But this saying also contains the fundamental purpose of our human life by setting alongside – as it does – the beginning of our life as little ones in this world, with the end to which our life is meant to lead – with the beholding of God himself, that is, to the Beatific Vision.

The nearest approach to that which we reach in this life is the worship of the Eucharist where, with the angels and archangels and with all the company of Heaven we come before the very Throne of God, which is visible to them who stand there at our journey’s end, though invisible as yet to us who are still on our way.

The angels also remind us of something else – the sort of people we must become before we can ourselves reach the Beatific Vision of God.  Our Lord has told us that it is the pure in heart who shall see God.  And when we remember that even the pure and holy angels, who have never once fallen into sin, veil their faces before the dazzling sanctity of their Maker and ours, then we realise the kind of perfection that will be required in us.  For, in the words of Holy Scripture addressed to the most Holy God, “Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing” (NRSV, Habakkuk 1:13.  “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil will not sojourn with you” (NRSV, Psalm 5:4).