Every year, a Saturday in early November brings us to one
of the more unusual observances of the Armenian Church calendar: the feast day
dedicated to the holy archangels Michael and Gabriel. We’ll greet it again this
weekend, on November 7.
Angels in popular culture seem like benign, even
childlike beings. But the Bible depicts them as something else
entirely—something truly incomprehensible to the human mind. “Fear not!” is the
characteristic greeting that issues from an angel when it is sent to converse with
a human being—suggesting that there is something potentially terrifying in our
encounters with them.
The multitude of angels make up the “heavenly hosts”—the
armies of God waging an invisible war against evil forces. The archangel
Michael (whose name means “Who is equal to God?”) is symbolically shown as a
warrior who protects God’s people and contends with Satan; Gabriel (“God is my
strength”) is best known as the messenger who announced Christ’s impending
birth to St. Mary.
The Christian tradition regards the angels as “bodiless
powers”: thought without physicality; will without animal substance; beings of
pure spirit, who do not occupy even a single point in space. The very
possibility of such creatures opens up deep questions about our experience of
the material universe—and about man himself. For example: Are our thoughts just
chemical reactions, or is human intelligence itself a sign of something beyond
and above physical existence?
In that sense, the idea of angels enriches our
understanding of the universe that God has created, and of the place He has
given to His human creations.
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