A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus calling a child over to him, put the child in their midst and said to them, truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.
See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven, their angels always behold the face of my father who is in heaven. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. As said, I this is a follow-up on the feast of the angels the other day. And in the meantime, I did some research.
I got out my National Hatecatechetical Directory for Catholics of The United word angel doesn't occur in the index. How about this? Not even now, may be in the book, but it's not in the index. And about everything else that you can think of is in the index, but the word angel is not there. That's the National Catechetical Directory for Catholics of The United States.
On the other hand, if you go to the Catholic Catechism with father Harden, or if you go to the Catechism, the teaching of Christ by father Lawler and his brother and some other associates, you will find there a considerable treatment about angels. And especially about this idea of guardianship, of the of the ministry of angels, that between us and God you have these intermediaries. Now, don't ask me why it isn't in the National Catechetical Directory for Catholics in The United States in its index. It is not there. Because if you go to the to the bible, the old testament, the new testament, the book of the acts or book of the acts of apostles, you will find plenty there about angels.
You can't escape it. They can't be just you can't just treat them as if they're not there. Whether what you want to believe about them is something else, but they're there. And as I said, take up the Summa of Saint Thomas and you will find a long extended treatment, De Angelis, concerning angels. And the boys going to the high school are very happy today to know they have the feast of the guardian angels.
It's a holiday because their founder had such a devotion to the guardian angel. What I'm trying to say is for someone I I have no explanation for this. What has happened? Why have we divorced ourselves from these Catholic doctrines? This isn't an opinion.
Every time we say the mass, every time you recite the creed, you talk about the seen and the unseen. Every in the in the canon of the mass, talk we associate ourselves with the angels. Well, what as I say, they're they're here even if they're not in the index of the National Catechetical Directory for Catholics in The United States. Now, what does this doctrine mean to us? I went back and read the Council of Trent on it.
And about all they do is to tell you what's in the scripture and and tell you know, that that catechism was put together after the council of Trent as a help to pastors to write sermons. And Cardinal Newman, for one, he said it was one of the biggest helps he had in preparation of his sermons. You won't even find it on most people on the on the bookshelves of most priests. You won't even find a copy of it. And I think, and I'm not the only one, one of the greatest mistakes of Vatican two was they did not produce a catechism.
And there's probably a long answer to why it didn't happen. And part of that answer is indicated in this National Catholic Directory, which had to be revised several times before it even was published by the bishop's own committee. Now all I am saying is this, let's be Catholics, and let us let us enjoy our faith. Let us not take the hard part. There are plenty of parts of it that are severe.
Flannery Flannery O'Connor said it is a severe life. He even used a stronger word than that. And anyone who tries to live it will know very well that Christ spoke the truth. But he said, if you wanna be my follower, grab my cross and follow me. And that's not a figure of speech.
The cross is very much part of being a Catholic. The cross is essential to being a follower of Christ. It's the one criterion, the one criterion that Christ gave of being his follower. That is true. But then he said, if you take my cross, you'll find it burnt that you'll find it light at the burden sweep because he doesn't ask us to do this alone.
He doesn't ask us to grit our tree and to have that fine manly virtue which the English have made so much of, you know, of silent suffering and a tight upper lip and on all of this nonsense when a good first class cry to God almighty is what we most need. We are surrounded. We are surrounded by the because I if you'll allow me to say so, the fingers of god holding us up. He never asked us to carry the cross alone. He never asked us to live isolated as if we were the one and only between and that there is God and here I am, and in between us, there is nothing, and I've gotta make it on my own, maybe with a little prod once in a while from the from something or other.
That isn't the way it is at all. You know, in many ways, Jesus Christ had more respect for the world as our enemy than we have. We don't really appreciate the struggle we're we have to put up. We don't, I think, many instances because we don't sit and ever take a look at it and realize what it is all about. You take this if you take this the first reading reading this morning from the Psalms, it's absolutely clear what God is telling those, the his chosen people.
Take this excerpt from Saint Matthew about our Lord and about the guardian angel of the children. You can't escape that. Christ said it. And so let us relax. I mean relax in the confidence.
Have you ever seen a little child? I don't want to exaggerate this stuff or get sweetly sentimental and all that nonsense, but I've seen it, for example, in the department store. Occasionally, against my will, I find myself in one of them. And you one I've noticed this on more than one occasion. A child may be a three or four toddler, you know, who's able to walk and run around and wants to walk and run around, gets separated from his mother just a little bit.
The mother isn't worried, the child's only a few feet away, a few yards away. The child knows it's not lost, I suppose. I don't know. But the way stuff the way I've seen that little child make a dash for its mother, not just hobble or wobble, but dash with the mother, grab the mother's hand. And the mother usually makes a big flush, you know, recovering her lost child.
It's a wonderful sight, but you see that there you have the confidence of that child having its hand his mother's hand. And do we ever think that way about god almighty, that we are truly in his hands? Maybe not directly, but indirectly through his ministers. That's the doctrine of the angels. That it's god reaching out by his ministers to help us along the way, to safeguard us, to encourage us, to prepare us, to give us strength, to give us the light at the end of the tunnel.
We need it, believe me, many a time. And so the church it's not an accident that the church has these feasts. As I say here, within two or three two days, we have the feast of the angels, now we have the feast of the guardian angels. This is an intent. The church is telling us something.
The the church is teaching with a living voice of Christ. She's giving us message. Here. Here is what God has done for you. He's not only created you, he's not only created the world, he's not only given you a destiny, he has sent special ministers to help you through this veil of tears, to suffer the whips and the spores of outrageous fashion.
That's what he's done. So let us accept Let us believe it. Let us in our daily lives act. The name of the father, the son, the holy spirit. Amen.