Today on the Byzantine calendar is the feast of the Holy Archangel Michael and all the Holy Angels. Since it happens to fall on a 
Sunday this year, we’re required to read the Sunday readings as well, which gives the homilist a wide (and mostly unrelated) variety of texts to work with. But I would like to focus mainly on the feast of the holy angels.
Oddly enough, however, the Gospel for the feast (Lk. 10:16-22) does not mention angels at all! There’s an implication of their activity, since it mentions the defeat of the devil, but understood in context, this still does not refer directly to the angels. Perhaps the Gospel prescribed for this feast at Matins (Mt. 13:24-30, 36-43) would be more appropriate, and I’ll refer to it here, but since it’s a Sunday we didn’t even get to read that!
When Jesus said He saw satan fall from heaven like lightning—after the disciples returned from a mission in which they were astounded to see the demons subject to them in Jesus’ name—it is often assumed that Jesus was referring to the original fall of the devil. But most translations are inaccurate at this point. There are two things to consider. One is that the Greek word used for seeing is not the ordinary one but one which implies an extraordinary kind of vision, something that sees beyond the veils, so to speak. Jesus was seeing something behind the scenes, in the spiritual realm, as the apostles were carrying out their mission.
Jesus was most likely referring to Satan’s contemporary fall as a direct result of the disciples’ spiritual warfare. The verb in the original Greek of the Gospel is in the imperfect tense, and so it should be translated: “I was watching Satan fall like lightning,” which, coming immediately upon the disciples’ telling him of their victory over demons, evidently means that Jesus was watching the devil fall as they were casting him out. (It wouldn’t make much sense for Him to be reflecting at that moment upon something that happened many millennia ago, which had nothing to do with his disciples.) From this we can take courage. The defeat of our spiritual enemies is not something accomplished only by archangels in the far-distant past. It is something we have a role in accomplishing today, and hence something for which we are given the grace to be victorious. The devil falls every time a Christian stands against him in the name of the Lord, every time we choose good over evil.
Indeed, God has given us the power to take him down. Jesus told his disciples: “I have given you authority… over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” This is something that perhaps we don’t sufficiently reflect upon or even believe. This doesn’t mean that we are all professional exorcists, for that is a specialized vocation and one must be well-trained for it. But we confront “the power of the enemy” daily in the form of temptations and other obstacles he throws in our path to divert us from the faithful service of the true and living God. Our baptism into the Holy Trinity, as well as monastic consecration or priestly ordination where they apply, gives us “veto power” over the temptations of the devil, and as we stand for Christ with the assistance of our guardian angels, we can be confident that we will come to no spiritual harm. Our undoing is fear, or lack of confidence in God, or perhaps even attachment to our own concupiscence, but the authority has been given to us, and the Lord expects us to exercise it.
In fact, it just might be that our participation is required if the angels themselves are to be successful in fighting for us. This possibility was dramatized in a novel entitled This Present Darkness. In it we get a behind-the-scenes look at the battle between the holy angels and the demonic hordes and how it affects the lives of people on earth. The Lord had given certain tasks to the angels, who were up against formidable foes, and before they went into action they would check: “Is there enough prayer support for this?” If enough people weren’t praying, or praying fervently enough, the angels would not succeed and the demons would acquire greater influence over souls. The fearful image of one succumbing to temptation was that of a demon sinking its claws into the brain of the person and holding it fast, or appearing as a beautiful, inviting person, and then when the bait was taken showing its actual horrifying face—but by then it was too late, for the victim was bound tightly in chains while the demon laughed, saying: “Now you are free!”
There were other cases in which the angels wished to intervene, but the Lord told them, no, this person has to face this conflict without special help, for there are lessons he needs to learn, but be available for the moment I send you to his aid. All this is to say that we are personally engaged with the ministry of the angels; we have our distinct but cooperative roles in the universal struggle against evil. They are surely much more powerful than we are, and we need them more than they need us, but it may very well be that they do need our prayer and faithfulness in order to do God’s will fully on our behalf.
