Prayer for September 29 Feast of archangels

God our Father,
in a wonderful way you guide the work of angels and men.
May those who serve you constantly in heaven
keep our lives safe from all harm on earth.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

(from the Christian prayer book, Liturgy of the Hours, for September 29, Feast day of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels).

Important! Be sure to notice that this prayer is directed to God, not to the angels. Anything and everything that angels do to assist humans is at the behest of God and God alone.

Angels Tutorial: Michael

The Archangel Michael appears in only three places in the Bible, and in none of those places does he speak for himself. Gabriel speaks for himself, and Raphael, the third of the three archangels mentioned by name in the Bible, has an extended visit to earth, recounted in the Book of Tobias. Yet Michael is only mentioned three times, and people have read an awful lot into those three mentions. One of them I discussed in the previous post. Here is the discussion of Michael in the Book of Daniel:

Daniel 10: 13
[Spoken by an angel who instructs Daniel] …but the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood in my way for twenty-one days, until finally Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. I left him there with the prince of the kings of Persia…

Daniel 10: 21
…but I shall tell you what is written in the truthful book. No one supports me against all these except Michael, your prince, standing as a reinforcement and a bulwark for me.

Many interpreters think that because the word “prince” is used to describe both sides of the conflict that the angel describes indicates that the angel is describing a conflict of good and evil, of good and bad angels, of patron angels of “bad” nations against patron angels of “good” angels. That is actually not accurate. There are human princes of earthly nations and there are heavenly princes who intervene where there is God’s will. If you look at the Amplified Bible translation it is clearer that Michael is a [celestial] prince, as opposed to the human princes. I showed you in St. Jude’s epistle how Michael vied with Satan over Moses’ body, but they did it through influencing humans, Satan by tempting, Michael by strengthening faith. These aren’t celestial sword ‘n sorcery duels. Angels, mostly guardian angels but also angels sent by the Lord, are always trying to influence people, especially those in positions of power and influence, to act righteously. “Prince” is a title of nobility – of human nobility. The angel who speaks to Daniel mentions both Kings of Persia and Princes. The angel is referring to human Kings, and human Princes. Kings make decisions for their kingdoms, but Princes have great influence on those decisions and carries them out. Likewise, God makes the one and only “decision” through his will about salvation, while angels are “Princes” who carry out his will by attempting to keep humans on a righteous path.

It’s human nature to try to have hierarchies of angels, and assign them to various groups of society, since that’s the way people think. The later Judaism in particular, as it became more politicized and secular-plus picked up beliefs from surrounding pagan lands-fell into this kind of political party system of thinking about angels. But that is not what the angel is conveying in this vision with Daniel. Daniel is hearing the angel describe how angels are attempting to influence the actions of Princes in order to mitigate conflict. The angel describes Michael as “one of the chief princes,” referring to Michael’s role as one of the primary angels to intervene and influence political and military matters on behalf of God. Some read into this that Michael is the patron angel of Israel, because in this case he is acting on behalf of peace toward Israel or at the very least, military defense by Israel. But this is missing the primary point about the angel Michael. Michael is the most powerful angel that is mentioned by name in the Bible who “specializes” in influencing the nobility, politicians, and militias of nations on behalf of righteousness. This is consistent with his methodology against Satan on behalf of Moses’ body where he did not rebuke Satan, but strived with him (through the people of Israel.) Michael thus should be looked at as first and foremost the source of extraordinary guidance and protection for the “good king,” the “good politician,” and the “good nobleman.” God tries to influence people through their own guardian angels, through the Holy Spirit, and through the prophets. But in times of extraordinary national crisis, Michael works to influence the power broker onto the path of righteousness again.

This, then, is the key to understanding Michael’s role in the Apocalypse, as described in Revelation 12:7-8:

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The devil and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.

I’m not going to go into the whole interpretation of Revelation in this blog posting, obviously, but I will make a few comments for context. Just as the woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet is a reference to the past Mary, who gave birth to Jesus and fled Herod with Joseph to save Jesus, and also to the future whereby a dragon seeks to devour children as they are born (abortion) so does this battle refer to the initial fall of Satan as described in Genesis, and the “living on” of Satan and his “angels” (followers) on earth, and their time runs out. There is not a literal battle between good and evil in heaven because evil cannot abide in heaven. The sheer physics of pure goodness disallows the capability of an evil thought; say nothing of actual evil beings, from occupying any space near heaven. What John was seeing is that evil at the end of times became so great that it reached to the very gateway of heaven, like a stench. Michael and his angels lead the final attempt to convert those who lead people into evil, and those who follow them. God presents this understanding to St. John by referencing sacred history (the rebellion of Satan and the fall) and coupling it with understanding of the future (the works of Satan and his followers rises up to heaven like a stench, and they run out of time and chances to convert and be saved, and possibly the entire human kind runs out of time for following too totally Satan.) We know this because in the beginning of Revelation an angel lights a gold censer and throws it down to earth. Read this:

Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel; and hurled it down to the earth. There were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightening, and an earthquake (Revelation 8:3-5.)

