“THE ANGEL ARMIES OF THE SKY LOOK SERVE THE APPROACHING EUCHARIST”
Saint Matthew 18: 1-11
Saint Michael and All Angels: 29 September Anno Domini 2019
Father Jay Watson SSP
We pray: “We thank Thee, our heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Thy dear Son, that Thou hast kept us this night from all harm and danger; and we pray Thee that Thou wouldst keep us this day also from sin and every evil, that all our doings and lives may please Thee. For into Thy hands we commend ourselves, our bodies and souls, and all things. Let Thy holy angel be with us, that the wicked foe may have no power over us. Amen.”
Angels are mentioned some 415 times in Holy Scripture. They are important because they are important to God. They are always His ministers, His flaming ones of adoration and praise. They become His angels when He gives them His Word, His Message to deliver. So, what’s the problem? You are.
You are disciples of The Christ but you act like spoiled, jealous, and selfish brats. You come to The Lord asking duplicitously, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” This query is not out of sanctified and genuine love and wondering, but out of ranking, grading, measuring, and keeping tabs on all your enemies, adversaries, and all the rest you wish to keep down, so that you will rise higher. The pride of “old Adam” is solitary in its loathsomeness.
Like Eve, like Adam, you too want to be “top dog.” With Saints James and John, you desire the glory of Jesus’ power and you want to “sit on thrones”—either on His left side or his right.
God in His loving wisdom gives you Jesus and His Sacrament of Holy + Baptism. Our Gospel is the same Scripture that is read at every single Baptism. The child, the little one, the infant, the 8-day old, is the perfect “type” of the Christian. The completely helpless baby is brought to Christ by Christ: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but The Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel.” [SC II.3]
Except ye be turned, and be as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. This means to trust God as your heavenly Father. This means to fear Him and Him alone. This means to love your neighbors as The Father loves you. That means Jesus. It means The Lord because you do not love the Father and the neighbor. You do not humble yourself—drown daily the old nature in contrition and repentance…not as you should. Your puffed-up and bloated nature/ego, needs daily to be punctured and brought low by God’s Law.
Yes, Jesus meant for His called and ordained Apostles and their successors to be “little ones,” servants and angels—Gospel Messengers. When you hear them you hear Christ. To hear them and believe is to receive Christ.
Your fake humility and attempts at “working up” feigned meekness, false modesty, and dutiful discipline, can easily be seen through by God—Who searches the hearts. Do not tempt The Lord. Do not sin presumptuously in protracted periods, for this drives your angel away from you. Luther, following the salutary writings of Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Augustine, teaches that you EACH have your very own particular guardian angel to watch over you and protect you. Do not sin or fall from belief in such a way that you drive your dear “shining one” away. Do not ignore the gift of God’s angels but likewise do not fixate upon them. They are simply God’s means to an end. He loves them to be sure, but He did not become an angel to save you; He became a Man. We genuflect at mention of the Incarnation, not the creation of things invisible; though to be sure you confessed the angels that way in the Creed.
There was one that was humble, though still fallen and a sinner, the Blessed Virgin. A small, unknown, teen-aged virgin who said, “behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” [Lk.1.38]. And nine months later this humble Virgin gave birth to God…as the angels had so sung and Gospelled to the Shepherds. Mary pondered all the things that the angels had told the shepherds; she treasured them in her heart, i.e. her faith clung to the very content of said faith—the child nursing at her breasts. The angels had pointed to this newborn King. Mary always pointed to this Prince of Peace. Do likewise. Hear her and hear the Heralds from on High! For it is Christ Jesus Who is the true humble and meek One. He is the dutiful and obedient Adam. He is the silent Lamb of God and the quiet suffering servant.
Yes, the angels excel in strength, do God’s commandments, and hearken unto the voice of His Word (Introit). But Jesus, in the flesh, your flesh, Jesus the God/Man, kept the Commandments and always hearkened unto the voice of His Father, and now, your Father. Yes, the angels defend you all here on earth. But Jesus is the one that Has them do so, they are not without Him, by their spiritual selves, but are always with Him, accompanying His actual and real presence. The angels do always behold the face of The Father, Who is in heaven. But in Christ’s face, seen and apprehended in Word and Washing and Absolving, and Feasting, you too behold the “face” of the Father—In The Son—with angels and archangels and all the host of heaven. Yes, the angels pray for you [Zech 1.12] as our Symbols confess. But Jesus, as the writer to the Hebrews records, “ever lives to make intercession for [you].” [Heb. 7.25].
Follow the Blessed Virgin in watching and listening to Christ, “whatever He saith unto you, do it.” [Jn. 2.5b] Follow Paul in “look[ing] unto Jesus, the author and finisher of [y]our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” [Heb. 12.2]
Your worship folder cover best illustrates all of this. Where are angels? Always with The Son. Where is the Son? Always serving the Father, that He might serve you. The Cross then, the Altar and Holy Mass now.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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