Religious Jubilarian Mass 2018

Published: September 29, 2018

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily on the feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, archangels, at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018

Bishop Taylor

Today's celebration of the jubilee of the vowed religious of Arkansas coincides with our celebration of the feast of the Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, which is appropriate, in a way, since you — like them — have been agents of God for those whom the Lord has entrusted to your care.

As most of you know, the Greek word "angel" means "messenger" and Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are called archangels, superior angels because the messages they bear are very important.

— Michael ("Who is like God?") is our great protector (Daniel 12:1) and warrior against evil, "captain of the heavenly host" as we see in today's first reading from Revelation (12:7-9).

— Gabriel ("God is my strength") announces the Messiah's coming (Daniel 9) and the births of John the Baptist and Jesus (Luke 1).

— Raphael ("God heals") heals the blindness of Tobit and serves as a guardian angel protecting his son Tobias (Tobit 5-12).

And it is worth noting that, like Tobias, we each have our own guardian angels. And note also that none of the angels in the Bible resemble in any way the cute cherubs on Valentine's cards or the dainty angels of Precious Moments knickknacks — just as real nuns seldom resemble the saccharine depictions of sisters that we often see. All biblical angels are so strong and fearsome that the first words out of their mouth are usually "Do not be afraid!"

Yet as exalted as the angels seem, the New Testament points out three ways in which we humans — including, of course, you vowed religious — are superior to the angels:

1.) The angels are inferior to Jesus (Hebrews 1), and so inferior in principle to all who are united to Christ as members of his body the Church, and all the more so you who are more intimately united to Jesus through vows of poverty, chastity and obedience;

2.) Human love takes precedence over the eloquence of angels (1 Corinthians 13:1); and

3.) Angels envy us who have the unmerited good fortune of being followers of Christ (1 Peter 1:12), and all of this simply because through the incarnation of the Son of God in Jesus, God took on our human condition, thereby not only redeeming us from the power of sin and death, but also exalting us above the sinless and deathless angels by bringing us into intimate union with God himself.

We celebrate this feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael in part to remind us that like St. Michael, we too must struggle against evil; like St. Gabriel, we too must proclaim the Good News of salvation, and like St. Raphael, we too must protect the weak and vulnerable.

You jubilarians have done this day in and day out, for which we all owe you an immense debt of gratitude. Thank you. God bless you. And please keep all of us in your prayers!