Michael

A Michaelmas Reflection

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

Over the last five years or so, Michaelmas has become one of my favorite unsung holidays. This is in part because the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels stands right at the cusp of October, like the peak of a rollercoaster. From here on in, it’s holidays all the way down. But I also enjoy it because out here, amidst the woods and the flames, I get to do something for which preachers rarely seem to get opportunity. I get to talk specifically about angels—and one fellow in particular.

First let’s be clear on what an angel isn’t. An angel isn’t the soul of a person who has died. Up in Heaven that would be a saint; down below we’d call them ghosts. Angels were never human. They have no bodies, and cannot die. Nor are angels fairies. That’s a whole other kettle of fish. We often find angels portrayed as sweet, doe-eyed children or inoffensive young ladies, bringing pastel-colored comforts to wayward souls. And I must say that I’m honestly not sure where such depictions first caught on, because that’s not how the Bible portrays angels at all. Your typical angelic encounter in the Bible starts out with the angel saying, “Be not afraid!” and the very next verse usually is, “And they were terrified.”

So what is an angel? Angels are the first and by nature the highest beings in God’s Creation. They are creatures of pure mind. They have no bodies to hold them back, to grow weary or sick or to die. They are beyond our idea of pagan gods. They can be wherever they think of. They can appear however they wish. They do not have eyes to see or ears to hear but they are far wiser and more perceptive than you or I because their knowledge comes directly from the mind of God. What they do share with us, however, is free will. God created the angels not out of necessity but out of sheer love and generosity—which is the same reason that God created us, and all other things. And true love necessitates freedom.

St. Augustine believed that angels were born on the first day of creation, when God said, “Let there be light!” And He separated the light from the darkness. That darkness, of course, had a name: Lucifer. You see, angels come in wondrous variety, more numerous than the stars in the heavens. And they possess power the likes of which would boggle mere mortal minds. The highest and brightest of them all, a creature second only to God, was the high angel Lucifer, which means “Light-Bearer.”

Now something happened to Lucifer. Something enraged him. We’re not entirely sure what. Legend has it that God gave the angels a glimpse of the future: a prophecy of humankind, and of how God would have to save us by becoming one of us. God told His angels that He would be born of the Virgin Mary, and be named Jesus. Many of them marveled at this wonder. But Lucifer did not want the Creator to enter His Creation through some mewling peasant girl, some shaved ape.

No, Lucifer, the brightest of all angels, wanted the honor of becoming the vessel through which God would enter the world; he wanted to be the Theotokos, the Mother of God! In his jealousy, his pride, his insistence upon his own will over God’s—Lucifer fell. And he became no longer the Light-Bearer, but the Adversary. Satan.

During that first great rebellion, an archangel, a being far lower down the angelic ranks than Lucifer, rallied the loyal angels with a battle-cry that would echo down through eternity. “Who is like unto God?” the archangel cried. “Who can ever be like unto God?” And the angels made their choice. Those who embraced the will of God were led by the archangel, whose war-cry became his name: Mika’el. Michael. And Michael cast the great serpent Satan out of Heaven—not because he was by his own nature stronger than the devil, who was, after all, a higher angel than he—but because Michael relied on God’s strength, God’s will, God’s glory, rather than his own.

The devil is not the archenemy of God. He only wishes he were the archenemy of God. In reality, Satan cannot hold a candle to the infinite glory and mercy of the Almighty. The devil’s true nemesis, the foe who forever slays him and casts the dragon down to earth, is the Archangel Michael, the Prince of the Heavenly Host. It is Michael who protects God’s people Israel in the Old Testament, and God’s Church in the New. It is Michael who leads the armies of Heaven against the machinations of the fallen. It is Michael who will bear the scales of God’s justice at the final Judgment of the world.

And it is Michael who comes to us, in the hour of our death, and gives us one last opportunity to ask for the forgiveness which God always offers to us. The archangel holds out his hand in the Name of his King and ours, Jesus Christ. And if we turn in any way back towards the insistent mercies of God, Michael will snatch our soul out from the devil’s claws and bear us into eternal Light.

Brothers and sisters, we are not the only creatures God has made. Long before He laid the foundations of the earth, God fashioned an innumerable host of spirits, each unique and as different from one another as humanity is from fish. They were given the freedom to choose, as were we. They were tested by the devil, as were we. They experienced a terrible fall, as did we. Now they stand by us—surround us—aiding us every moment in a thousand ways we cannot perceive.

As we come now to this darker time of the year, when so many fears may come out to play, let us remember that God provides not just the material abundance of the harvest but also spiritual allies, great defenders, mighty guardians on our way. We are not alone. We were never alone. And the powers of the night have no strength at all before the flaming sword of God’s own angels, the armies of Jesus Christ, so quick to defend, so keen to serve.

St. Michael, archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the snares and wickedness of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. For who is like unto God?

In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.