Homily for Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel & Raphael
Theme: DON’T FIGHT ALONE!
By: Ben Agbo (Rev Fr)
Homily for Wednesday September 29 2021
* Dan 7 : 9 – 14, Jn 1 : 47 – 51.
‘In the presence of the Angels we worship you Lord’, Ps 139 : 1.
Yes, we are not alone! We don’t worship God alone, neither do we fight the devil alone! In the Roman Catholic Church, we believe in the communion of spiritual goods and services. Permit me to quickly remind you of the 12 articles of our faith; 1.We believe in God, 2. In Jesus Christ, 3. Born of the Virgin Mary, 4. Suffered, 5. Descended into hell, 6. Ascended into heaven, 7. He will come to judge, 8. We believe in the Holy Spirit, 9. The Holy Catholic Church with its communion of Saints and Angels, 10. The forgiveness of sins (as a sacrament), 11. The resurrection of the body, and 12. Life everlasting (after we have faced both the individual and universal judgment). Let us dwell in today’s reflection just on a portion of the 9th article of our faith.
The 1st reading of today presents the Old Testament revelation of God to the Prophet Daniel as the ancient of days – to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom and all peoples, nations and tongues must serve him. To Nathaniel in today’s gospel, Jesus said: ‘You will see greater things than these; you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man’. Who are these Angels? Today, we celebrate the prominent ones among them (popularly known as Archangels) as revealed by the scriptures:
1. Michael, meaning in Hebrew ‘who is like God?’ is the leader of the heavenly hosts of Angels. The scriptures acknowledge him as having led the spiritual warfares of heaven in bringing down Lucifer, Is 14 : 12, Rev 12 : 7 – 9, warfare over the body of Moses, Jude 9 and in assistance of the highpriest Joshua, Zech 3 : 1 – 7.
2. Gabriel, meaning in Hebrew ‘man of God’ is the chief messenger of God portrayed in the Old Testament as God’s instrument of revelation, Dan 8 : 15 – 26, 9 : 20 – 27, and in the New Testament as the one sent to announce both the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus, Lk 1 : 11 – 20 & 26 – 38. He is the patron saint of messengers, diplomats and communication agencies.
3. Raphael, meaning in Hebrew ‘God heals’ is God’s messenger for healing revealed especially in the Old Testament story of Tobit, Tob 12 : 12 – 15 and by some of the apocryphal writings as the angel God used to heal the earth when it was defiled by the sins of the fallen Angels, 1 Enoch 10 : 17. He is the patron saint of physicians, travellers, nurses and other health workers. Friends, on this feast of the Archangels, we just need to learn how to hook on to the Angels of God in prayer so that we may never have to fight alone. Our spiritual battles on earth are too enormous for us to venture to fight alone.
May God bless you today!
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