On October 2, we celebrate the memorial of the holy guardian angels, and it can be an opportunity to reflect on a spiritual reality that embraces each of our lives but that we often tend to forget: there is a guardian angel beside each of us! How does it affect us to hear this? Who knows, perhaps we think these are things for children, “little fairy tales” that we tell our little ones to help them overcome their fear of the dark… The guardian angel is not a children’s fairy tale.
 Let’s discover who he is and what he does for us!

Who are the angels?

Intelligent and free, in their dimension as celestial spirits, the angels were called by God to adore the mystery of the Son, before whom they made a choice that was radical and irrevocable.
Some, blinded by pride and arrogance and closed in on their self-love, rebelled against the Father, separating themselves from him forever: they are the demons, enemies of God and his plan of love for humanity, and therefore hostile toward human beings as well. Others, who deliberately chose God as the supreme good, are faithful to him and share in his happiness: they are the good angels, whose principal work is to contemplate and praise God.
These angels also fulfill a role in proclaiming the Gospel between God and human beings; indeed, as their name indicates (from the Greek anghelos = messenger), they are God’s “messengers,” his ambassadors, collaborating in the divine plan.

Everyone has an angel beside them

According to the teaching of the Church, an angel is assigned to every person to be their companion and guide toward goodness, support, and protection throughout life.
Guardian angels watch over our bodies and, above all, our spiritual health, actively intervening in the struggle we must endure against the demons who seek to draw us away from God.
Guardian angels are active with God, listening to his commands and offering him our good deeds, presenting and supporting our prayers, interceding in our sorrows and difficulties, and serving as our guides and teachers through inspirations, advice, and reminders.

The guardian angel always leaves us free

The guardian angel helps us to be ourselves, but this help can be realized only in freedom. The angel can do nothing more than make an appeal, out of deep concern for his friend, and remain beside him faithfully. A person may also neglect to listen to him, resist him, and thus render all help ineffective. In this sense, we can speak of the guardian angel as a true friend. What, after all, is a friend?
A friend is a person who does not seek himself, but truly seeks me. He knows me, knows my strengths and weaknesses, respects me, and loves me for who I am; he wants what is good for me and respects my freedom. Such friendship is very precious and equally rare. However deep it may be, human friendship remains limited.

Who can claim to fully understand a friend?
Who has such authentic selflessness as to truly love a friend without ulterior motives?
And what fidelity is stable enough to survive not only changing circumstances, but also changes in the friend, in their beliefs, and in their life experiences?
But above all: there is always a boundary, traced by the “I,” that creates an ultimate solitude that no communion can overcome or eliminate.
If all this is true of friendship between human beings, things are different with the guardian angel. He is great, and I will never compare myself to him, but we were both created by God, and in this we are equal. There is a solidarity between us that comes directly from God, and only in this relationship is there a possibility reserved for friendship that otherwise exists nowhere else. In this sense, the guardian angel is truly a unique friend, and rediscovering our relationship with him would lead us to become more fully ourselves.
Wouldn’t it be worthwhile?
Let us remember that it would not be a tiring, one-sided effort, because the guardian angel truly is there: silent, present, and absolutely faithful.
Could the hours of solitude, the darkness of sadness, and the pain of not being understood in this world not acquire a new meaning?
All this, however, without fantasies and trusting solely in Jesus’ word: allowing ourselves to be enlightened by it and dwelling in the profound truth that no one is truly alone, even when they feel that way!