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The first of them is, I have always been afraid

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of Saint Michael, and I have always loved Saint

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Gabriel. Because the two of them represent, at

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least to me, two very different, from our perspectives

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at least, very different sides of God. Saint

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Michael is the protector of the faith, the protector

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of the truth. The one who has banished Satan

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from God's kingdom by tradition. We see him with

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that sword banishing Satan. He is always painted

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at the entry into the altar to remind priests

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and deacons and everyone who goes in where we

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are going in. So he is like this guardian of

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God's truth and of the true faith. Whereas Saint

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Gabriel is always the one who brings happiness

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in people's lives. He's always the one who brings

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joy. He's always the one bringing the good news.

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Every time you meet him in the Gospels, you know

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something wonderful is about to happen. And that

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makes it so much easier to love him and to pray

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to him and to cherish him. I suppose a more subjective

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reason why I'm so afraid of St. Michael is that

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my abbot's name was Michael. And that doesn't

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help for the rest of one's life. You have this

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image of authority in front of you. But the two

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of them together are actually the fullness of

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what we know about God Himself. About the whole

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revelation. Because if you take away love. And

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you are left. Only with truth. You don't have

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God. And if you take away the truth. And you

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hold on to some sort of love. Without truth.

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Again that is not God. Strangely I am reminded

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by. Do you know that icon of Christ. From Mount

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Sinai. The one where. Half of Christ is. the

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right judge and he looks quite frightening and

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the other half is very loving and embracing and

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forgiving in the same image, the same face. I

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think the two archangels together have the same

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effect and they present both sides of our encounter

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with divinity. And then I also love them for

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the same reason I've always loved The cherubim

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and the seraphim and the angels and all the bodiless

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hosts. Because they remind me that I myself and

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each of you are not purely bodily beings. Yes,

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our bodies are made of earth. The dust we step

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on when we go outside is the same material we

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are made of. That's where we come from. But that's

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not where we are supposed to get to. We are supposed

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to be spiritual and bodily at the same time.

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In our own beings there is something of that

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duality that you've seen in St Michael and St

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Gabriel. We are bodies and souls. We are not

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just bodies or just souls. If you see just a

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body, like a dead body face, Somebody who's died.

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That is not a human being, because the soul is

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not over there. And a bodiless being, just the

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soul, just the spirit, is also not a human being.

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A human being is the two combined. That's what

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makes us who we are, body and soul. It's strange

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to think, isn't it, that this world, is not populated

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just by us it's not just us the bodies we see

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and touch and we embrace and I have no idea what's

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going on right here to the right of me and I

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don't know who's here to the left of me I don't

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know what's going on I know by tradition that

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all around us there is this huge unseen warfare

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this huge spiritual battlefield if you want to

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imagine it that way and we live our lives our

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physical lives in the middle of this spiritual

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battlefield and now and again one arrow from

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one side or the other will just pierce us and

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we'll feel a huge temptation and we don't know

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why or we'll feel this extraordinary need to

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just kneel down and pray with all our being and

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we don't know why well it's because all around

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us something is going on all around us these

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beings mind their own fight for our sake for

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our sake and we are somewhere in between we are

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in between this you know perfectly bodily creation

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the seas and the mountains and the rocks and

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the trees they just matter and the uncreated

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or that's not the right way to say it the created

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but the the non -bodily creation of god like

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the archangels we celebrate today we are in between

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them we are a combination of the two We are supposed

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to take this dust that we are made of and turn

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it into something spiritual. I can tell you that,

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at least in our villages in Romania, the love

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and the affection people have for the holy archangels

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is beyond imagination. They are by far some of

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the most loved. People pray to them, people love

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them, people ask for their support. The two names

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Gabriel and Michael are perhaps some of the most

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popular. There is beauty in knowing that what

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we see is so little, so poor, and that our lives,

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the lives we shall become part of after we live

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this life, that life is so much richer, so much

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more diverse and extraordinary and exciting,

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and use whatever words you want. We shall have

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brothers and sisters that are not of our own

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race. We are one creation with the thrones and

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the dominions and the archangels. Think about

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it. Think of that honor. Think of that beauty.

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And do pray to the holy archangels because they've

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helped so many people, this silly monk included,

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that it would be such a pity to waste their help.

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We don't know what's around us, but they do.

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We can't fight the evilness around us. but they

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can we don't know what's beyond the leap so to

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say of death beyond that edge we don't know what

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expects us but they do and they can be there

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taking us by our hands and leading us and protecting

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us I know it's Father Michael's name day, and

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I assume there are others here or in the parish

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whose name day we celebrate today. And I can

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only just pray that, you know, you are protectors

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of the faith and of the truth, like Saint Michael,

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but without letting go of the joy and of the

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love of Saint Gabriel.