Tenderness of the guardian angel when we are in sin
The devotee of the Guardian Angel (Don Bosco)
The goodness of our loving Keeper does not cease even when we fall into some sin. It is true that in that inauspicious moment in which we sin, our good Angel almost withdrawing disdainfully from us, seems to burst into high groans of pain. And although because of his beatific state he swims in a delightful sea of peace, in any case the hatred that leads to guilt seems to make him pass through a sea of tears: Angeli pacis amare flebunt. Nonetheless, though faced so outrageously by those who sin under his purest glances, though also postponed to the evil spirit; therefore he does not withdraw, {38 [124]}, nor abandons those who outraged him, but suffers and dissimulates, and nothing fails to recover that unhappy soul that everything is dear to him. Great thing! ponder here s. Pier Damiani, we all of and in many ways outrage these loving custodians, and their love nevertheless suffers us, indeed I would suffer little, they continue to assist us, and the concern for ourselves grows and becomes more pitiful in them, because we are more miserable and mean. In the way that the heart of a mother becomes more tender, where the infirmity of a dear child becomes more serious; so our loving caretaker at gazing at our soul in such a tearful state, everything softened for her gives her the first acts of pity at the foot of the divine throne, intercedes and speaks thus: O Lord, have pity on this soul for me entrusted; only you can free it, and without you it is lost: et dicet libera eum ut non descendat in corruptionem. Such supplications he brings {39 [125]} to the merciful throne of Jesus the Redeemer, he brings them to that of Mary refuge of sinners; and thanks to such a powerful intercessor, how will divine justice not be appeased?
Ah, if our resistance to so many and so loving impulses of the good caretaker were not so obstinate, nobody would ever see the sun setting on his fault, without having planted it and expiated with fruitful penance. But even when he sees us backward from his voices he ceases to love us, and pushed, he sometimes gives his hand to the correcting rod with disasters, with decay of luck, which we believe to be misfortunes, and are subtleties of our Angel, who knows how to love and correct, and knows how to direct the punishment itself. In what abyss of guilt did Balaamo not plunge, until he wanted to curse the people of God? but the Angel having reduced him to a narrow street before, showed him with a flashing sword in his hand, and told him that he had come precisely to break his steps, because {40 [126]} his steps were unfair and perverse. Thus they saw Balaamo changed by the Angel; so they see every day changing so many hearts, at first indocile, then amidst the straits of some misfortune, between the reproaches that the Angel makes them feel, they repent of their errors, they return on the straight path of virtue; and oh then the rejoicing among which the holy angel rejoices! Jubilant flies to intimar up in heaven to all the hierarchies of the Angels new feasts, just the saying of the Redeemer, for the lost sheep and so happily brought back to the fold. Gaudium erit in coelo super uno sinner poenitentiam agent (Luc. 14, 7). My most patient Guardian, how long is it ever that you would like to reach the deviated sheep of my soul in the fold of Jesus? I hear the voices that call me, even though I run away from you, like one day Cain with the divine face. Ah! I don't want to tire your patience anymore. I return this soul into your hands, {41 [127]} so that you may return it to the arms of the good shepherd Jesus. He promised to make a great celebration with all his Angels for this return: let this be the day of this celebration for me. : I will give the subject with my tears over my sins, continue with jubilation on my repentance.
PRACTICE
Flee bad companies and suspicious conversations more than the plague, among which your good Angel can only see you with disgust, because your soul is in danger. Then you can confidently promise the assistance of the Angel, the grace of God.
EXAMPLE
What sentiment is aroused in our loving caretakers, when we fall into sin, and what concern they take to make us return to grace, is known from what Cesario tells of the famous Liffardo. Born of a noble family, and made religious, {42 [128]} by exercise of humility he was forced by the superior to fulfill the lowest offices. For some years he held this place with a great example of virtue, when one day the evil spirit tempted him to pride, representing the vituperation that returned to his illustrious condition, to be so cowardly occupied. This temptation became so vigorous, that the wretched monk already resolved to lay down the religious habit, and to flee the cloister, except that while these thoughts agitated him, at night time his guardian Angel appeared in human form and told him : «Come and follow me. He obeyed Liffardo, and was led to visit the sepulchres. The first time he went around those places, at the sight of those skeletons, at the stench of that smash, he was so taken with terror that he asked the Angel for the grace to withdraw. The heavenly guide led him a little further, then in an authoritative voice, reproaching him for his {43 [129]} inconstancy. "You too, he said, will soon be a bulicame of worms, a heap of ashes. See, then, if it can come back to your account, to give rise to pride, turning your back on God, for not wanting to tolerate an act of humiliation, with which you can buy yourself a crown of eternal glory. At such reproaches Liffardo began to cry, asked forgiveness for his phallus, promised that he would be more faithful to his vocation. Meanwhile, the Angel led him back to his room, disappeared, remaining those still in his sincere propositions until his death. (Ces. Lib. 4, 54).