Gospel: John 1: 47-51
In today's Gospel Jesus tells Nathaniel he will see angels attending to the Son of Man, and yet in John's Gospel not a single appearance of an angel occurs. The other Gospels note the presence of angels throughout the infancy narratives and at the empty tomb. These three angels - Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel - are mentioned in various places in the scriptures, fulfilling important roles of being messengers and intercessors.
Today's feast has a fractured history. Each angel had a separate feast day until they were merged together in recent times, this date being chosen as it is the anniversary of the dedication of an ancient basilica to St. Michael. If one still follows the calendar of 1962 the feasts of this day and many others are not the same as the normative calendar of the Church. Never before in the history of the Western Church has this been the case in the Roman Rite.
All of this should not distract us from our fundamental task of following the Lord Jesus, to discover him as Nathaniel did in an ordinary encounter under a tree or in a myriad of other ways in life. It is to accept the invitation of Jesus to follow him along the Way where angels tread alongside unawares. We need not look for them or obsess at finding their presence among us. It is enough to know they are there, walking with us on the way to the reign of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment