St. Michael, an Example of Humility(2022-09-29)

My dear brethren,

Today we celebrate the feast of St Michael, who is one of the greatest angels. There are many lessons to draw and graces to receive from him.

First, St Michael is an angel. Angels are beings much superior to us. They are pure spirits; they do not need the senses to know, they have a direct knowledge of things, intuitive knowledge. St Thomas explains that this is because they receive their knowledge directly from God through infused ideas. Our intellectual knowledge is drawn from the senses by abstraction; but they see intuitively both the general rules and all their applications at once.

As a consequence of their much brighter intelligence, their will is also much more powerful: when they choose something, they put their whole self in that choice and go to the ultimate of it. Now if that choice is good, such complete dedication is excellent; but if that choice is bad, that complete dedication to it is very bad! Hence when the bad angels rebelled against God, they rebelled 100%, totally, irremediably, stubbornly: that rebellion was so wicked that they deserved to be condemned right away into Hell. But when the good angels chose for God, for our Lord Jesus Christ, they put themselves at the service of Christ so totally, so completely, so definitively and with such generosity that they deserved to be rewarded by being admitted immediately into Heaven.

St Paul describes thus the test of the Angels: “when [God the Father] bringeth in the First Begotten [=Christ] into the world, He saith: And let all the angels of God adore him” (Heb. 1:6). Thus God had revealed from the very beginning His plan to send the only begotten Son of God into the world to save us, and He commanded the Angels to serve Him, to adore Him. Satan who was one of the brightest angel answered first in his pride: “Non serviam! I shall not serve!” (Jer. 2:20) That was his shout of rebellion: he, a superior being, would not worship the Incarnate Son of God; Satan, full of himself, would not humble himself in the service of a man, though that man was the Incarnate Son of God.

On the contrary, the good Angels offered themselves immediately, and we see them in the service of Christ in the Gospel. For instance, after the temptation in the desert, “then the devil left him; and behold angels came and ministered to him” (Mt. 4:11). Also, in the agony in the Garden, St Luke tells us “there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him” (Lk. 22:43). We see the Angels at Christmas singing his praises: “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will” (Lk. 2:13-14).

Thus, the good angels were like giants, reaching the summit of the mountain of holiness in one giant step; the bad angels were also like giants falling into the depth of hell at once. We are much smaller: it takes us many steps to reach the summit of a mountain. On that path, our Lord Jesus Christ is our guide, our shepherd, the Good Shepherd; the Saints have followed Him faithfully and encourage us to walk in their steps: “he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). Jesus is “the Way” (Jn 14:6), the one Way to Heaven, and there is no other: “he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10:38). The Angels are there to help us, as St Paul says: “Are they [the Angels] not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14).

Our life is made by our choices: what we choose is what we get; if, by the grace of God, we choose for God, systematically, repeatedly, consistently, generously thus imitating the fervour of the Angels, then we will reap in due time life everlasting. Yes to God, no to the devil and the world; this is what we said at our baptism, this is what we ought to repeat every day. St Paul puts it that way: “So do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:11).

Thus, the good angels are wonderful models of generosity, of giving ourselves totally to our Lord Jesus Christ, of living 100% for God, of promptitude in obedience to the Law of God as the psalmist says: “Bless the Lord, all ye his angels: you that are mighty in strength, and execute his word, as soon as you hear the voice of his orders. Bless the Lord, all ye his [heavenly] hosts: you his ministers that do his will” (Ps. 102:20-21).

St Michael is particularly an example of humility. The very name of the angels express their nature and virtues. Michael in Hebrew means “who is like God?” It is a question, with the obvious answer: no one is comparable with God, because God is infinitely above all creatures. Hence, the very name of St Michael expresses adoration of the transcendence of God, reverence and fear of the Lord. Though he is so much higher than we are, St Michael is humble, and this very humility was the reason why he was exalted among all the angels: God gives His grace to the humble.

Let us ask St Michael to teach us to remain always in awe and reverence of the Majesty of God, conscious of the Presence of God everywhere, and even more in the Holy Eucharist. If we always remember that God is always with us (Emmanuel=God with us), always sees us, then we will never dare to offend Him, and we will be strengthened in the fight against temptation: seeing God on a throne reigning over the choirs of angels, we will understand that there are more good angels with us than bad angels against us. This was what Eliseus the prophet taught to the king of Samaria: “Fear not: for there are more with us than with them. And Eliseus prayed, and said: Lord, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw: and behold the mountain was full of horses, and chariots of fire round about Eliseus” (2 Ki. 6:16-17). These horses and chariots of fire are the symbol of all the good angels that surround us to defend us against the enemies of our soul.

Lastly St Michael is in charge of presenting the souls to the judgement throne of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence he is keen for our salvation, because he must prefer offering good souls who will be judged worthy to be put on the right and hear: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me” for “as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me” (Mt. 25:34-36,40).

 

St Michael does not want us to be condemned with those who will hear the fearful sentence of condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit me” for “as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me” (Mt. 25:41-43, 45). Thus, St Michael helps us to keep the thought of the Judgement at the end of our life and at the end of the world always in front of our eyes, so that we may so live as to be ready for such frightful and awe-inspiring Day.

May Mary, Queen of the Angels, perfect model of humility and generosity in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for us the grace to imitate St Michael, all the holy angels and ultimately to imitate her humility, with her fervent and generous love for our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may go to heaven! Amen.

Father François Laisney