Please read the passage before the homily.
Catholics celebrate their guardian angels October 2. Jesus is quoted in the last verse of this passage as saying that the angels of the little ones always look upon the face of the Father in heaven. These angels seem to be one earth watching “little ones” and in heaven seeing God.
Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus placed a child in the midst of the disciples and explained that we have to become as children. In the days of Jesus’ life on earth, children were nobodies, nothings in society. In the early days after the resurrection of Jesus, his followers were often treated as nobodies. In Jesus’ way of looking at reality, the last become first and the first become last, and the child becomes the adult while the adult must become the child.
Here are some of the nobodies in our culture and society: Christians, children, both born and unborn; the poor; the homeless; those with mental illness; strangers; migrants; non-citizens; convicts and ex-convict; unwed parents, especially women; members of the other political party; our enemies, personal, national, and international; and everybody else whom we despise or think less of. These have angels who look upon their faces and the face of God.
God became human and was born into our world as a baby, a child, a nobody. His is how God saved us. Now those of us who wish to receive this salvation must become like the child Jesus and so become like God. Jesus, the first as God, became the last as human. Therefore, we who are human and last have to become like Jesus and so become first. We must become like children.
Remember that the little ones, those who have become like children have angels who in heaven who somehow are also with them on earth. If angels associate with them, then we, too, must associate with the little ones, the children, the nobodies of this world.
We celebrate angels today and we are challenged to accept into our lives those with whom the angels associate.