The first of them is, I have always been afraid
of Saint Michael, and I have always loved Saint
Gabriel. Because the two of them represent, at
least to me, two very different, from our perspectives
at least, very different sides of God. Saint
Michael is the protector of the faith, the protector
of the truth. The one who has banished Satan
from God's kingdom by tradition. We see him with
that sword banishing Satan. He is always painted
at the entry into the altar to remind priests
and deacons and everyone who goes in where we
are going in. So he is like this guardian of
God's truth and of the true faith. Whereas Saint
Gabriel is always the one who brings happiness
in people's lives. He's always the one who brings
joy. He's always the one bringing the good news.
Every time you meet him in the Gospels, you know
something wonderful is about to happen. And that
makes it so much easier to love him and to pray
to him and to cherish him. I suppose a more subjective
reason why I'm so afraid of St. Michael is that
my abbot's name was Michael. And that doesn't
help for the rest of one's life. You have this
image of authority in front of you. But the two
of them together are actually the fullness of
what we know about God Himself. About the whole
revelation. Because if you take away love. And
you are left. Only with truth. You don't have
God. And if you take away the truth. And you
hold on to some sort of love. Without truth.
Again that is not God. Strangely I am reminded
by. Do you know that icon of Christ. From Mount
Sinai. The one where. Half of Christ is. the
right judge and he looks quite frightening and
the other half is very loving and embracing and
forgiving in the same image, the same face. I
think the two archangels together have the same
effect and they present both sides of our encounter
with divinity. And then I also love them for
the same reason I've always loved The cherubim
and the seraphim and the angels and all the bodiless
hosts. Because they remind me that I myself and
each of you are not purely bodily beings. Yes,
our bodies are made of earth. The dust we step
on when we go outside is the same material we
are made of. That's where we come from. But that's
not where we are supposed to get to. We are supposed
to be spiritual and bodily at the same time.
In our own beings there is something of that
duality that you've seen in St Michael and St
Gabriel. We are bodies and souls. We are not
just bodies or just souls. If you see just a
body, like a dead body face, Somebody who's died.
That is not a human being, because the soul is
not over there. And a bodiless being, just the
soul, just the spirit, is also not a human being.
A human being is the two combined. That's what
makes us who we are, body and soul. It's strange
to think, isn't it, that this world, is not populated
just by us it's not just us the bodies we see
and touch and we embrace and I have no idea what's
going on right here to the right of me and I
don't know who's here to the left of me I don't
know what's going on I know by tradition that
all around us there is this huge unseen warfare
this huge spiritual battlefield if you want to
imagine it that way and we live our lives our
physical lives in the middle of this spiritual
battlefield and now and again one arrow from
one side or the other will just pierce us and
we'll feel a huge temptation and we don't know
why or we'll feel this extraordinary need to
just kneel down and pray with all our being and
we don't know why well it's because all around
us something is going on all around us these
beings mind their own fight for our sake for
our sake and we are somewhere in between we are
in between this you know perfectly bodily creation
the seas and the mountains and the rocks and
the trees they just matter and the uncreated
or that's not the right way to say it the created
but the the non -bodily creation of god like
the archangels we celebrate today we are in between
them we are a combination of the two We are supposed
to take this dust that we are made of and turn
it into something spiritual. I can tell you that,
at least in our villages in Romania, the love
and the affection people have for the holy archangels
is beyond imagination. They are by far some of
the most loved. People pray to them, people love
them, people ask for their support. The two names
Gabriel and Michael are perhaps some of the most
popular. There is beauty in knowing that what
we see is so little, so poor, and that our lives,
the lives we shall become part of after we live
this life, that life is so much richer, so much
more diverse and extraordinary and exciting,
and use whatever words you want. We shall have
brothers and sisters that are not of our own
race. We are one creation with the thrones and
the dominions and the archangels. Think about
it. Think of that honor. Think of that beauty.
And do pray to the holy archangels because they've
helped so many people, this silly monk included,
that it would be such a pity to waste their help.
We don't know what's around us, but they do.
We can't fight the evilness around us. but they
can we don't know what's beyond the leap so to
say of death beyond that edge we don't know what
expects us but they do and they can be there
taking us by our hands and leading us and protecting
us I know it's Father Michael's name day, and
I assume there are others here or in the parish
whose name day we celebrate today. And I can
only just pray that, you know, you are protectors
of the faith and of the truth, like Saint Michael,
but without letting go of the joy and of the
love of Saint Gabriel.