Gospel Delights!

Friday, September 29, 2023

Feasts of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels

Dn 7:9-10,13-14; Jn 1:47-51

The feast of the archangels is a wonderful Christian tradition. However, it is so different from other feasts of saints whom we pray to for intervention and look up to for imitation and role modeling. 

Speaking on their nature, St. Thomas Aquinas explained that the Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures. He said, ‘The angels work together for the benefit of us all.’

In the gospel today, Jesus refers to the two-fold activity of angels: ascending and descending. They ‘ascend’ in order to serve the Lord and ‘descend’ in order to serve us on behalf of God. 

By our baptism, we are united to Christ in his three-fold mission as prophet, priest, and king. The Archangels help us with our triple duties. St. Gabriel helps us to become prophets like Christ. St. Raphael aids our healing through God’s medicine which flows through the Sacraments. St. Michael facilitates our reign by protecting us from the way the evil one requires us to serve him rather than God.

Also, in a unique manner, we feel the presence of Archangels accompanying us through the daily Eucharist. We invoke St. Gabriel’s name before every mass as we pray the Angelus and ponder the Good News He announced to Mother Mary. We invoke St. Michael’s name at the end of each mass, praying for his help to defend us in our daily battles. We seek St. Raphael’s intervention to help us live the Mass so that we can continue to experience the Divine Healing throughout the day. 

The Church’s tradition holds that there are seven Archangels, though only the names of three have been revealed in the Bible. 

The name of St. Michael means ‘Who is like God?’ St. Michael’s name symbolizes a silencing question that challenges anything that contradicts God’s holiness and omnipotence. We need St. Michael’s valor to recognize and fight the evil in our world. St. Michael, the soldier of God, becomes our ‘Protector’ from evil. 

The name of St. Gabriel means ‘Strength of God.’ If we need to fight our daily battles, then St. Gabriel provides us with strength and fortitude. The Divine ‘Messenger’ who announced to Mother Mary the greatest of all messages will strengthen us with the needed Good News to revive our drooping spirit. 

The name of St. Raphael means ‘Healing of God.’ The Divine ‘Healer’ is more needed for our times as we suffer from many spiritual ills that have been ailing us, especially in the recent past. St. Raphael comes down with God’s remedy to heal our spiritual blindness, selfishness, and indifference. We are ever in need of God’s medicine to heal and restore our spiritual health. 

As Catholics celebrate the feast of the Archangels, I am sure that the tradition of the guardian angels remains close to the hearts of ordinary believers. I come from a traditional Catholic village named, Michaelpalayam (roughly translated as ‘Fortress of St. Michael’). My grandma on my father’s side had told me she had heard the clip-clop of the horse that St. Michael rode. 

The faith experience of my grandma regarding St. Michael’s night patrols around the village might appear incredulous or superstitious. 

However, what we cannot overlook is the faith with which she associated the noise with St. Michael’s horse and passed on the message, regardless of how I would reason it out at that tender age.

That firm faith is healing in itself!

Let us pray to our Protector, Messenger, and Healer Archangels!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar