Called to Be Guardians of Life

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 10/7/04)

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on the Feast of the Guardian Angels during the Respect Life Mass at All Saints Church in Manassas on Oct. 2, 2004.

Our first and primary focus during the celebration of this Mass is the Guardian Angels. The fact that God has assigned to each of us a special guardian angel who accompanies us through life from the cradle to the grave is another sign of God’s loving care. This feast is relatively new in the history of the Church, appearing first in Spain during the 16th century. In 1608, Pope Paul V permitted its celebration on an optional basis and in 1670, it was extended to the universal Church and made obligatory.

The first "guardian angel" to be noted in the Scriptures is the angel of the Lord who protects the Israelites from all danger on their exodus from Egypt. Today’s first reading is taken from the Book of Exodus in order to depict clearly the function of such a guardian angel. Saint Jerome comments on this special sign of God’s loving care: "… how great is the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it" (Comm in Matt., XVIII, lib 11). St. Bernard says in one of his sermons: "… And so, the angels are here; they are at your side, they are with you, present on your behalf. They are here to protect you and to serve you … They are loyal, prudent, powerful. Why then are we afraid? We have to follow them, stay close to them, and we shall dwell under the protection of God’s heaven" (Sermo 12 in psalmum Qui habitat, 3, 6-8). So, we give thanks to the Lord for revealing His loving care to us by sending to each of us our own guardian angel. Moreover, we are also grateful to our guardian angels, as St. Bernard likewise tells us, "for the great love with which they obey and come to help us in our great need" (ibid.).

Our other and parallel focus during the celebration of this Mass is respect for life, especially since October is Respect Life Month and since every month we gather, as we are doing today, first, at a church to celebrate the Holy Mass and, then, travel to a nearby abortion facility where we stand in tangible witness as we pray the Holy Rosary. On this day dedicated to the Guardian Angels, we are being reminded that we must, in a certain sense, resemble them by being the guardians of life.

What does it mean for us to be the guardians of life?

First, to be guardians of life, we must be persons of prayer, that is, persons seeking to be deepened in our union with the Lord within His Church by entering into the sacred experience of genuine prayer. To be guardians of life, we seek both wisdom — to understand God’s Word, and fortitude — to carry out His Will. God wills that we listen to His Word, above all, the Incarnate Word, Who is His only-begotten Son. "This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him" (Lk 9:35). Our guardian angel has a role to play in our prayer. Every day, we ask him: "Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom God’s love entrusts me here. Ever this day, be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen."

Secondly, to be guardians of life, we must live as authentic members of the Church, and that implies and demands that we be "the people of life and for life and this is how we present ourselves to everyone …. For us, being at the service of life is not a boast, but rather a duty, born of our awareness of being ‘God’s own people …. Together, we all sense our duty to preach the Gospel of life, to celebrate it in the Liturgy and in our whole existence, and to serve it with the various programmes and structures which support and promote life" ("Evangelium Vitae," Nos. 78 and 79).

Thirdly, to be guardians of life, we must respect, protect and defend life from its beginning at conception to its end at natural death. In June of this year, we bishops of the United States, as teachers of the Catholic faith and of the moral law, reiterated the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding life and reaffirmed our obligation as bishops to teach clearly.

"It is the teaching of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, founded on her understanding of her Lord’s own witness to the sacredness of human life, that the killing of an unborn child is always intrinsically evil and can never be justified. If those who perform an abortion and those who cooperate willingly in the action are fully aware of the objective evil of what they do, they are guilty of grave sin and thereby separate themselves from God’s grace. This is the constant and received teaching of the Church. It is, as well, the conviction of many other people of good will.

To make such intrinsically evil actions legal is itself wrong. This is the point most recently highlighted in official Catholic teaching. The legal system as such can be said to cooperate in evil when it fails to protect the lives of those who have no protection except the law. In the United States, abortion on demand has been made a constitutional right by a decision of the Supreme Court. Failing to protect the lives of innocent and defenseless members of the human race is to sin against justice. Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.

As our conference has insisted in "Faithful Citizenship," Catholics who bring their moral convictions into public life do not threaten democracy or pluralism but enrich them and the nation. The separation of church and state does not require division between belief and public action, between moral principles and political choices, but protects the right of believers and religious groups to practice their faith and act on their values in public life.

Our obligation as bishops at this time is to teach clearly. It is with pastoral solicitude for everyone involved in the political process that we will also counsel Catholic public officials that their acting consistently to support abortion on demand risks making them cooperators in evil in a public manner. We will persist in this duty to counsel, in the hope that the scandal of their cooperating in evil can be resolved by the proper formation of their consciences."

Therefore, to be guardians of life, we must understand the authentic teaching of the Church on the life issues and be able to express these teachings clearly, openly, candidly and convincingly to those with whom we live or work or enter into dialogue. We need to use analogies which are rooted in factual data, especially in light of the advances in neonatology, as well as to point out the inconsistencies in the popular "pro-abortion/pro-choice" rhetoric. We need to understand what the formation of conscience really entails and know how to form our consciences and to assist those who wish to do the same with theirs. We need to maintain communication with public officials who make decisions every day which affect human life and dignity. We must carefully weigh the morality of every issue and vote in a manner which upholds the moral law. In those cases where the available options fail to satisfy the moral law in all its respects, one must make a prudential judgment to choose the option which promotes the greater respect for life.

Finally, whoever we be, whatever our particular status, as Catholics, we must carefully examine our consciences before receiving Holy Communion. In June, we bishops stated: "The Eucharist is the source and summit of Catholic life. Therefore, like every Catholic generation before us, we must be guided by the words of St. Paul, ‘Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord’ (1 Cor 11:27). This means that all must examine their consciences as to their worthiness to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord. This examination includes fidelity to the moral teaching of the Church in personal and public life." It is a contradiction for a Catholic to uphold abortion on demand and at the same time proclaim oneself to be a faithful member of the Church. So, any Catholic who consistently upholds abortion must seriously ask himself or herself whether he or she can worthily receive holy Communion. The basic principle in both moral and sacramental theology is clear. If one is not in the state of grace, for whatever reason, then one should refrain from receiving the sacrament until absolution has been given in the sacrament of penance.

I also wish to repeat what we bishops said in June: "The polarizing tendencies of election-year politics can lead to circumstances in which Catholic teaching and sacramental practice can be misused for political ends. Respect for the holy Eucharist, in particular, demands that it be received worthily and that it be seen as the source for our common mission in this world."

Yes, on the Memorial of the Guardian Angels, we do reflect again on God’s loving care in sending to each of us our own individual guide and guardian. And we also reaffirm our desire to resemble the guardian angels by becoming ourselves the guardians of life from conception to natural death. After all, "The Gospel of God’s love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel" ("Evangelium Vitae," No. 2). Since, by baptism, we are called to be heralds of the Gospel, we must be, therefore, the guardians of life as well. To this call, we respond clearly and unequivocally "Amen — let it be!"

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