St. Michael and All Angels

Editor’s Note: September 30 is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.  After reading this essay, consider listening to the recent TLC Podcast with Fr James Brent also on Angels.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Rev. 12:7-12)

Angels are God’s messengers; angelus in both Latin and Greek means “messenger.” The Hebrew is malach; the prophet Malachi is “God’s messenger.” However, Satan, the accuser, and his army of rebellious angels are still making war on earth as they did in Heaven. The first question in the baptismal liturgy is “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?” The next question is “Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?” The distinction between spiritual forces and the powers of this world is made clear, although we often only think of the latter. Both must be renounced, along with our own sinful desires, in order to follow Christ.

In the prayer Jesus taught us, we ask to be delivered “from evil,” a moral concept. But apo tou ponerou can also be translated as “from the evil one,” a reminder that Satan is still among us, tempting us as he did Jesus in the wilderness. Although he finds it “better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven,” in the words of Milton’s Paradise Lost, the “apostate angel” is still eternally at war with God and his heavenly hosts, commanded by the Archangel Michael.

In Latin American countries, St. Michael is often portrayed with a sword in one hand and a balance scale in the other because, in his role as defender against Satan, he is the angel who weighs the souls of the departed to see who is saved. His name means “Who is like God?” in Hebrew, so portrayals of him often have the Latin Quis es Deus? inscribed on his breastplate. Satan is sometimes depicted as a dark angel with horns and a tail, but also often as a dragon, drawing upon this passage in Revelation. The most famous image of St. Michael doubtless is the statue atop the monastery dedicated to him on the tidal island on the coast of Normandy, Mont St. Michel, where Michael is piercing the dragon Satan with his spear.

But this is the Feast of All Angels, so we should consider another prominent angel in the Bible, the bearer of good news, Gabriel. He appears in the Book of Daniel to interpret a vision in chapter 8. In the New Testament he is sent to Zechariah as he is on duty in the Temple to promise the birth of a son to be named John, who will be the forbearer of the Lord’s Messiah. When Zechariah has doubts about his message, Gabriel introduces himself rather grandly and then gives him a sign that he surely did not appreciate: “And the angel answered him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time’” (Luke 1:19-20).

Gabriel’s next duty is to inform the Virgin Mary that she has been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. After greeting her and telling her the message, he responds to her reasonable question (How can this be since I have no husband?) very courteously:

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be called holy,
the Son of God.

And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible. (Luke 1:35-37)

There are two other angels named in the Apocrypha, Raphael and Uriel. Notice that all the angels have names that end in “El” or “God” in Hebrew. They can be translated: Gabriel, “Man of God”; Raphael, “God heals”; and Uriel, “Light of God.” Some Eastern Orthodox and Coptic traditions have three or four more names for angels.

In both the Old and New Testaments, angels come as God’s messengers over and over to people he has called, including the cherubim guarding the entrance to Eden, Abraham at Mamre, Jacob in a dream and then a wrestling match, Balaam’s ass and then Balaam, Manoah, Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, Joseph in dreams, Zechariah, Mary, the wise men, the shepherds, Peter in prison, Paul, Ananias, and of course Jesus after the temptation in the wilderness, in the Garden of Gethsemane, to the women at the tomb on Easter morning, and to the disciples after Jesus ascends into Heaven. Jesus speaks of children having angels who behold the face of God (Matt. 18:10) and promises that he will return in glory with God’s angels (Matt. 16: 27).

Finally, let’s return to Revelation. Among the many angels with their various tasks to explain things to John, blow trumpets, lead heavenly choirs, and so forth, we are told by Jesus himself, “one like a son of man,” that each church has an angel watching over it. Indeed, the messages to the seven churches are to be written to their angels: “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write” and so on to each of the seven churches represented by the seven lampstands in the vision. Think of your parish church; there is an angel assigned to it — perhaps a messenger from the Lord, like Gabriel, and/or a protector from the evil one like St. Michael. Whether your parish is large or small, well-endowed or just getting by, the members of each church are precious in God’s sight and guided and guarded by their angel. Remember that each Sunday, when we pray to join with angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven to sing the song of the highest angels, the Seraphim, “Holy, Holy, Holy” in our Eucharistic offering. One of them is already there with you!