Feast of Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael, archangels

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092911.cfm
War broke out in heaven;
Michael and his angels battled against the dragon.
The dragon and its angels fought back,
but they did not prevail
and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
Marcellus
    Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
    Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
    The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
    And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
    The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
    No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
    So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Horatio
    So have I heard and do in part believe it.
                                     Hamlet: Act 1, Scene 1

The ancients saw signs of God's sovereign presence in the night sky and morning dew. Cloud patterns and flights of birds conveyed subtle messages to attentive believers. The world was, as Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out like shining from shook foil.

In all that wonder angels found a ready place. They were God's courtiers and messengers. They travelled at the speed of thought to the farthest reaches of the universe to execute God's will. Rapt in wonder at God's beauty, holiness and authority they were always eager to serve the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit.

Modernity has stripped the heavens of its wonder. Telescopes probe the skies and discover marvelous beauty and fascinating chemistries, but they find no angels. Powerful rockets loaded with robotic instruments and disciplined astronauts punch holes through the firmament, returning with news of vast emptiness. Despite our persistent and eager curiosity, they tell us there is no place beyond the Earth where human beings might thrive. Our heaven must be here -- or no where.

And yet people report visitations by angels. These mysterious creatures appear, often in human form, and intervene in our affairs. My dear friend Father Howard, God rest his soul, spoke of his last Mass before he went to treatment for alcoholism. He had stumbled through the Mass in a whiskey fog, humiliating himself and scandalizing his congregation. As he finished the ceremony and walked down the center aisle, a little old woman -- "whom I never saw before and never saw again" -- pointed her finger at him and said, "Shame! Shame!" That night he called the Provincial; the next day he was in treatment. He never drank again. An angel? He thought so.

On this feasts of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael we remember that all creation worships God; and that all was created "through him and for him," (Him being Jesus.) Despite the flattened earth and sky that secular science would give to us, we discern many deep dimensions in the world around us. It is saturated with spirits who serve the Lord of Heaven and Earth.