Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels

 Lectionary: 647

I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
    for you have heard the words of my mouth;
    in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
    and give thanks to your name.

 

Those who dispute the existence of angels, or their place within our Christian religion, have to contend with every book of the Old and New Testaments. They’re everywhere, they have their role, and they’re not going away. They're also heard as we join our voices to theirs during every Mass, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts!" 

And why shouldn’t the LORD who created “billions and billions” of galaxies not populate the same universe with as many angels and more? Who are we to say him naught?

You may wonder, as I have, why these three archangels share one feastday: In the article about Saint Raphael, Wikipedia says of today's archangels: 

According to the Babylonian Talmud, Raphael was one of the three angels who appeared to Abraham in the oak grove of Mamre in the region of Hebron. Michael, as the greatest, walked in the middle, with Gabriel to his right and Raphael to his left. Each was commanded to carry out a specific mission, Gabriel to destroy Sodom, Michael to inform Sarah that she would give birth to Isaac, Raphael to heal Abraham from his recent circumcision and save Lot. 

Each had his own feastday in the Catholic Church at one time, (Raphael, October 24; and Gabriel, March 18). But there was no violence to the tradition when the Church reorganized the calendar and set September 29 as their one feastday. There was a Jewish precedent!  

Gabriel and Michael are described as protectors of Israel and imaged as warriors. Christians more often remember Gabriel from Luke 1 as the evangelical messenger to Zechariah and Mary. Michael is the warrior of Revelation 12. And Raphael appears only in the Book of Tobit; he is remembered as a delightful travelling companion, protector, and healer.

If the Jewish/Old Testament foundations are not enough to persuade the reader that we should observe this feastday, let me suggest this: The Catholic religion is very materialistic. We insist upon the physical resurrection of Jesus on that first Easter Sunday. He ate with his disciples and insisted that they touch him and see that he was not a ghost. And we recognize his physical presence in the Eucharist. 

We also cherish thousands of materialistic religious articles from the first class relics (bones) of the saints to the cheap baubles distributed by Catholic fundraisers. We keep rosaries in our cars and pockets; our homes are decorated with sacred pictures and statues; we wear medals and scapulars; we treasure sacred objects that belonged to our parents and grandparents. These are tangible reminders of God's presence. 

Angels represent that other dimension of God, the intangible, invisible, elusive, but nonetheless real Presence which never abandons or forgets His people. Should we happen to land in a sterile environment like a hospital room or jail cell where there are no sacred objects, we know the angels are here to guard, protect, direct, and comfort us -- just as they did Abraham, Sarah, Lot, Zechariah, and Mary. So long as there are angels, we are never alone.