Remember that incense is of great importance in Judaism, Catholicism, especially Orthodox, because incense represents the sweet smell of the word of God, the prayer of the people sent up to God, and the bloodless sacrifice. Notice the angel is not incensing heaven-it does not need incensing-but instead is throwing the censer down to earth in anger, along with the prayers of the holy ones. So this is how we know that while God shows St. John the strife as taking place in heaven, it is to illustrate to St. John the parallels in sacred history and the end of times that becomes triggered when the stench of sin and Satan’s following rises up to heaven itself in the level of its injustice.

This is one reason I am a little frustrated that prayer for St Michael’s intercession sometimes misses the mark. People should pray for St Michael’s intercession consistent with his primary role, which is to battle the influence of Satan within the hearts of the power brokers and decision makers on earth. St Michael does not run around helping people to not be tempted to steal or have sins of lust; there is a plethora of spiritual resources for that. It’s not that he minds, but it’s not a true understanding of his potency and effectiveness. World, corporate, military, aristocratic, spiritual, and social leaders ought to pray to St Michael to invite him inside their souls to work with them to be righteous and God fearing leaders and decision makers, and to recognize and withstand the temptations of Satan. Decision makers and “trend setters” are especially gullible to Satan’s temptations because as we saw with the example about the disposition of Moses’ body, Satan appeals to the “it just isn’t fair” justification of temptations, to make people think they are cutting corners against God to be “for the people.” Whether you are a President or a movie studio owner, there is always the temptation to be negative and depressive because something “just isn’t fair” and “I’m telling it as it is,” and thus drag down a people into ruin, either suddenly or gradually. This was what Michael sought to do by influencing the Princes of ancient Persia away from the temptations of the devil. And this is what he does as he battles the “dragon and its angels” in Revelation, because the dragon and its angels represents the devouring of life itself by humans who have abandoned a culture of life for a culture of death, until their very stench reaches heaven.

If you read all of Revelation with an open mind, you will see that Michael is not ever posited as being God’s “right hand angel.” Some people are tempted to think so, just because he is one of the three archangels who are named. But Michael is not one of the angels who are mentioned in constant attendance to God, even though don’t misunderstand, all angels constantly face and attend to God. Your own guardian, for example, constantly faces God, as Jesus explains in the passage about not harming children. All angels face God because their entire being, will, and light is from and of God. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are special because through them, God allows humans to know that angels have identities and purpose. But it should not be assumed that Michael is a handy shortcut to victory in ones endeavors through prayer, or that he is the one to turn to when resisting mundane sin. The reason he is not is because by turning first to him rather than your own guardian angel, the Holy Spirit, the intercession and inspiration of saints including Mary, Jesus Christ, and most important God himself, you are missing all of these very accessible spiritual fortifications. One of Satan’s great temptations is to appeal to people’s desire for celebrity, class, social strata, and power structure and let them assume that heaven works the same way. When people pray to St Michael to protect them from sin, sometimes they are not doing the day to day work to avoid sin in the first place. In other words, they want St Michael to protect them from the consequences of hanging around with sleazy associates. Satan lets them be tempted into thinking that by going to the “top dog angel” that you are buying some intervention and protection insurance. Rather, prayer needs to involve opening oneself to spiritual resources that most fortify oneself to recognize and obey the will of God for ones own welfare. Sometimes praying for the intercession of a saint who can be a role model for dealing with a particular vice or temptation is the best thing to do, and there are many testimonials and witnesses of the help that is found in God through understanding the way of one of his servants or prophets. If a saint in their youth consorted with thieves, at some point he or she made a decision to lead a different life. The saint prayed for strength and clarity from God, but the saint did not pray to St Michael to protect him or her from unpleasant fall out from hanging around with thieves and benefiting from their livelihood.

So when you admire a portrayal of St Michael slaying the dragon, you should be admiring what it really means. It shows St Michael saying “Enough is enough” to grievous sin and the running amok of people who are weak in Satan’s influence and humankind’s own brokenness (since most of sin is not from Satan, but from humankind’s own base desires and painful brokenness.) Pray to St Michael to see with clarity how the decisions you make in your life, and how the “movers and shakers” that you support are Godly or not so godly. St Michael is a wonderful resource for those who need strength in fighting collective dark forces. Therefore firemen, policemen, military service people, government officials, civil servants, religious and spiritual hierarchical leaders and members, leaders of corporations and their employees, leaders of nations and their ministers, social service providers and mass media providers all would benefit from turning to the example of St Michael and asking for his help in discernment of what is truly righteous and what is not. He’s not a shortcut or a lucky charm for victory. He is the strongest team member and coach that you can imagine, however, in the areas I list above. Turn to him, but not from over inflating the combat with Satan imagery, to the detriment of self examination of the personal mundane sins and temptations, 99 percent of which are self and societal generated. But if you are a leader of men, I would advise a reaching out to St Michael for discernment and wisdom about God’s will.

Angels Tutorial - preface to discussing Michael

Michael

The archangel Michael is mentioned in three places in the Bible. Before discussing him overall, I’d like to explain the most mystifying passage about him:

Jude 1: 8-9
In like manner do these men also defile the flesh, disregard authority, deride majesty. Yet when Michael the archangel was fiercely disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, he did not venture to bring against him an accusation of blasphemy, but said, “May the Lord rebuke thee.”

