Michaelmas 2012

Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. (John 1:51)

People are sometimes surprised to discover that the Bible says very little about Heaven and even less about angels.

God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit into human history to invite a select group of individuals to record their observations about the human condition. In that context, God the Holy Spirit helped those individuals discern the fundamental problem confronting humanity and the solution God the Father provides humanity.

The subject of the Bible is neither heaven nor angels. It is not even God. It is humanity. The Bible reveals God’s perspective on humanity through the experience and observation of people God chose to work with and to walk with.

The Bible only speaks of angels in the context of human experience. Angels are messengers whom God sends into our world to accomplish a very specific task. Angles come, fulfill their mission, then leave.

God certainly does not need angels to accomplish his task. He chooses to invite angels to participate in his plan of salvation for humanity.

The angels remind us that as vast as this universe is, there is an even greater reality called Heaven beyond this universe of matter, energy, time and space. Angels also remind us that there is an even more magnificent reality beyond Heaven.

It is important to clarify what the Bible says and does not say about angels.

God created angels before he created the material universe. As God created the angels before he created time and space, so God created Heaven to be the home of the angels. Angels are a separate order of creation from humans. Despite what you may have seen in the movies, human beings do not become angels. And, Heaven is not the true home of our species.

Students of the Bible discern nine distinct orders of angels: Seraphim Cherubim, Principalities, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Virtues, Archangels and Angels. St. Paul references three Heavenly Realms. Theologians speculate that each of these realms is further divided into three provinces- a separate province for each of the nine orders of angelic beings. Each realm is vaster and more complex than our universe. And each realm is organized in a hierarchy of increasing complexity, beauty and grace.

The Bible is clear that God created the angelic beings by love, through love and for love. The infinite and eternal love of God manifests the divine essence in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the superabundance of that infinite and eternal Triune Love, God created the multitude of angels and placed them in the nine realms of Heaven.

The number of angels is finite but innumerable. They each hold the image of divine love and the likeness of divine holiness in a unique fashion. As inhabitants of the heavenly realms they immerse themselves in divine love through the beauty of holiness in worship. Angels are agents of love. Angels proclaim the call to worship.

Angels remind us by their very nature that worship is the highest form of love. The account of Lucifer’s rebellion against God and war against the loyal angels is an account of the distortion of worship.

Lucifer was the brightest of the highest class of angels, the Seraph Class. He came to believe that all other angels were inferior to him and unworthy to worship God, to share God’s love. He told them: since I am like God in my intelligence and beauty you then must worship me. I will take your imperfect worship and purify it within my perfection and then I will offer it to God.

This example of how the Seraph Lucifer came to reject God’s love is the story of Original Choice. It reminds us that Lucifer came to view worship as an expression of perfect knowledge and supreme power. Lucifer took his eyes off God, compared himself to other angles, and then chose to exalt himself through the pride of self will. He used his pride to seduce one third of the angels to separate from God and worship him.

In the story of Lucifer’s choice to separate from God we see the pattern of separation, sin and death that has ensnared our species and each of us.

As Lucifer proclaimed “I am like God” the smallest and weakest of all the angels proclaimed “who is like God?” In Hebrew this question is a word: Mi Cha El – Michael. Michael’s name is the angelic affirmation that God alone is God. God alone is the source of life and light and worship.

The Bible records that these two competing views of worship resulted in a terrible war in the Heavenly realms. Much to his surprise, Lucifer could not impose his will on Michael. Lucifer and his followers fought Michael and the loyal angels. Lucifer lost that war and in losing the war lost his place in Heaven.

Michael cast Lucifer into our universe of matter, energy, time and space. Lucifer pulled his followers with him. In our universe, Lucifer is known as Satan (the Adversary) and his angelic followers are demons. Demons are the burnt out remnants of the rebel angels. They are diminished spirits defined by fear and by spite.

Satan still defines himself through pride and self-will. He has lost most of his intelligence, beauty and power. He still attempts to deceive and seduce all beings who have been created for love. He does this by inspiring fear to corrupt and distort the very reason and purpose of our existence. That reason and purpose is the threefold love of the Triune God.

Satan seeks to subvert and destroy worship, to substitute conflict for compassion and to hinder our personal growth in holiness. He cannot impose his will on anyone. He can design philosophies, religions and ideologies to separate us from God and from each other.

Forget the grotesque images of Satan and the demons portrayed in art and in film. On the rare occasion demons appear to human beings they manifest as that which we most desire. They do this because they can only affect human beings through deceit. The Bible warns us that Satan can appear as an angel of light to seduce us into greater separation from God.

St. Paul teaches us to test the spirits by comparing what they tell us to what is written in the Bible. St. John teaches that any angelic being who does not acknowledge the Incarnation of the co-eternal Son of God in Jesus Christ is not from God.

On the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, the Church reminds us that we as human beings have been created for worship, service and holiness. The reality of Satan is the reality of a personal force of evil, of separation, that intentionally seeks to corrupt virtue and trivialize worship.

Satan hates what God loves. He lost his war against Michael. He has declared war on humanity. He believes he can win his war against humanity by deceit. He appeals to human pride and self-will to separate from God by redefining worship as an expression of superior religious knowledge or political power.

Satan flatters the prideful. He seduces the unwary. And, he attempts to intimidate the faithful through fear.

Our Heavenly Father has given the archangel Michael and the loyal angels two important tasks in the Plan of Salvation for humanity. The first task is to defend the faithful from Satan and the demons. The second task is to encourage the faithful to observe the seventh day of worship as the Day of Real Presence.

C.S. Lewis once commented that we are surrounded by spiritual warfare. This warfare is different from the wars human beings fight. The Satanic weapons in spiritual warfare are pride, arrogance, self-will, fear, anxiety, superstition, cynicism, blasphemy and self-indulgence. These weapons keep us in a state of separation from God and each other. Left unchecked, these weapons will leave us bitter, weak and lost in pride and despair.

The loyal angels defend us with spiritual weapons such as faith, hope, joy, humility, compassion, kindness and love. We can choose to ignore and reject the protection and guidance the loyal angels offer us. We can choose to accept their protection and guidance.

The loyal angels seek to protect us from the despair of superstition as well as the arrogance of materialism. They accomplish this task by inspiring us to make wise choices. Above all else, they encourage us to come to the altar of sacrifice to immerse our minds, hearts and wills in the Real Presence of Divine Love on the Day of Worship.

Satan seeks to detach us from God by redefining the meaning and purpose of worship. Michael and the loyal angels seek to encourage us to cultivate our relationship with God by making worship our first priority.

The Biblical stories of angels are not cleverly devised myths. They are the reports and observations of people who experienced an aspect of our world that most of us ignore or reject.

Most of us will never see or hear angels or demons. All of us will experience the reality of their presence as we choose to react to the world through fear, self-will and pride, or as we choose to respond to the world through faith, hope and love.

St. Michael defeated Lucifer by the power of Divine Love and Holiness. The ministry of angels in our midst is the ministry of encouragement. We need not fear any real or imagined supernatural entity. God assures us that the angels protect us.

We need not fear the uncertainties or unpredictable aspects of life. The angels inspire us to experience the highest form of love. That highest form of love is worship. The angels are present with us at the altar of Real Presence on the Day of Real Presence as Jesus reveals Himself to us sacramentally. In the blessed sacrament of the altar, Jesus is the great bridge, the pontifex maximus, uniting heaven and earth, divinity and humanity. It is Jesus who sends the messenger and guardian angles to Earth to assist us in our earthly pilgrimage in this world.

 Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.