The feast of Saint Michael and All Angels celebrates the ministry of the holy Angels, and does so straightforwardly. These creatures: made of spirit and fashioned without material bodies; these creatures, according to the Church Fathers, who were created by God before time, created in heaven, and who serve God in heaven and help and defend us on earth—we celebrate these Angels, the armies of Angels, led by Michael their commander, who, in the words of 4th century Church Father S. Gregory of Nazianzus, are “sent to proclaim God’s will, to guard the faithful, and join in the divine hymnody, ever circling the heavenly throne.” Today we celebrate the mystery of the angels, described throughout Scripture from the first pages of the Bible to the last.

What is most striking perhaps about our Gospel passage is how easily our Lord Jesus Christ mentions angels to His disciples. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones,” He says, “for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” His mentioning of Angels is almost offhanded, and without explanation. Christ simply assumes that the disciples already know about Angels, and instead of lengthy teaching, simply affirms that that because children demonstrate the kind of humility and awe and wonder and love of God which is necessary to enter the Kingdom of Heaven—that is, necessary to enter into the life of the Holy Spirit—that they ought not be despised, for God will hear about it, their angels will report to the Heavenly Authority any such sinful behavior.

Here our Lord refers of course to Guardian Angels. And because He is so unambiguous about this, the Church has always taught about Guardian Angels as the primary relationship humans have with the angelic order. Hence the 3rd century Church Father, Origen of Alexandria, writes: “Every one of the faithful, even the least, has an angel who accompanies him, beholding the face of God and guiding him through life’s perils to salvation.” What assurance this gives us: not only that our Guardian Angel seeks to guide each of us through life’s perils to salvation, but that our Guardian Angel beholds the face of God. Because we are not able to behold the face of God—not as of yet, for as Paul teaches, we are meant to behold God face to face, the “beatific vision of God” in the life to come—our Guardian Angel is able to behold the face of God on our behalf, vicariously, as a kind of proxy spiritual eyesight, seeing God for us until we are able to see Him in heaven. Thus the Angels are able, again in the words of Origen, “to bear divine inspirations to human souls, enlightening them through the grace that flows from the Holy Spirit.” Angels announce to us divine inspirations which enlighten us with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Hence the words of 17th century Anglican bishop Jeremy Taylor, that as Blessed Virgin Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit through the Archangel Gabriel and caused her to conceive, that we may be so overshadowed through angelic ministry to “conceive the holy Jesus in our hearts, and bear Him in our mind.”

Our readings from Isaiah and the Revelation to S. John refer to Saint Michael the Archangel, who is depicted in our icon which we venerate today. The two readings go together. Isaiah addresses Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, the Dragon (all names for the same unholy angelic being). Isaiah says: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground.” It is S. John who provides the background about this, describing the event in heaven which is before time was created: “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” That Satan was thrown down to earth before time is how is able to make his infamous appearance to Adam and Eve. He had already lost the battle with Michael.

Isaiah also provides key detail about the reason for the battle. Speaking to Satan, Isaiah says, “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Satan thought himself like God, even greater than God. Thus, in the words of S. Gregory the Great (7th century Church Father): “Michael, whose name means ‘Who is like God?’, is set over the powers of heaven to cast down the ancient serpent, contending for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.” The humility of Michael always overpowers the pride of Satan.

And so, today we give thanks to God the Trinity for ordaining and constituting the ministry of Angels. We ask of God that the Angels continue to defend us in battle, that the Angel of this temple of Saint Paul guard us and keep away all evil and help us to worship rightly; we ask of God that the angels, as ministers of the Holy Ghost, continue to reveal to us knowledge of God; that as we conceive the holy Jesus in our hearts, and bear Him in our mind, we may grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ, to be perfect in Christ Jesus, Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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