Returning to the primordial angelic war, we know from the Book of Revelation that St Michael and his angels were instrumental in that casting out of the devil and the rebellious angels from Heaven. But the struggle is far from complete, as least insofar as individual souls are concerned. We celebrate our guardian angels today as well as the great archangels that we know from the Scriptures. Perhaps it is our guardian angels who should be most dear to us. While the greatest of the heavenly powers have responsibility over the whole Church and the world—though of course God makes it possible for them to come to the aid of any individual who calls upon them—our guardian angels have only one special charge: us. They have been assigned personally and specifically to us, to be our companions, protectors, guides, and intercessors throughout our lives. And should they succeed in their mission to lead us safely into the Kingdom of Heaven, they will surely be among our best friends in Paradise, and we will not cease to thank them for helping us to attain that eternal happiness for which we were created.
The celebration of the feast of the Holy Angels should be for people a reminder that there is in fact a spiritual world populated with intelligent beings. The majority of these are holy and good angels, but there are still numerous evil spirits that are part of that unseen world. Of course it is God Himself who is the Creator of all things, both visible and invisible, and He should receive our primary attention and devotion. But God has given us the angels to help us do his will and to keep us safe along the hard and narrow path to the Kingdom of Heaven, so we do well to befriend them and have frequent recourse to their blessed assistance. The Letter to the Hebrews describes angels as “ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation” (1:14).
Angels have many different functions, according to their particular rank in the hierarchy of the heavenly powers. We commonly call all the incorporeal powers of heaven “angels,” but technically that refers only to one of the nine ranks or choirs of angels. But since such usage is common and convenient, I’ll use it here—without prejudice toward the Dominations, Virtues, Thrones, and all the others!
Along with being our personal protectors and intercessors, they engage in higher levels of spiritual warfare, and many of them have an eschatological function as well. That is what we hear about in the Matins Gospel for the feast as well as throughout the Book of Revelation. They are sent to gather the elect from the ends of the world and bring them to the right hand of the Lord’s judgment seat, where they will be welcomed with joy into the eternal life and glory of Heaven. The angels will also gather the evildoers throughout the world and bring them to the left hand of the judgment seat, and they will be sent to the place of eternal punishment. So, on one hand the angels are sent to serve and to minister to those who are to obtain salvation, and on the other hand, they are sent to execute justice against those who have rejected God and have thrown in their lot with the rebellious, fallen angels.
The holy angels live to do God’s will, and in this we have an example for our lives. Even though we are severely hindered by our fallen nature and other human limitations, we are still called to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord and to strive to do his will in all things. The fidelity, the zeal, the immediate and unquestioning response of the angels to God’s will ought to show us what it means to be a servant of God.
One thing we can draw from the Sunday Gospel (Lk. 8:41-56) is the power of faith in the accomplishment of God’s will in our lives and hence our fruitfulness in serving Him. The angels had only one test of their faith, but it was a definitive one. There were no grades; it was strictly on a pass/fail basis. Those who passed entered Heaven forever; those who failed had to make their home in Hell. Here is where our limitations actually work in our favor. We get a second chance, and a third, and whatever we need to get to the point of finally making an irrevocable commitment to God. We may have many tests of faith, but we can take the course again, so to speak, if we fail, for God is merciful to us in our ignorance and weakness. What He asks of us primarily is faith.
That is why Jesus said to Jairus concerning his dead daughter: “Do not fear; only believe and she shall be well.” And to the woman who was healed upon touching his garment: “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” God asks us first to believe in his existence (see Heb. 11:6), and then to accept the full revelation brought by his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This revelation includes the existence of the whole spiritual realm, angels and demons alike, and we have to find our place in God’s plan. As human beings we are composed of both matter and spirit, and so we have a share in, and communication and “commerce” with, both the material and spiritual worlds. We have to live our lives in the concrete situations of this world, yet at the same time we have to live—through faith and prayer and spiritual awareness—in communion with God and the angels and saints and the whole unseen reality. For our faith tells us that “our lives are hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3), and it is our ultimate goal to live in the world beyond this one, where there is no death or corruption or limitation due to sin or weakness.
In many of the prayers offered on feasts of saints, one of the best things that can be said, and often is, about them is that after having served God and suffered on this earth, now they rejoice and sing with the angels in Heaven. Let us live now in such a way that this can be said about us when we die. Let us make our guardian angels our close friends, and call on these heavenly warriors, as well as their prince, St Michael, to defend us in the day of battle, to strengthen our faith, to speak the word of God to our hearts, and at last to escort us joyfully to the place where all the blessed abide.
