The Holy Archangels, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael (Sept. 29th)

 

There are plenty of worthy saints to reflect on this week:


Sept 23 Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), Priest 

Sept 26 Saints Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs

Sept 27 Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest 

Sept 28 Saint Wenceslaus, Martyr

Sept 28 Saint Lawrence Ruiz and companions, Martyrs

Sept 29 The Holy Archangels of Gabriel, Michael and Raphael


I decided to pick the Holy Archangels.


I did so in good part because the Holy Archangels of Gabriel, Michael and Rafael transcend our Catholic Christian tradition.  The three along with four others - Salathiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel, and Jeremiel - show up in Jewish (both biblical and rabinnic), Islamic, Bah’ai and even Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian traditions.  (Note that in the Islamic tradition, the Holy Qur'an was dictated to the prophet Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel)


There is even a small Middle Eastern sect,  called the Yazidis, who arguably venerate an angelic figure often portrayed as a peacock whom they call Tawûsî Melek (and has been generally identified with St. Michael) as the principal intercessor between God and man.  The Yazidis were tragically in the news in recent years because they were targeted for genocide by the Islamic extremist group ISIS.   Why?  Because at times the Yazidis have been accused by both Muslims and Christians (both local and missionaries) as worshiping not St. Michael but rather the other great angel, in this case, fallen, Lucifer … 


The  Yazidis for their part would emphatically deny that  “devil worshippers” even though, in line with their Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian roots they would look at the angels as more complex beings than we would.


All this is to say that contemplation of the Angels can offer one a way to enter into a world of wonder in line with the earliest traditions of the Bible and even before.


In long standing Catholic tradition, the Angels are seen spiritual beings serving as messengers of God: 


Gabriel was sent down by God to announce to Mary that she had found favor with the Lord, and with the invitation to Mary of collaborating with God to save the world, 


Michael has long been regarded as the leader of the “Heavenly Host” (God’s army as it were)


and Raphael who shows up in the Biblical book of Tobit as a healing figure.


But the very postulated existence of Angels points us to a world much larger than our “day-to-day” existence.


There are of course dangers to getting “too drunk”  in this kind of contemplation, as the example of the recent attempted genocide of the Yazidis by ISIS would indicate.   The Yazidis were / are, of course, simply people.  Yet to the people of ISIS they became “devil worshippers” worthy of only mistreatment and death.


Still, the Angels can point us to a more sublime reality so beautifully expressed in both Baroque religious art (where the heavens were constantly portrayed as bursting open to reveal far more than the mere eye could see), as well as the in Christmas hymn “Angels we have heard on High”  beautifully expressing the same sentimentÑ


Angels we have heard on high

Sweetly singing o'er the plains

And the mountains in reply

Echoing their joyous strains


Gloria, in excelsis Deo

Gloria, in excelsis Deo...

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