God Knows Our Needs

Homily for Friday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time

As we quickly pass through the Book of Job this week, we are not hearing the entire conversation. We hear only Job’s responses to his friends and not the comments that elicited those responses. Today, we hear another voice: the voice of God as God speaks directly to Job.

Job, it seems, would have every right to question God. He had lost nearly everything: his family, his livelihood, and his health. However, God reprimands him in today’s reading. God who made everything in the universe sees everything from an eternal perspective, and Job hears him, trusts him, and promises not to question God again.

God knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows what we need in order to grow in holiness so that we can be with God forever in heaven. Today we celebrate the help that God has given us on our journey toward life with God forever. That help is personified in our guardian angels.

The Catechism teaches that “angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they always behold the face of the Father who is in heaven, they are the mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word.”

Angels are always listening and heeding the word of God. Doing this enables them to be his servants and messengers. God has designated some angels to be our guardian angels, whom we celebrate today. These angels are charged with getting our souls to heaven so that we may live forever and praise God with them and all the children of God.

If we believe that God has sent us spiritual guardians, we can also trust God to give us the graces and circumstances necessary for our sanctification. So today we thank God for this gift and also pray for a greater trust in God’s providential care.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator