Work like an Angel; Angels: Day 300

If you’re lazy now in doing good works, asks St. Clement of Rome, how will you look the Lord in the eye when he comes to give you your reward? Remember how the countless angels stand around him, always  ready to serve him.

The good servant receives the bread of his labor with confidence; the lazy and slothful servant cannot look his employer in the face. We must therefore be prompt in doing good; for all things come from the Lord. He forewarns us in these words: “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him” (Isa. 62:11).

He exhorts us, therefore, to pay attention to one thing with our whole heart:

that we should not be lazy or slothful in any good work.

Let our boasting and our confidence be in him. Let us submit ourselves to his will. Let us consider the whole multitude of his angels, how they stand ever ready to minister to his will. For the Scripture says, “a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him” (Dan. 7:10) and cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3).

So, conscientiously gathering together in harmony, let us cry to him ear- nestly, as if we all had one mouth, so that we may share in his great and glorious promises. For it says, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). –St. Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians, 34

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

If God were paying me by the hour, how would I account for the hours I’ve spent so far today? Have I been as ready to serve as the angels who surround him?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, I fall far short of your angels in serving you; but remember your humble and unprofitable servant, not according to my worth, but according to your great mercy and compassion.

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