The Church venerates them as guardians, that is, as ministers of divine care towards each human being. The Bible hardly mentions them at all but Jesus refers to them frequently and they were already invoked by Christians during early Christianity.
“Angels exist and watch over us as we live,” Benedict XVI highlighted. "They protect us and are signs of the presence of God who is always close to mankind."
Before the Angelus, recited from the window of his study looking out onto St. Peter’s Square, packed with 40 thousand faithful, the Pope informed people that the Church wished to dedicate today’s mass to guardian angels.
The concept of guardian angels arose during early Christianity in the 5th century, but the idea of a spirit sent by the divinity to watch over each and every human being was already present in Greek philosophy, as Plato’s Phaedon demonstrates.
In his book, “Get Up, Let’s Go”, John Paul II, described how he had trusted in his guardian angel ever since he was a child, reciting the traditional prayer with faith, certain of his guardian angel’s protection.
In 1986, he dedicated some of his General Audiences to explaining to faithful who angels might be. And when, during his holiday in the Aosta Valley in 2009, Benedict XVI fell, fracturing his wrist, he commented: “unfortunately my guardian angel did not prevent my accident, this is certainly because of some superior order; perhaps the Lord wanted to teach me greater patience and humility, to give me more time for prayer and meditation.”
Benedict XVI said: “Dear friends, the Lord is always near and active in the history of humanity and he accompanies us even through the unique presence of his Angels, which the Church venerates today as “guardians”, that is, as ministers of divine care towards each human being.”
The Pope’s reflection was inspired by the gospel passage about the foolish vine-dressers, helping him to remind his audience how “God demonstrated his omnipotence through faithfulness to a plan of love, which in the end also involves just punishment for the wicked.” It was also intended as a call to figures of authority within the Church to stay on the side of good, “bear fruits” and stay rooted “in Christ.”
Joseph Ratzinger added that “From the beginning of life until death, human life is surrounded by their incessant protection. And angels form the crown of the Virgin Mary, who “on the first Sunday of October” “from the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Pompeii” on behalf of “the entire world”, was asked “to help put an end to evil and let God’s goodness reveal itself completely.”
The belief in every person’s trust in their guardian angel, presupposes faith in a God who loves every human being as utterly unique and distinct. And it supposes the belief that the holiness of angels implies their sharing in divine love.
In Catholic thinking, every person is helped to fulfil the divine plan set out for them, not just through their charm, intelligence and free will, but also with the help of their guardian angel.
Many saints have trusted tenaciously in their guardian angel, including Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Francis of Assisi, Santa Francesca Romana and Father Pio of Pietrelcina. So angels do exist, and each person has a guardian angel who guides them from birth until death, because God loves each and every person in their uniqueness and protects them always.
On this, the first Sunday of October, the Church celebrates guardian angels and the Pope explained the reasons why to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. As he commented on the day’s Gospel, Benedict XVI emphasised the “great responsibility of those who in every period are called to work in the Lord’s vineyard, particularly those who have roles of authority, and work to renew complete faith in Christ.”
This responsibility derives from “a particularly severe warning from Jesus.” Indeed, “this Sunday’s Gospel concludes with the words pronounced by Jesus: “God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and it will be given to a people that are capable of reaping fruit from it.”
These words lead one to think about the great responsibility of those “great responsibility of those who in every period are called to work in the Lord’s vineyard, particularly those who have roles of authority, and work to renew complete faith in Christ.”
But above all, the Pope stressed that human life is surrounded by the constant protection of angels.