Homily

I believe I have had two encounters with angels in my life. One was an encounter with a fallen angel, a demon, when I was in college. One evening in my room I felt this very dark presence of evil. Nothing in particular seemed to be the cause of this presence, but there it was. Something not seen or heard, but even without hearing or seeing, you knew it was there, close to you, intimidating you. I sat there for a few minutes wondering what was happening, and what to do about it. So I started praying and decided to walk to the chapel that was in my residence hall. It followed me down the hallways until I got to the chapel. I went in and begged the Lord for help. It did not follow me into the chapel. After some time, I left and that was the end of that. But that one of the scariest moments in my life.

The other time I believe I experienced an angel was when I was a boy maybe 7 or 8 years old. I was walking with my friend and we were going to cross the street at the corner. I was a little ahead of him, intent on crossing the street. Suddenly, in my mind, I saw an angel in bright light, looking like a typical angel as shown in church art, and he grabbed on to me and stopped me. I had not seen it, but a car had turned onto the street and I just missed walking right into its path by only a few feet. It’s hard to explain exactly what happened. It was all over in a flash. After that I felt kind of dazed, like being in a bit of shock. I didn’t say anything. My friend didn’t say anything and I don’t know if he noticed anything or not, and I never asked. We just kept on walking in silence for a while. Then we went back to normal kid behavior. But I thought about it later. It made a deep impression on me. Now I think I could have used some help like this on a number of other occasions, but that never happened. Yet even today, I still have a deep and clear memory of that moment in time.

What are angels? Our Ukrainian catechism speaks of St. Maximus the Confessor who taught about the unity of all creation, both visible and invisible. Christ our God, in becoming man, inseparably united Himself with created world, with flesh and blood which He took on for the salvation of the human race. All of creation both visible and invisible does not exist by virtue of its own nature, but by the virtue of the action of God’s Son. St. Basil writes that the bodiless spirits “have their being by the will of the Father and are brought into being by the will of the Son, and are perfected by the Holy Spirit.” They are like mirrors which reflect the light of God. The catechism teaches that angels are an example of the great wealth and diversity of God’s creation, and that creation is good. Since both angels and human beings are persons, both are able to have relationships with God and with each other, although, in my experience it is very difficult to develop relationships with angels on Facebook. Their selfie photos are always blank. But we have all heard of guardian angels and yes, though invisible, we can have a relationship with them.

Angels are in constant praise of God, but they also serve us in different ways. Sometimes they announce the will of God. In the anaphora of St. Basil, we read that the Lord appointed angels for our guardians and in the letter to the Hebrews we are told that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. That would be us, I pray!

It’s not always easy to live as though angels are a part of creation, because we don’t see them or hear them, and we are often way too focused on the material aspects of our lives that it is not hard at all to neglect the creation we cannot see. We say that hosts of angels serve with us at the Liturgy, but they are very quiet and easily ignored and forgotten. We can’t even tell if they are maintaining social distance these days.

I think it’s very interesting that when movies or even television deal with spirits, 95% of the time it’s either about ghosts, or more often, about demons. And I have to wonder why that is. It seems that we find it easier to believe in evil, scary beings than in spirits who serve the Lord. I think that’s a reflection of fallen mankind. (Ghost Hunters)

But shows about angels? They are almost always shown in ways that are far from Christian belief. Like Clarence, the angel in the movie, “It’s Wonderful Life”. For 200 hundred years, we are told, he has been trying to win his wings. He is a bumbling but loveable spirit, not the superior and dynamic creatures that Scripture describes as angels. And, of course, in the film which has become a Christmas classic, there’s not much reference to God. Let’s not get bogged down talking about faith. There is also the TV series, “Touched by an Angel” which ran for 9 seasons. In the same way in this series, which many people loved, angels are portrayed more like social workers who are given clients to handle and described like employees who can get promoted by doing a good job, not as powerful, intelligent spirits who act as genuine agents of God Almighty. When it comes to angels in entertainment, we like them to be fallible and fumbling, not much superior to humanity, and we like such shows to be very light on the topic of God the Lord, almost never describing sin, repentance and conversion, but very heavy on creating good feelings for all those watching. Let’s not downgrade the angels of the Lord. Instead, even today, let us ask our guardian angel to pray for us.

In the Liturgy this morning I will quietly pray to God, “We thank you for this liturgy which you have willed to accept from our hands, even though there stand before you thousands of angels, tens of thousands of angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed, soaring aloft on their wings, singing, shouting, crying out and saying the triumphal hymn: – Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory; hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.”