Angels--Good and Bad--at Work in the World

In today’s first reading, Revelations 12: 7-12, we are told about the war in heaven, when “Michael with his angels attacked…Satan, who had led all the world astray...” Satan and his angels were defeated and “hurled down to earth…”  Our salvation had been won by the Blood of the unblemished Lamb, the Son of God Incarnate, who gave His life on the cross as a ransom for our sins and rose triumphant over death.  Satan, our accuser, “who accused our brothers [and sisters] day and night before our God, has been brought down. They [Michael and the good angels] have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word to which they bore witness…” We are warned, though, that “disaster is coming—because the devil has gone down to [us here on earth] in a rage, knowing that he has little time left.”   In a prayer to St. Michael, we pray: O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

We are never left alone! God has given each of us a Guardian Angel. Also, the archangels—Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel--whose feast we celebrate today, continue to work on our behalf. Michael, whose name means “Who is like God,” continues defending and protecting us from Satan’s snares and lies. Raphael, whose name means “God has healed,” continues healing us, as he had healed Tobit’s blindness. Gabriel, whose name means “God is my strength,” continues, as he did with Mary, to strengthen us in giving “birth” to Jesus in our world and embracing the will of God for us as revealed in our everyday life.

May you and I, each day of our lives, grow more and more aware of the angels at work on our behalf, ask for their aid and cooperate with them in being sources of healing, protection, and intensification of a person’s desire to bring forth Jesus, especially in areas where individuals have striven to cast God out of sight, out of mind, and out of hearts!

Angels, Good and Bad, Roaming the Earth

In today’s first reading, Job 1:6-22,  when angels of God present themselves before the Lord, among them is a fallen angel, Satan, who has been “roaming the earth and patrolling it,”  and still does.  Know that Satan is not roaming the earth to protect us but to trip us up to curse the Lord our God, to rebel against God as he and the other bad angels had done.  Satan is jealous of us, as he has lost heaven eternally and does not, in any shape or form, want us to enter eternity as women or men who have accepted God as God and ourselves as creatures subject to our Creator.  God has secured salvation for all who obey Him, are grateful to Him and recognize God as our Savior, our Sustainer, our Comforter and Protector, who remain faithful even when things are rough and tough, even when nature  and the violence with humans turns against us. After all, God did not even spare His Son the worst that is within other human beings who are jealous of each other. The leaders, in Jesus’ time, put Jesus to death out of jealousy.  Jesus, as God Incarnate, did not lose faith in His Father, even as He died upon the cross.

 Satan’s jealousy is something all of us will endure and survive by the grace of God, as Job did! He lost all of his possessions and even his children, who, when the building in which they dwelt collapsed upon them in a vicious storm, died.  His response:

 “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb,

And naked shall I go back again.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

May our faith, like Job’s, never falter, even in the worst of times. God is at our side. God trusts us, knowing the strength of our faith, and, as with Jesus, endures what we endure, as Jesus was not alone on that cross. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, though three divine persons, are one God! In God, you and I live and move and have our being. So, we, too, are never alone in the sufferings we endure or will endure!