us to pray for guidance. And it makes a lovely song.