YOU’RE AN ANGEL
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this September 29th feast day of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels is, “You’re an Angel!”
Has anyone ever said to you, “You’re an angel!”
Did anyone ever call you an angel?
THEY DIDN’T MEAN
I am sure they didn’t mean you have wings and you fly around wearing long white floating garments.
However, I did have a wedding three Saturday’s ago when 2 flower girls came down the aisle at St. Mary’s Church wearing wings. They were dressed as angels. And I’m sure someone without thinking said to the littlest one, “You’re an angel!” or to the older one, “You’re an angel for getting your little sister to come down the aisle with you – because she was so scared.”
THEY DID MEAN
I would assume when someone says to us, “You’re an Angel!” they mean we saved them. We helped them big time. We did something good to them.
For example, someone is trying to open a door and they have 5 packages – and we step in and help them – and they say to us, “You’re an angel. Thanks.”
And all of us have seen a dozen times the movie, It's A Wonderful Life. In order for Clarence to get his wings, to become a full fledged angel, he has to help someone. And movies and TV programs about angels ever since present angels as helpers - saving people from a problem.
TODAY’S FEAST
Today’s feast is that of the three archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. On October 2nd we celebrate the feast of the Guardian Angels. I think that’s all the angel feast days of the Church year.
Catholic Theology states that angels are these creations of God – unique spirits without bodies – that praise God and go about doing good. Now some of these beings, these “forces”, are given names. Most are just called “angels”. The 3 for today – Michael, Gabriel and Raphael – are found in Scriptures – by name.
Then there was the great angel, Lucifer – who fell. This fact, indicates they have intellectual powers – or free will. After that we don’t know much or enough about angels.
They are invisible. But just as we picture God – who is invisible – we picture angels.
Because they are messengers – they are pictured with wings – and so that's the way they are often sculpted. We see them that way in art work all through the middle east and middle ages. Just go into any “old” Roman Catholic church building and you’ll see pictures of angels in stained glass windows – and other pictures and statues. I counted them here in St. Mary’s. They can be seen everywhere.
In reality, I don’t go with the physical wings and stuff – because people have enough trouble believing in God.
However, they are worth studying – and pondering – and the question sits there: “Are we missing something since the Enlightenment – when angels seemed to fly out the window?” What was the world like in the Middle Ages and earlier ages? Did people picture Guardian Angels hovering on people’s shoulders – protecting them? Did they picture millions of angels on the head of a pin – in theology classrooms? Did they feel like they were joining a multitude of heavenly angels at each Mass – especially at the Sanctus, the Holy, Holy, Holy? Did they picture a great ladder – as indicated in the gospel for today – Christ as Ladder – with angels coming up and down from heaven to earth on him? [John 1: 51] What was life like with a sense of angels and demons at one’s door?
MESSENGERS
Yet, what I would stress about angels that they are God’s servants. They are God’s messengers. That’s their calling.
And that’s our calling – and when we fulfill that call, sometimes people might say to us, “You’re an angel.”
A key would be to concentrate on the message we’re called to deliver in the places we visit each day. So the stress would be the message not the messenger – as in the old saying, “Don’t kill the messenger!”
What is the message? What is God’s message that he sends us to be messengers of? Answer: “Take and read! Take and read.” If we read the scriptures we can hear God telling us to love one another – and giving various other best practices to go about doing.
Sometimes I picture angels as inspirations – with wings – that is, messages with wings – flying through the world – and into our consciousness. After all there are all these other invisible messages in the air – energy – radio waves – whatever it is that goes through the world wireless – and we have to turn on some gadget to receive them.
I also picture temptations as messages that fly around and sometimes we hear them and then we have the challenge to resist them and to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”
THESE 3 SPECIFIC ANGELS
Michael’s message is to be like God – because that is what his name means from the Hebrew.
I prefer war to peace – so I would prefer picturing Michael as a being who loves compared to the being who fights. However, in the literature, Michael is usually the angel who is pictured with a sword in hand fighting dragons and demons.
I’ve also wondered why do cult like groups – doomsday like groups – feature Michael in their camp. They often voice revelations of Michael fighting and killing the enemy?
I would think – if we really need an advocate and an angel – pray to Michael the archangel. Other Christian communities – other than Catholics – prefer to stick with Jesus himself or the Spirit and not Mary, the Saints or the Angels.
Gabriel name means “the strength of God”. Obviously, once more, we would all like to have God’s strength and bring that strength to others.
In the New Testament Gabriel is pictured as the messenger who comes to Mary with the announcement that God wants her to bring a Son into the world. And Mary has the strength to say yes. [Confer Luke 1: 26-38; Daniel 8: 15-27]
And Raphael is the angel who heals – as we see in the Book of Tobit. I see the message that our call is to be peacemakers – healers – of those around us. “Rophe” is the Hebrew word for a medical doctor. [Confer Tobit 5: 5 to 12:22]
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Sketch on top: This is the work of Gustave Dore (1832-1883) in an illustrated book of Dante's Paradiso. This is a scene from Canto 31 - Rosa Celeste - in which we see Dante and Beatrice gazing up into the highest heavens: The Empyrean.
Check the Catechism of the Catholic Church # 328- 336 for much clearer details and dogma on the angels.
