Today is one of those feast days in the Catholic Church we might be tempted to gloss over: the Archangels St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Really? Angels? What have they to do with our struggles here and now? Didn't they already accomplish their mission?
Yet, how can these holy, powerful and beautiful beings be idle? Let us consider instead that each one of them is fully active and involved in their respective works by which they glorify God.
St. Michael is known as the warrior who subdues evil. We pray, "St. Michael, defend us in battle," because we need help with that and God is pleased that we all work together to defeat evil through his grace, beginning with what is amiss or sinful in our own lives. In return for our participation in this struggle God promises us help and delivery from all that is evil so we can find joy in God's Goodness and Life.
St. Gabriel is known as the Messenger, sent by God to Mary, he proclaimed: Blessed are you among women... the Holy Spirit will come over you and you will bear a child... the Son of the Most High. Gabriel continues to work throughout the world, wherever the gospel is preached. It is always an invitation to collaborate in God's work of hope, of repair, of the restoration of our relationship to the Divine. That message still resounds: Their message goes out through all the earth (Psalm 19).
St. Raphael is the Angel of our times, needed so much as the healer. He protected Tobit and Sarah who were so desperate they wished for death. He came into the lives of two young people-Tobias (son of Tobit) and Sarah his future wife. Raphael gives us hope in the midst of dire hardship. Hope in God's power to protect us from death, illness, blindness and the long loneliness of depression.
These three holy ones are not far from us! That is a great consolation. Since Scripture gives us their names, we should evoke them for courage, wisdom and strength (Morning Prayer, September 29th) and never cease to hope that we too can glorify God by participating in their mission.
Blessings on your day,
Julie
