St. Michael and All Angels

St. Michael and All Angels, September 29th, 2019

September 29th the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.  In the Epistle appointed for today's Mass, the Twelfth Chapter of the Book of Revelation, we hear about a war in Heaven where St. Michael and the Angels of God defeated Satan and his angels.  "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."  All you have to do is look around the world to see all the evil and you know this is true.  Just turn on the nightly news and you hear about murders and robberies and accidents and killings and you will know this is true.  Just listen to the way in which folks treat one another in  person and on the internet for that matter and you will see this is true.  "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."  We know that Satan and his angels do their best  to get our minds away from God.  But that is not what I want to focus on  because we know all about evil and hatred, envy and jealousy.  We know all about killings and violence and people dying in the streets for no reason.  As I said, just turn on the nightly news and you will soon find out about all of these things and more.

What I want to talk about is St.Michael and his legion of angels who fought again Satan and his army.  And yes, St. Michael is pictured as being very mighty.  Typically artists depict St. Michael with either a sword or a great spear ready to do battle.  I would imagine that, yes, St. Michael, and St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael and all the angels of God are indeed very brave and very majestic.  They do the work of God.  They are His servants.  They are His messengers.  But that being said, listen to what Revelation says about Satan and his army being defeated:  "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;"  No matter how strong the angels of God are.  No matter how fierce and how mighty they truly are, did you hear how they defeated Satan?  " . . . they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony."   The angels of God put their trust in the Blood of Christ!  They placed their trust in Christ Himself!   How often in this world do we place our trust in ourselves or upon things of this world.  And what happens?  We end up being disappointed.  We end up failing.  We end up losing.  And yet when we place our hope in Our Blessed Saviour we can never go wrong.  Even when things look the worst, when the night is the darkest, it is then that Christ wins the battle.  They thought they had defeated Christ at Calvary and they were so amazed three days later when they found the stone rolled away from the tomb!  They thought that they had defeated Christ but God will never be defeated.

The sin of Satan and the other angels who followed him was the sin of pride, pure and simple.  It was the sin of focusing on what they wanted instead of focusing on what God wants.  We should do our best not to follow Satan's lead.  We should do our best not to get so focused on ourselves that we do not focus on God.  We should always do our best to focus on what God wants instead of solely focusing on what we want.  This was the sin of Satan.  Focus on God.  Focus on doing God's will.  Focus on being a servant of the Almighty.

Mass is celebrated each and every Sunday at the beautiful Chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.  Mass begins at 9:30 am.  Please join us as we listen to the Word of God found in the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.