A WONDERFUL WORLD
I’m sure many of you will know that old song of Louis Armstrong, called “What a wonderful world”. It is, in its own small way, a reminder that this world of ours was created by God in his own image and likeness, and that it is therefore, a world of beauty, a world of light, a world of goodness. And it’s important to remind ourselves of this from time to time, especially those who follow world events. There seems to be no lack of bad news coming out of this wonderful world of ours right now—threats of war in the Middle East, hurricanes in the Caribbean, famine, abortions, political atrocities and moral mayhem even within our own national boundaries—the list goes on, and can lead to a feeling of despondency, that everything is going downhill, even a feeling of dread for the future. If you find that to be the case, try switching TV channels for a while, and watch some of the nature programs on the Discovery Channel, or National Geographic, and maybe then you’ll be reminded of that altogether different world that God created, a world that existed before the wickedness and snares of the devil brought evil into our midst, a world where I can see those things that Louis Armstrong sang of, I can see skies of blue, clouds of white, bright blessed days, and dark sacred nights.
What a wonderful, glorious world it is. So radiant with light and brightness, so many multitudes of different minerals and plants and animals, species of every description. So many steps and grades, from the lifeless rock lying inanimate on the road to the whirling complexity of the solar system and a hundred thousand others, with their moons revolving around planets, and planets around their suns. Think of all the steps and grades from the lowliest of insects buzzing around our picnic table, all the way up to the amazing structure of our own human body, with all its nerves and veins and arteries, its bones and muscles, its different organs with their various functions, the brain with its incredibly complex flashes of thought and reasoning and memory, all working together to make us what we are and enabling us to do what we do.
All this is part of the world around us and within us, the world which we see and hear and live in. The visible world, the material world. But wonderful as it is, this visible world does not begin to contain the limit of God’s creative power. He has made another world, a second world, an invisible world. A world even more wonderful than this one. He has made a world not made up of material beings, not made up of bodies, but made up of spirits.
Just as we live in our own world, we live also in this other invisible world. We might not be able to see it because it is invisible, we can’t touch it because it is immaterial. We can’t perceive it with any of our normal five senses. In fact it’s as though it exists on the other side of a veil, a thin but impenetrable veil that separates us from this world of the spirits, a world which is never far away. But if we could see through this thin veil, what wonders would we then behold? An entire universe, larger and more extensive than the one we squint at through our telescopes, a world more luminous, more varied, adorned with an even greater multitude of creatures than our own. A world, my dear faithful, populated by the Angels.
These Angels are entirely free from material substance. They are beings whose entire existence is made up of thought and will, who are in their whole nature the image and likeness of God himself. We call them “angels” from the Greek word angelos which means “messenger”, because they are God’s messengers, sent by him to make known his will to mankind. The number of the Angels is so great that the Angels themselves cannot count it. It is a number that only their Maker knows. In the book of Daniel, we read that “thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times an hundred thousand stood before him.”
Just as in our material world, where the plants and animals are divided into different species, so too are the Angels divided into nine so-called choirs. And just as in our world where there are so many steps and grades from the lowliest of plankton all the way to Man himself, so too the nine choirs of Angels have their own hierarchy. This hierarchy is established according to the relationship of each of the nine choirs with Almighty God. The very highest, the Seraphim, are the closest to God, consumed with a burning love for the deity, while the next highest, the Cherubim are exalted by their wonderful knowledge of God. And so on down the chain, according to their proximity to God. But we should remember that they are not only linked to God, but as God’s messengers, they must have dealings with mankind also.
We can sum up the relationship between Angels and Mankind by saying that they love us, and protect us, soul and body, they pray for us, and inspire us to do good. They love us with a pure, holy and disinterested love, asking and expecting nothing in return. They protect us from literally thousands of physical dangers which threaten our health and our life. We have numerous examples in Holy Scripture—Tobias was accompanied on his dangerous journey by the Archangel Raphael, for example, St. Peter was delivered from his chains by an angel. But even more important than this physical protection is the assistance they give to the souls of men.
We are taught by Holy Scripture and the Church that certain spirits are appointed to watch over us, both physically and spiritually. We give these particular spirits the name of “guardian Angels”. There’s a special feastday of the Holy Guardian Angels coming up on Wednesday of this week, October 2nd, so this is a good time to mention these good spirits today The guardian angels are committed to us by God himself, and they remain close by us to light and guard, to rule and guide. They do so for three reasons: out of obedience to God first and foremost, and then also for love for us, and lastly out of a powerful hatred towards the evil spirits who seek to do us harm. They are higher beings than us and yet they come to serve us, following the example of Our Lord who washed the feet of his disciples, who being God took upon himself the form of a servant and was made obedient unto to death. Whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted, said Our Lord, and the Angels are no exception to this rule.
