September 29,
Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel, and Saint Raphael, Archangels
The battles are won in the sky
Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night. Rv 12,7-10
Prior to ponder the today passage of the apocalypse, we read the background: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns … Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth” (Rv 12,1-4). In this John’s vision, the woman symbolically represents both the Lady who gave birth to Jesus Christ in this world and the church which has been mandated to sow him and to grow him in the hearts of the men. The huge dragon which arises in front of the woman is the symbol of Satan who, after having done everything possible to prevent his birth in Bethlehem, fights such that the Lord does not arise in the human heart. The situation of the pregnant woman, a symbol of maximum weakness before the great red dragon, would seem tragic. Even by nowadays, if we look at the events of the earth, it would seem that the devil often would have the upper hand: injustice, war, hatred, persecution, earthquakes, floods and devastation. But it is not, because the today passage announces that the battles are fought on the earth, but these are won in the sky. It is an encouraging message of salvation: “Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven”. The christian hope to be able to resist to the temptations here on the earth and to be received by the mercy of the Lord in the eternity is rooted in this revelation.