Every year, on September 29, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of Holy Archangels. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that, `The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls `Angels’ is a truth of faith. The church celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael and the guardian angels. Celebrating the archangels is an opportunity for us to imitate them. Let us be worshippers and messengers of God like the Archangels.
Rev. Fr. Don Anton Saman Hettiarachchi from St. Anthony’s Bible Academy joined Commonwealth Union in a discussion to provide responses to 12 FAQs on the Holy Archangels
- Do angels exist?
Angels do exist not only in the order of mind but also in that of reality. We may line up the following arguments:
- There is no way to prove that angels are not. There is no reason for denying their existence.
- Also in the ladder of being, stretching from the all-powerful God to His most insignificant creation, the angels, as pure spirits created by God, can plausibly find a place between God, the uncreated Spirit and human beings, the created body and soul.
iii. There are very good reasons for believing that there are angels:
(a) The archangels, the guardian angels and various unnamed angels are scattered through the Bible.
The New Testament mentions seven classes of angels: Angels, Powers, Virtues, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones and Archangels.
In addition, the Old Testament mentions Cherubim and Seraphim.
(b) Jesus, Jews, Christians and the Bible writers believed in angels, who played vital roles in the history of salvation.
(c) Angels have appeared to human persons, even in post-biblical times.
Thus there are very good reasons to believe in their existence.
- Who are the Archangels, mentioned in the Bible?
The Old Testament names three angels:
- Michael, the patron of security forces and of the sick
- Gabriel, the patron of telecommunications and the postal service
iii. Raphael, the patron of travellers and the blind
- What does ‘Gabriel’ mean etymologically?
Gabriel = ‘God is my warrior’
- Who is Gabriel in the Hebrew Scriptures?
Gabriel is the revealing angel in Daniel.
- He explains the great vision of the end times: “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man” (8,16).
- He announces the seventy weeks of years and the coming of an ‘anointed one’ (9,20-25), who could be either Cyrus who was called the anointed of the Lord to end the exile (Isaiah 45,1) or the high priest Joshua who presided over the rebuilding of the altar of sacrifice after the exile (Ezra 3,2).
- Who is Gabriel in the Christian Scriptures?
Gabriel is present in the Lucan Infancy Narrative: “I am Gabriel who stand before God” (1,19) and “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God …” (1,26).
The announcement to Mary of the birth of Jesus is paralleled to the announcement to Zechariah of the birth of John. In both it is the angel Gabriel who appears to the parents, Zechariah and Mary.
- What does Gabriel’s presence in Luke signal?
Gabriel’s presence in Luke signals that what Daniel had prophesied is now coming true; the end time is at hand in the conception and birth of Jesus – the eschatological fulfilment.
- What does ‘Raphael’ mean etymologically?
Raphael = ‘God’s remedy’
- How does the Bible present Raphael?
Raphael is the angel of healing as his names indicates. He appears in Tobit.
Tobit sends his son, Tobiah to far- off Media to bring back the large sum of money he had formerly deposited there. Raphael in disguise makes the trip to Media with Tobiah (5,4-8).
When Tobiah is attacked by a large fish as he bathes, Raphael orders him to seize it and to remove its gall, heart and liver because they make useful medicine. Later, at Raphael’s urging, Tobiah marries Sarah and uses the fish’s heart and liver to drive from the bridal chamber Asmodeus, who had already killed her seven husbands at wedding night. Returning to Nineveh with his wife and his father’s money, Tobiah rubs the fish’s gall into his father’s eyes and cures them.
Finally Raphael reveals his true identity before he returns to heaven. He presents himself as an intercessor who takes the prayers of humans to God: “I can now tell you that when you, Tobit, and Sarah prayed, it was I who presented and read the record of your prayer before the Glory of the Lord …” (12,12) and “I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who enter and serve before the Glory of the Lord” (12,15).
- In the story, Raphael is in disguise. What does it mean?
The theme of angels in disguise frequents in folklore and sacred Scriptures:
- Genesis 18: Abraham’s visitors
- Hebrews 13,2: “Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels”
- What does ‘Michael’ mean etymologically?
Michael = ‘Who can compare with God?’
- What type of role does Michael play in the Hebrew Scriptures?
Michael first appears in Daniel 10,13.21 where he is called “one of the chief princes” and in 12,1 where he is called “the great prince, the guardian of your people.” Hence he is an archangel and the guardian, champion or protector of Israel, God’s people.
- What type of role does Michael play in the Christian Scriptures?
- Read Jude 9: “Yet the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”
Here the author refers to the legendary material in Assumption of Moses, a Jewish apocryphal which tells how Michael who was sent to bury Moses was challenged by the devil’s interest in the body.
The false teachers worming their way into the Christian community revile and spurn the angels (Jude 1,8). Hence the author draws out the point that if an archangel refrained from reviling even the devil, how wrong it is for mere human beings to revile glorious beings, the angels.
- Then St. Michael appears in Revelation 12,7: “Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back.” Now he wins a victory over the dragon.