Other guardian angels are given charge over towns, provinces, and even whole nations, and we call these angels “principalities”. They do their work anonymously, they have no individual names by which we call them, and yet they never cease to protect our town of Urbana here for example, or our state of Ohio, our United States of America. Even non-believers seem to have some inkling of the existence of these angels, and they fashion great statues of mythical figures who in reality are nothing more than their own imagined interpretations of the Angels. In England, for instance, we have the godlike figure of “Britannia” ruling the waves. In more ancient times there were figures like the great Colossus that stood astride the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes and that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, or that other more modern colossus guarding the harbor of New York, the Statue of Liberty. These figures are the work of men’s hands, but the angels are the work of God’s, living beings who are far more effective at caring for our tired, our poor, our huddled masses yearning to breathe free. When we consider our poor, wonderful world, it is to these powerful angels of protection that we should be turning in humble prayer and supplication, that they will continue to guard us from evil, both as individuals and as part of the great community of nations.
And if the nations of the world, small and great, have their guardian angels, these principalities, think not that Holy Mother Church should be without her own special angel, her own guardian. Indeed, so great is this particular spirit, this prince among angels, that we know him by name, a name that signifies “Who Is Like Unto God?”, “Mikhaël in Hebrew, whose glorious feastday it is this day, Saint Michael Archangel. To him has been entrusted not a mere nation, not a secular society of men formed under a united government to rule over its people. No, to St. Michael has been entrusted God’s holy Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. This prince of the heavenly host, who once cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits, this Michael is the powerful protector of our Church, guarding it from those who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. If we are saddened by what has happened to our Church, turn to St. Michael. If we fear for the future of the Church and the Papacy, if we are tempted to despair over the watering down and perversion of our dogmas, or the loosening of our society’s morals, then turn to St. Michael. It is he who drove Satan out of heaven, and it is he who has the responsibility for driving the same smoke of Satan from the Church of God.
You may be tempted to wonder, Is it possible that he has failed in his task? Have not the evils of Vatican II already triumphed, with St. Michael powerless to intervene? No. That’s not how God’s plan works, and that’s not what happened. Remember the Garden of Gethsemane. Could the Angels have protected Christ from Judas and the soldiers? Could they have whisked him away to safety? Of course they could. In fact, in the account in the Gospel of St. John, when Jesus acknowledges that he is the one whom they seek, in the words “I am he”, the soldiers went backward and fell to the ground. This last display of power by our Lord before allowing himself to be taken to his death, was done to remind us that he was not powerless to prevent his death from happening. In fact, in St. Matthew’s Gospel he adds: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Our Lord’s true purpose is explained in the incident that follows, where St. Peter pulls out his sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest’s servant. “Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” In other words, this is no longer the time for any display of the power of God. Our Lord would not be tempted to taking the advice of the bad thief, coming down from the Cross to wipe out his murderers. The time now was one of obedience and humble submission to his Father’s will, the time to take upon his own shoulders the sins of the world and suffer a punishment for them on our behalf. It was time for him to humble himself, that we may be exalted and our souls be freed from the chains of death and sin. And so he did not call for twelve legions of Angels. Instead, only one Angel appeared to him in that Garden of Gethsemane, comforting him in his agony.
Today it is not Christ’s physical body but his mystical body the Church which is going through a new agony. And again, the twelve legions of Angels have not come to our assistance. St. Michael is not to be permitted to take out his sword and smite the servants of the High Priest, those cardinals and bishops and priests who do the bidding of the High Priest, the Bishop of Rome, who would crucify Christ anew. St. Michael’s role today is not to intervene in this new combat with Satan, the crucifixion of Christ’s Mystical Body. No, just as at the crucifixion of Christ’s physical body, God is permitting these evils to unfold so that a greater good may come of them. And St. Michael’s role today is once again that of the Angel who comforted and strengthened our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. Except now he is there to comfort Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, our own poor remnant of the faithful. He is there to strengthen us for the battle that is to come, indeed he is our prince, our general, our leader in this battle, the noise and tumult of which is fast approaching.
On this great feast of Michaelmas, let us then turn to this prince of the heavenly host, humbly asking him for the strength we need to fight on and remain stedfast in the faith. Fear not, and let not your hearts be troubled, because as it says in Psalm 90, God “has given his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. And they shall bear thee in their hands, that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone.”
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