Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In a 15th century spiritual writing we hear from a dying elder giving last counsel to some of his disciples. “How greatly the Lord desires our salvation,” he says,
and how He has done everything necessary for this. His mercy and His grace-filled aid is measureless and is extended toward sinners and righteous alike, requiring so little on our part for the salvation of our souls. The banquet table of faith is laden to capacity, but people are careless concerning the salvation of their souls and they do not want to hear the summons of the Lord [as in the parable of the wedding banquet].
The elder continues his thought:
The very words, ‘salvation’ and ‘to save oneself,’ imply some grave danger – we associate these words with an understanding of some great danger or tragedy; for example, ‘saved from fire,’ ‘saved from perishing,’ ‘saved during an enemy attack,’ etc. – and they should motivate a person to be extremely vigilant in life and to have a fervent desire to be saved; they should arouse faith in the Saviour and love for Him. Meanwhile, people have no concern for this, considering that this earthly world, visible to our eyes, is the only reality there is. They do not know that it is the spiritual world which is the reality and essence of things. Thus, the entire earthly, material world . . . exists in the realm of time, which brings all things to destruction, because time is the servant of death. Time began with man’s fall into sin and it will exist only until the end of the history of mortal humanity. By contrast, the spiritual world exists outside these limitations, outside these bonds and measures; it is infinitely wealthy, eternal, and indestructible (Reflections of a Humble Heart).
This feast of the Synaxis of the Archangels and All the Bodiless Hosts of Heaven serves as a reminder to us and as a pointer to what the anonymous elder has spoken: that we become lackadaisical and loosey-goosey about things eternal and lasting to the damnation of our souls because we become overly fixated on temporal things that have a built-in obsolescence since the Fall rather than on the spiritual world that is eternal and everlasting, which is our true abode. The angels of God are of that spiritual realm while we are of both, being created with physical bodies and immaterial souls albeit just a little lower than them. The angels of God interact with us here – ministering to us, Sacred Scripture says (Hb. 1:14) – conveying to us the message of God Who has done everything imaginable and more to call us back from the precipice of Hell. Indeed, God has assigned to each of us “an angel of peace, a faithful guide, a guardian of our souls and bodies” – you can’t get more personal than that – and yet do we heed so great a salvation that they are charged to convey to us? Do we pray for their guidance and protection or do we ignore them, trudging along the dusty byways of this broken down life, going it in our strength that is weak and failing?
The angels of God are His intermediaries to us spanning earth and Heaven. Once they conveyed the Old Covenant to ancient Israel on Mt. Sinai (Dt. 33:2; Ac. 7:38, 53; Ga. 3:19), but now they are emissaries of that which the Law was only but a sign: Jesus Christ the incarnate Word of the Father! For our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, the King of all creation, the Lord and Master of all the angels, embodies in Himself the Mystery before all ages (Co. 1:26), the very Mystery even the angels long to look into (1 Pe. 1:12). This is the “so great a salvation” spoken of here in the Epistle. It is God condescending to become one of His creatures. It is not to angels or for the sake of the angels that the Son of God has condescended to partake of the flesh and blood of mortal man. But, it is “for us men and for our salvation He came down from Heaven,” humbling Himself so that, being like us and one with us in every respect – except without sin – He has become our Great High Priest and Offering unto the Father (Nicene Creed; Hb. 2:14-18). Indeed, “we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone,” “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hb. 2:14; 1 Jn. 3:8).
Marvel of all marvels, God Himself saves us and sanctifies us by taking on our flesh and blood and does not despise calling us now His brethren, but rather bestows His great mercy upon us to the amazement of His angels who now delight in man’s newfound “glory and honor” by being raised up from earth to Heaven in the great and holy Ascension of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ! This is what our Lord calls upon His disciples to rejoice in: that their names – that our names – ate inscribed in Heaven all because of Jesus. This is the Mystery hidden from the wise and prudent laden down with the blight of the world, but now made known to babes captured by the glory of the world to come, who believe in Jesus Christ (Lk. 10:16-21). This, beloved, this is the salvation we better pay earnest heed to “lest we drift away” and take up our abode, not in Heaven, but in “’the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Mt. 25:41; Hb. 2:1). I pray, let us not despise the summons of our God Who bids us sinners to repent, and to eat and drink His very Body and most precious and holy Blood for “the remission of our sins and unto Life Everlasting”!
Through the prayers of Thy holy Archangels and all the Bodiless Powers of Heaven, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
VIGIL PROPERS: PROPERS:
Js. 5:13-16 Hb. 2:2-10
Jg. 6:2, 7, 11-24 Lk. 10:16-21
Is. 14:7-20 // Dn. 10:1-21