Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - Sept. 29 - Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels
[Dan 7:9-10, 13-14 or Rev 12:7-12a and John 1:47-51]
Nothing can get the Christian imagination going faster than talk of angels. They have acquired feathers, halos, long gowns and lyres, etc. thanks to our thoughts. (Ok, ok, maybe there's something biblical about the lyre.) They have also acquired ranks (angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions, thrones cherubim, seraphim) that we grade school kids were required to remember, courtesy of Pseudo-Dionysius' medieval reflections, (Concerning the Celestial Hierarchy),hence Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are called "archangels." My Dominican brother, Thomas Aquinas, followed suit on this as well in his Summa theologiae.
Liturgical tradition gives the three "named" angels - Michael, Gabriel, Raphael - a feast day. But it also honors those angels who attend us, "the Guardian Angels" (Oct. 2). Again, imagination can supply much to go with this. In grade school, we first graders were exhorted to move over in our desks to provide a place for our guardian angels to sit down!
That there are angels is a matter of faith. But our imaginations are allow to range widely about them as long as we stay within the boundaries of sound theology. Michael the defender, Gabriel the herald, and Raphael the companion and healer are our heros for today and remind us to do what they do: defend, proclaim and heal! AMEN