“Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify thy glorious name.”
These familiar words from the Holy Communion service are a reminder that as human beings we are not just simply earth bound creatures, but for us there is another dimension to life, highlighted each year on the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, the angelic host to which this church is dedicated.
In combining this patronal festival with Thanksgiving for the Blessings of Harvest we are underlying this two-dimensional aspect of existence – the earthly and the heavenly, and the inter-dependence of the two if we are to lead complete human lives.
But who was St. Michael?
St. Michael the Archangel is mentioned four times in scripture – twice in the Old Testament in the Book of Daniel, where he is represented as the helper of the chosen people, Israel, “the great Prince and Protector” of the people, and twice in the New Testament – in the Book of Jude where he contends with the Devil, and in the Book of the Revelation where he again contends with the devil and his angels in heaven and casts them down to the earth. In fact he is usually depicted in art with a sword fighting with a dragon representing the Devil, as is the case outside Coventry cathedral.
As regards angels in general they are invariably depicted as agents for good in both the Old and New Testaments. In particular they are seen as those who announce good news. The word angel itself simply means one who announces. This is most obvious in the Book of Psalms, and more specifically when the angel Gabriel announces or foretells the birth of Our Lord. Again St. Peter when he was released after being imprisoned said, “Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod.” This is the thought taken up by the Collect of St. Michael and All Angels where we pray, “as thy holy angels always do thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth…”
Now this type of thinking and speaking may well seem naïve and outdated to some people. After all, we say, thoughts of guardian angels may well be all right for children, but when we become mature adults do we not put away so called childish things? It would scarcely become a hard bargaining executive type to think in such terms. If there is any talk of angels one suspects that it is not of the supernatural variety!
But invariably those who spurn the ideas enshrined in the feast of St. Michael and All Angels are people who find it difficult to envisage anything beyond this earthly life, whose vocabulary is unlikely to contain such words as supernatural and spiritual. To a great extent this is the product of the age in which we live. Even the demise of the celtic tiger has not totally eliminated and attitude which judges a person by the abundance of the things they possess.
Despite our current financial problems we still live in a deceptively glamorised and materialistic world, where our values and priorities are dictated not by the mind of Christ, by what are described as the kingdom values enshrined in his life, values such as truth, honesty, compassion and purity, but by the T.V. screen, the glossy magazine, and the whims of the latest celebrity, where thoughts of life beyond the veil are overshadowed by those of the here and now, by what people think of us, and where the sacred all too easily gives way to the secular. One area where this is very evident is Sunday Observance, where the superstore is the new cathedral, and the morning mini-sport is the new Sunday School. Can we really be surprised if we become spiritually dull and theologically inept when we deny ourselves the nourishment which worship in particular provides? How true but sadly prophetic were the words of Archbishop Gregg spoken many years ago, “A God unworshipped is a God unknown”.
It is of course true that while we live on this earth we must care for the things of the body, not just in relation to ourselves lest we become a burden on society, but in relation to those suffering as a result of natural disasters and human frailty. We will indeed be reflecting the mind of Christ when we care for the homeless and the outcasts of society, and one of the sad features of our current traumas in the increasing number of homeless on our streets. The recent appeal by Protestant Aid was a stark reminder of how widespread is the hardship brought about by the current financial climate here at home, something affecting all sections of society, a fact which may not always be fully appreciated by us.
Again, we will be reflecting the mind of Christ when we respond to the needs of those who have suffered and still suffer so grievously from natural disasters in such countries as Pakistan and Haiti. As we give thanks for the blessings of harvest may we not forget those who through flood or drought or earthquake have had their harvest ruined. And as we talk of the global economy may we as Christians not forget our global responsibilities to those whose loss of harvest has resulted, not just in poverty, but in fatal consequences due to starvation and undernourishment. The latest statistics from Pakistan as a result of the floods there make harrowing reading, especially in relation to the plight of children. Ten million children are affected by the floods, with six million at risk from malnutrition, diarrhoea and pneumonia, while 100,000 are at risk of dying in the next six months. (And those are the most up to date figures from Christian Aid). But what is happening there is replicated in so many parts of the world that don’t make ongoing headlines. It is in response to these needs that an organisation such as Christian Aid exists, working in 60 countries worldwide, and appeals for our support, support which is often channelled through the Church of Ireland’s Bishops’ Appeal Fund.
But, and so often there is a but, the high level of response to the needs of humanity, especially through Non Governmental Organisations (N.G.O’s), has tended to dull the supernatural vision, has tended to blunt our spiritual awareness, an awareness which is more evident in the East rather than the West, in the Eastern Orthodox churches for example, with their liturgical emphasis on ritual and chanting, and where length of the service is not a dominant factor as it so often is here in the West. I well recall the Bishop of Coventry some years ago urging a group of diocesan clergy to “Go out into the depths of the supernatural”.
It’s perhaps inevitable that an emphasis on the practicalities of life should produce a reaction, and there are signs that many people, especially young people, are seeking a mystical experience, not just as a form of escapism, but as a genuine felt need, and seeking this experience outside the institutional Churches because they regard the main line Churches as lacking in spirituality. However, when one realises that many of our parishes get caught up in internal concerns one can understand this.
And so if for us the Feast of St Michael and All Angels and the ideas associated with it have an air of unreality about them, if we find it difficult to identify with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven in lauding and magnifying God’s glorious name, then we do well to look into our hearts and into the life of our Church and ask some searching questions. And in a church dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels this is particularly relevant.
