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We are at war. No one can be neutral without imperiling his soul. All around us combat is waged upon us by the Enemy of the soul, the Devil and the fallen angels. When at the end of a human life, that person winds up on the wrong side of God’s saving friendship, an unheard joyless howl is hurled at God, “One less for You!”
The Enemy is vast, cunning and relentless. How vast? Some have posited that an angel was assigned to everything that moved, which would make some sense out of ancient peoples watching the movements of the planets, etc., for insight. However, with great telescopes we now see far beyond planets into the far beyond beyond the beyonds. There are a lot of moving things out there. That’s macro. There’s also micro. With great microscopes and colliders, we see subatomic particles of which atoms are composed.
How many atoms are in each of us? One estimate I found suggested for a typical person weighing 70 kg (154 lbs) there are almost 7*1027 atoms (that’s a 7 followed by 27 zeros!) Another way of saying this is “seven billion billion billion.” That’s a person. How many atoms are in a star? In our relatively small yellow star there are approximately 10^57 hydrogen atoms each having a proton and an electron (deuterium) or a proton and an electron and one or two neutrons (tritium). Protons and neutrons are composed of three quarks. Quarks are held together by gluons. Our single galaxy is made up of some 100 billion stars. That’s a lot of moving things. Does each of these have an angel assigned to it? That’s a lot of angels. One third of them fell away from God, never for eternity to be reconciled. Moreover, every one of those angels, who are persons without bodies, are entirely unlike the others. They are not individuated in matter, as we human are. Humans belong to the same species. Each angel is his own species. One can reason from this that there is a perfect hierarchy of angels from the topmost glorious to the lowliest, which still outstrips us in intellect and might as an angelic being.
Understanding angels is important for our own preparation regarding the Four Last Things.
Since angels have no bodies, they have no influence from appetites that can bend their purpose away from one thing to another. Also, they have no physical senses. Whereas we have to take information in and then categorize and remember it through a time-consuming process (though very fast) of “dividing and composing”, angels simply know things in their essences. Once they know a thing, instantly, they make a decision about it that can never change. This is why the fallen angels will never be reconciled. This is why their ranks will never grow.
Why is this important for us? Because while we have bodies, we gain information and we puzzle it out and we can – this is key – change our minds. When our soul departs from our body in death, it will in many ways be like an angel in that it will no longer be subjected to appetites which prompt us in this life now here and now there. Who we are at the time of death will be who we are at our judgement and then for eternity. Therefore, establish good habits of thinking, of prayer, of action and with great humility submit to God in all things for He can neither deceive nor be deceived. Thank God for your Guardian Angel.
Today’s Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel on the Via Salaria supplants our 19th Sunday after Pentecost. It has its origins in the dedication of that church at the 7th milestone out of Rome, one of our forebears’ most important shrines to the Archangel. The ancient Leonine Sacramentary has five different Mass formularies for this day. There were many churches in Rome in St. Michael’s honor, including the remaining Sant’Angelo in nubibus in the rotunda Mausoleum of Hadrian, called Castel Sant’Angelo. In 590 during a terrible plague St. Michael appeared over the mausoleum sheathing his sword to signal that the plague had ended.
Let us not forget that in the face of the unfaithful people or the erring King, God sent a “destroying angel” to slay the inhabitants of Jerusalem (1 Chron 21:15). In 2 Kings 19 an angel killed 18000 Assyrian invaders. To say nothing of the angel of the first Passover.
St. Michael is called the “taxiarch” in the East. This is not because of the belief that Michael escorts souls to Heaven, but rather because he is thought to lead the angelic armies (taxis “ordered formation” + archos “leader”). However, Michael is invoked in the Requiem Mass at the Offertory and called “signifier… banner bearer” which provides us with the image of him leading souls to Heaven. We see Michael in Scripture. Indeed, he is one of the only three named angels in divine revelation and we should not invoke other angels with a name. In 741 a Roman Synod under Pope Zachary condemned the naming of angels not found in Scripture. Michael is explicitly mentioned in Rev 12:7-12 where he does battle with Satan. He is cited also in the diminutive Letter of Jude (v. 9). The Book of Daniel reveals that Gabriel and Michael battled with the “prince of Persia” (probably a territorial spirit, a fallen angel, a demon).
Although we generally distinguish the hierarchy of angels in nine “choirs”, and archangels are the penultimate in grandeur, Archangel, “leader angel”, is taken also to be a title. St Basil of Caesarea (+378), because of Jude, held Michael to be over all the angels, which would mean that he was the second grandest angelic being after Lucifer who fell. St. Bonaventure (+1274) thought Michael was the prince of the highest angelic order, the Seraphim. On the other hand the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas (+1274) placed Michael at the head of the lowest choir, the simple Angels.
It makes no difference whether Michael is highest or among the lowest in the ontological hierarchy of angelic beings. He does the will of God which no fallen angel or angels can resist, high or low. His fidelity is echoed in the meaning of his name, as interpreted by St. Gregory the Great (+604), “Who is like God?”
In the celebration of Mass, the Holy Angels are brought in right after Mary, their queen, is invoked, therefore before all the other saints. They are called saints, because they have the joy of Heaven and no need of redemption. In the Sung or Solemn Mass, when the priest must incense the altar, Michael is named in the blessing of the incense.
May the Lord, by the intercession of blessed Michael the Archangel, who standeth at the right side of the altar of incense, and of all His Elect, vouchsafe to bless + this incense and receive it as an odor of sweetness: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Every Holy Mass is a foretaste and extension of the heavenly liturgy, hence at every Holy Mass there are myriads upon myriads of angels. Since angels have no bodies, they can literally be anywhere without any lapse of time or constraint of space. There can never be too many angels at Mass. Some visionaries have been granted to see angels at Mass. What a consolation for us in the Church Militant!
All earthly conflicts in a way reflect the spiritual conflict which is going on around us.
The supernatural war around us can be thought of in four phases. First, there was the war in heaven of Michael and his angels against the “dragon” and the angels that were hurled down (Rev 12:7). A second phase is set on Earth. The Devil and angels have been allowed some power over this material realm. Satan tempted Eve and Adam to sin. On Golgotha Christ, the new Adam, defeated the Enemy: “Now has judgment come upon the world, now the prince of this world is cast out” (John 12:31). Third, the Enemy is at war with the Church until the end. The Book of Revelation is a recounting of the battle. The Devil resorts to many means to bring the Church down. The angels are still on one side and the demons the other. But the Enemies are like chained dogs. In the fourth, final conflict, there will result the ultimate, absolute defeat of the fallen angels, and that battle will bring in ever lasting peace.
We are soldiers in this war. Don’t think for a moment that the greatest of our warriors are the princes of the Church. Men in holy orders have their role, and it is great. But the quiet, true prayers of the humble “prayer warriors” perhaps support the arms of the Restrainer, as the hands of Aaron and Hur at the Battle with the Amalkites at Rephidim (Ex 17:8-16). And each of these quiet warriors is, by the grace of a loving God who desires our happiness in Heaven, given a Guardian Angel.
St. Michael, in this time of confusion and conflict in the Church, when it seems in our short-sighted frustration and impatience that sometimes we are not prevailing against the gates of Hell, intercede for us, pray for us, fight for us.