St Michael & All Angels

ST MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS

Do you believe in angels?

The Feast of St Michael and All Angels is celebrated on 29 September.

St Michael is mentioned four times in the Bible.

Twice he is mentioned in the Book of Daniel, in the Old Testament, where he is described as the protector or guardian of his chosen people Israel against the influence of the neighbouring Persians and Greeks.

He is also mentioned in the Book of Jude, in the New Testament, as contending with the devil in order to secure the body of Moses.

And finally, in the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, he is seen fighting victoriously against the dragon, or if you prefer, the devil or the power of evil.

So with all this talk about St Michael and his angels, it is worth asking the question whether it is still realistic to expect people to believe in angels, or do they belong to the simple faith of a former age?

After all, angels are not an article of belief in the Catechism, the 39 Articles or in any of the Creeds.

However, before we dismiss belief in angels, it is worth noting that their existence was taken seriously by the Bible writers.

In the Old Testament, they are seen as the means of communication between God in heaven and humankind upon earth. They are described in both the Old Testament and the New Testament as "ascending and descending" to and from heaven upon a ladder.

Elsewhere in order to enable them to travel between the two areas of activity they are given wings to propel them along, as in the vision of Isaiah and Ezekiel.

Later on, they become personalised, being given names such as Gabriel, Raphael and, of course, Michael.

This belief in angels continues in the New Testament.

They are present at the announcement and birth of Jesus. They minister to Him in the desert at the time of his temptation and give Him strength during his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. They also witness his resurrection.

And being a child of his time, Jesus also accepted the belief in the existence of angels. He reminds his hearers that at the general resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. He assures his hearers that angels will accompany his second coming and that angels guard those who are new in faith.

This Biblical imagery of angels was maintained and developed in the years following.

For instance, in the Middle Ages, scholars passed away their time trying to calculate how many angels could dance on the head of a pin!

During the Renaissance period, angels became domesticated and appeared in the form of cherubs - sweet little boys with wings and blissful smiles upon their faces.

The Romantic movement tended to sentimentalise angels as sexless creatures who float through pre-Raphaelite paintings.

So how do we perceive angels today?

Bishop John Robinson in 1967 wrote: “For most ordinary people angels merely add to the cocoon of fantasy and unreality in which the Christian gospel is wrapped. So far from making the Faith more real they undoubtedly make it more unreal, remote and airborne".

Hence I asked at the beginning, "Do you still believe in angels?"

Now before we relegate angels to a Walt Disney celestial theme park, let us just pause for a moment and see what the biblical imagery of angels is trying to convey.

The word angel comes from the Greek word "angellos" which means 'messenger'. Angels are the bearers of messages from God to us here on earth. If you like, they are a pictorial way of assuring us that God is involved in our lives here on earth, particularly in terms of protecting us, speaking to us or helping us.

For instance, sometimes we are particularly conscious of God protecting us - holding us back from a precipice - a precipice of anger, or violence, or jealousy or even just dishonesty. We go to do or say something but some force appears to grab hold of us and pull us back. Often we describe such situations as being the work of our 'guardian angel' – someone seeking to protect us.

Again, having been speaking with someone, upon reflection, we become aware that they were speaking not so much their own words, but rather the words of God. Maybe they were words of comfort, of direction, of good cheer or of confirmation in times of doubt and uncertainty. Like Abraham and Sarah, who once cooked a meal for three men who were later seen to have brought a message from God, we, too, often "entertain angels unaware".

Finally, we sometimes experience God as a power or influence helping us. For instance, I am sure we are all too well aware of the inward battle of the heart between good and evil. Evil somehow always seems to be much more attractive and we find ourselves being drawn towards it, with its magnetic force. And then we are conscious of being rescued from that power, just as St Michael destroyed the power of the dragon with his sword.

And so we come back to St Michael and All Angels.

To me it matters not whether you believe literally in the existence of angels. Some may find it helpful, others may find it a hindrance.

What really matters is to remember that God continues to convey messages to us.

The unseen world continues to impinge upon our seen world, and God's presence is experienced in your life and mine, in the here and now.

This is indeed good news to us, his creatures who often feel cut off from our Creator.