2 October 2025 -- Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels
Homily
Throughout the liturgical year we celebrate feasts of the Lord and the Virgin Mary, as well as of many men and women who, either through their martyrdom or the holiness of their lives, have manifested the holiness of God. On September 29, we celebrated three archangels, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, whose names we know from stories in the Old and New Testaments, and all the other angels whose names we don't know. Today we celebrate our Guardian Angels.
They are mysterious beings whose existence we cannot doubt, since Jesus himself speaks of them in his encounter with Nathanael, and also in the Gospel passage we have just heard. In the Old Testament, we know of the archangel Raphael, who accompanied Tobit on his long journey; in the New Testament, we know above all of the angel Gabriel, who revealed to Mary her mission as Mother of God and to Joseph his paternal responsibility towards Jesus, the son of Mary his wife, born of the Holy Spirit.
According to Church tradition, each of us has also been given a guardian angel to accompany us on our journey to Paradise. The Book of Revelation also tells us about the angels of God who, on the Day of Judgement, will separate those who will go to eternal heavenly happiness from those who, having refused God's love, will go to eternal punishment. The word angel means ‘sent’ or ‘messenger’. Even if today's feast is for those heavenly beings who are in the heavenly kingdom, there's nothing to stop us from praying during this day for all those whom God puts on our path to guide us on our pilgrimage here below, and especially for the members of our community, our sisters and brothers. They are each and every one of us, in different circumstances, God's messengers, God's angels. And we are all called to fulfil this role for one another, even if we don't always behave like angels!
On this feast of the Holy Angels, let us thank God for all the angels, visible and invisible, that he has placed in our path.
Armand Veilleux