by Fr. Richard Cipolla
From the book of Revelation:
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought ,but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
It is always an occasion of joy for me to celebrate this Mass of St. Michael the Archangel. For some, this feast is at best quaint, looking back to another time, but with little relevance to today.
But in fact, this feast has a strong scriptural basis, both in the Old and New Testaments, and this basis has a climax in the book of Revelation where it is St Michael who leads the army of heaven against the army of the fallen angels, this battle that is cosmic in extent and involves at its deepest level the battle between those who are faithful to God and those who have rebelled and continue to rebel against God. But remember that this rebellion is not like a worldly rebellion whether against the forces of injustice or a rebellion whose roots lie in popular sentiment. This is the primordial rebellion of creation against God by those whom God created as pure intellect as his messengers and who, led by Lucifer, threw down the terrible and deadly gauntlet in the words: Non serviam. I will not serve.
Those words area very dramatic, but they are the same words spoken by the world that has deliberately turned its back on God’s promise of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ. The world constantly speaks of personal freedom, defining that freedom in terms of the freedom for each individual to define what is good, that is, good for him or her, and then live one’s life accordingly. Remember how St Paul defines freedom: whose service is perfect freedom. Freedom for the Christian is not primarily a political term or a philosophical term. The only freedom for the Christian is that freedom bought on the Cross of Jesus Christ, the freedom from sin and death. And it is within that freedom that I accept my obligation to serve God, and it is precisely in that act of service that I find that freedom that no one can take away, for it is the freedom from the slavery of sin, the freedom that opens up to heaven itself.
Our culture defines freedom in terms of the individual. Catholics define freedom in terms of the decision to love, and not love in general, but the love of God for us in the person of Jesus Christ. This is sacrificial love, the love that is celebrated here in the Mass. And yet, how many Catholics understand that today in our increasingly militant secular culture that defines truth itself in terms of what the individual happens to believe. How many times have people said to me: wel, that is your truth, but my truth if very different. How many Catholics today understand what Jesus meant when he said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me?” Very often the statistic is thrown out that 70% of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. But we rarely hear that the reason why this disbelief is so common is that Catholics have been dumbed down for so many years about the very basis of our faith who is Jesus Christ, true God and true man. When the Mass is celebrated in a way that denies that this act is a meeting of heaven and earth that demands awe and reverence, then Catholicism becomes mere religion and if this is true then why bother, and many Catholics no longer bother.
We celebrate today the great feast of St. Michael the Archangel. But in the culture in which we live angels like St. Michael are not popular, because they are too masculine, they are too strong, they evoke the reality of spiritual warfare, they remind us too much of those strong Gospel passages where Jesus uses strong words in speaking about sin and death, light and darkness, about the eternal consequences of choices made in this life.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Pope Leo XIII was granted a special vision of the state of the world at that time, and what he saw in that vision moved him so deeply, for he saw in that vision the battle that is constantly being waged by Satan, the fallen angel, and his minions, against the Church and against every human being. Because Satan was thrown down from heaven along with his fallen angels, does not mean that he is not at work among us in this world. And because of that vision Leo XIII asked that the Church ask that a prayer to St Michael be said after every Mass: that St Michael may defend us in battle and protect us from the power of Satan. That prayer was suppressed in the liturgical reforms after the Second Vatican Council. But piety that relates to the reality of the situation cannot be suppressed, and in the past ten or fifteen years, we have seen the spontaneous return of this prayer on the lips of our people. Because of the situation of the world today, because of what our people see in our society, which society includes our own families and includes the Church: more and more parishes, are praying this great prayer, for the dangers of this present age are great, and prayer to the great champion of God, whose name means: who is like God? is salutary and necessary in today’s world, a world that has in so many ways forgotten God, as if He no longer exists. So on this feast of St Michael, let us remember to pray this prayer every day, and that includes today, so let us now stand and say that prayer together.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen"
