“A Good Working Relationship”

Earlier today as I left noon Mass at my parish, I received a phone call. The caller on the other end was a close friend, a law enforcement officer in a large Northeastern metropolis whom I have known for many years. He had been in training recently for some higher-level police work and he wanted to share some of his takeaways with me.

There was the mundane. “Guess what mode of communication they can’t eavesdrop on?” Looks like I’ll be continuing my practice of communicating with family and close friends via Facetime. Apparently one cannot (easily) put a trace on video.

There was the unusual. “You know how we always talk about investing in cryptocurrency and how it either isn’t safe or will be meaningless in the near future?” Turns out there is one crypto coin-like thing that even LEO’s acknowledge they cannot trace and from which they simply walk away. I’m not going to name it here but think of Saturday Night Fever and the main character. And it isn’t Travolta.

And then there was the practical. “I heard things in the past few days… Things that would frighten anyone with a conscience.”

What my LEO pal was not alluding to was super-secret sensitive information about governments and potentates. He wasn’t talking about great crime mysteries. He couldn’t tell me who DB Cooper really was or whether LBJ had help in bumping off Kennedy. No, he was simply getting at some of the truly demonic activities that surround most criminal activity. His advice to himself and each of us?

In fact, he already knew that but whatever he heard recently reinforced this belief. The reality is, though, that we ALL need to have a good working relationship with our angels. One of the things the modern world has given us is the belief in space aliens but not in the very real purely spiritual beings created in the quadrillions by God Almighty who are tasked with defending and enlightening us.

They are with us and they are real.

Padre Pio is said to have quipped that “if every demon who was after our soul were suddenly and physically manifest, it would black out the sunlight.” This is something akin to what my friend was telling me. All of the truly horrendous crimes he’s encountered have had some element of the diabolical to them. He says he can literally feel it (I imagine in a similar way to an exorcist) when he’s at certain crime scenes. He says it carries over in the conversations about the crimes that officers have with one another. He says it surrounds the people involved and comes into their homes. Frightened yet? Think about it, they’re everywhere and they want to kill you forever.

Isn’t it comforting to know, then, that we have our own angel waging battle on our behalf? They are smarter, more powerful, holier, and generally just better than us by magnitudes we cannot fathom and they made the decision at the moment of their own creation to love you and me and truly to will our good.

Whether as a cop or fireman, as a prince or pauper, we ought all to speak to our guardian angels daily, asking them to be involved more and more in our daily lives. Thank them when you wake up that they protected you while you were asleep because they, unlike us, do not need rest. Call upon them during the day to steer your thoughts and desires toward good and away from evil inclinations. Beseech them before you close your eyes at night to prepare to advocate for you before your judgment if that is where you should journey in your unconscious.

They love you and they literally live to do these things for you.

Fathers (heads of families) should especially have a good working relationship with their angels. Ask them to guard the entrances to your home, to keep evil at bay, and to keep you physically safe, mentally sharp, spiritually attuned, and virile so that you can protect your wife and kids the way the angels protect us all.

So, to everyone reading this, remember the old prayer and make use of it. I recently came across a little pamphlet with a litany to one’s guardian angel. Become devoted to him. In the end, when Our Lord reveals all the instances where our angels served and saved us, He will also reveal all the times we refused our angels’ advice. I pray never to reject that advice as I go forward.

Mary, Queen of Angels and Saints, pray for us!
Holy Guardian Angels, our friends, pray for us!