Here is what happened between Michael and the devil about Moses, and how St. Jude came to obtain this knowledge.

As you know, Moses died before reaching the Promised Land, although he did see Canaan from the top of the mountain Nebo. He is buried there in the land of Moab, in a valley, by the Lord himself with his own hands, and his tomb remains an unknown place and will not be located. When Moses died the devil saw an incredible opportunity. He began to spread among the Israelites the notion that God was being “unjust” in not letting Moses enter the Promised Land in honor. The devil hoped to sow not only dissension and deceit against the word of God, and disbelief, but he also hoped to persuade the Israelites to actually tarry until they had found Moses’ body, dug him up, and “took him in honor to the Promised Land,” carried by the Israelites. Not only would people sin and disbelieve even more (if they bought into the argument that God was “unfair” to even his greatest servant Moses), but the devil also hoped that a dead body would become a revered object of worship. It is to this purpose he wished to place Moses, through the hands of the Israelites, not through his own magical abilities, since of course he cannot do any such thing; he must always work through humans. Michael responded in kind. This is why Jude relates that Michael did not accuse the devil of blasphemy, but was “fiercely disputing.” Michael spoke through Aaron and the other faithful to oppose this temptation. The temptation was overcome after people argued among themselves, and they moved on as God willed.

Now, when Jesus lived, he went up a mountain with Peter, James, and John, where Jesus was transfigured.

Matthew 17:3 And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

Now read very carefully these passages:

Matthew 17:9-10 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying “Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” And his disciples asked him, saying ‘Why then say the scribes, that Elias must come first?”

Jesus told the three apostles not to tell the vision to no "man," but Jesus did not mean that they could not tell the other apostles, and even other disciples. Jesus did not want the general populace to know about the reappearance of Moses and Elias because they would have run with this, interpreting the news all sorts of crazy ways, and no longer let Jesus' ministry unfold as it was intended to. So the transfiguration and the appearance of Moses and Elias was freely discussed among the apostles and disciples. We know this because the first question that Matthew records is from “his disciples” about Elias; he is not recording a question from Peter, James or John. So the appearance of Moses and Elias was a great source of conversation and questions between Jesus and the apostles/disciples, and of course Jude was there. This is how Jude learned about what happened to Moses, because in the course of trying to understand whether Moses was a resurrected body or a spirit, Jesus explained to them that Moses’ body is still buried where God laid him to rest in Moab. Jesus also told them that the devil had strove to persuade the people to find Moses’ body and defy God’s will, break their faith, and build their resentment against God. The purpose of Jesus telling them this was to help them to recognize more clearly how the devil works. Jesus had just recently instructed them in the devil’s ways when he explained how the temptation of Jesus by the devil in the desert transpired. The devil often works to seem more “fair” than God, and to stir up false grievance and resentment against God. The devil tried that when Jesus was fasting, by implying that Jesus should have rule over earth and more food and comforts, just as he was fasting. The devil tried to look more considerate toward Jesus’ needs than God! So Jesus told the apostles and disciples when the subject came up of whether Moses was resurrected dead or a spirit from heaven in order to provide them with another example of how subtly the devil works, and seeks to look “fairer” and more “just” and “kind” than God. Because this was not new teaching, but considered part of the general instruction of the apostles and disciples, it was not made a point of the gospels. But it made a great impression on St. Jude.

This is part of the origin of St. Jude’s strong intercession when things are “impossible,” because he was known among the apostles and disciples as being, how should I put this…. He had a personality that was interested in hearing the gospel of Jesus that highlights how nothing is impossible through God. It was kind of his special inspiration as a man, and as a follower of Jesus, to attend most closely to those parts of the gospel that bolstered faith in even the direst of circumstances. This is why the story of the dispute between Michael and the devil made such an impression upon him. What could have seemed more sad and dire than the death of Moses, on the border of, but not within, the physical Promised Land? Especially with the great tendency of the people to fall into sin and idolatry even when Moses lived? So St. Jude saw this as an example of how even when one’s leader, Moses, dies, and the devil seeks an opening to tempt, that people are never really alone if they heed Michael as a speaker of the will of God. And of course, when Jesus died and resurrected, this story came back to St. Jude’s mind, of how just because Jesus is now gone from them, that God and his agents are not gone. So this is the explanation of the dispute over Moses’ body and how St. Jude came to know of it, and why it was so important for him personally to include it in his sparse writings.

Qur'an for Christians (8)

I thought you might like to read the first mention of the Angel Gabriel in the Qur'an, and the only mention of the Angel Michael. Gabriel (Jibreel) is the Angel who guided the Prophet (Peace be upon him.)

Surah 2: 97-98

Say: Whoever is the enemy of Jibreel - for surely he revealed it to your heart by Allah's command, verifying that which is before it and guidance and good news for the believers.
Whoever is the enemy of Allah and His angels and His apostles and Jibreel and Meekaeel, so surely Allah is the enemy of the unbelievers.