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For the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.

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It was over two generations ago, April 12th,

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1961, that the Soviet Union sent the first human into

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space, orbiting the Earth once and returning to Earth.

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Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union, claimed to quote the cosmonaut

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who had made the flight, Yuri Gagarin, saying that he went up to space and, ha-ha,

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did not see God, proof that God does not exist.

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The quote itself actually was false.

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Yuri was a practicing Christian in the Russian Orthodox Church, who had his

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daughter baptized just before the space mission.

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But Khrushchev's misquote that he did not see God, therefore there is no

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God, made headlines across the planet. C.S.

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Lewis was alive at the time and wrote an essay in response called "The Seeing Eye"

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as a counter to Khrushchev's false logic.

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He wrote this, quote, "To some, God is discoverable

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everywhere. To others, nowhere. Those who do not

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find him on Earth are not likely to find him in space.

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But send a saint up in that same spaceship, he'll find God in that space

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as he found God on Earth. Much depends on the seeing

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eye." Indeed. The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels

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challenges us to see our lives and our world

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differently than we might normally see them.

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We see the physical world around us and assume that that is all that there is, or

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at least all that actually matters. A kind of visual agnosticism.

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The vision in Revelation, however, challenges that limited and inaccurate

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vision as well as humbles us. To read the Book of Revelation with an open mind and

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heart is not unlike what happens to a child who assumes that the sky

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above is actually a dome over the Earth, when what that sky

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actually is, is a window. A very small window in

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a deep and vast universe. And as Revelation would tell us, a universe

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packed with spiritual beings and spiritual activity that we may have never

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seen before.

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This book in the New Testament challenges our limited and material capacity

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to see the world and pulls back the curtain to show us a world where God is alive

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and active, and invites us to ask God to give us eyes to see

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this world, His world, both material and spiritual as they are,

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not how we think we've seen it or how we have imagined it to be. C.S.

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Lewis also writes in another book that particularly around the question of the

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activity of demons, he says, "You know, there really are two heresies.

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One is to say there are no demons at all, and the other is to say that they are

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everywhere all the time. Both are wrong." And therefore, to

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pray for God to help us see His world, both spiritual and material

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accurately, as God sees them, is actually the call of this book.

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Revelation was written in part to help us Christians see the activity in

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God's world from God's perspective.

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Revelation intentionally shocks and expands our vision to see a world full of

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supernatural creatures, all wondrous, some terrifying, most mercifully

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fighting on our behalf in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

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This in no way limits or somehow divides the power of the resurrection, just the

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opposite. If you read the book, Revelation is very clear that what

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empowers these angelic hosts to fight and win over Satan

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and his demons is the power that was won through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

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from the dead. As a result, it lays out the battleground for the ultimate defeat of

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all that is evil and unveils a new heaven and a new Earth that is dazzling

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to behold. It presents to a suffering church, for that's those to whom it was

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written, powerful words of encouragement, that Satan is being defeated and that God

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will make all things right. The battle is fierce. People suffer.

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But in the end, the glorious shout of victory will be sung from one end of heaven

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to another. All that is cursed will be set free, and what we know will be

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joy unspeakable and full of glory.

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Old things, tiring, wearying old things, dirty, corrupted

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old things will pass away. Even our aging and sometimes

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disease-ridden bodies will pass away, and we will, for the first

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time in our lives, feel fully alive and quite at home in our

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resurrected bodies, enjoying an extraordinary banquet of food and wine that will

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never end, the marriage supper of the Lamb. Foodies, rejoice.

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Integral to the Revelation story of the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus

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Christ is the reality of both angels and demons, each playing an

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active role in both the cosmic and often political human events, as well as our

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own deep and personal struggles. Note, evil is both

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structural in this world and personal.

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The Book of Revelation reveals that to us that blessings come with

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the aid of God's angels, and they assist us on every side,

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even in this tumultuous world. It is a humbling reminder that all that is good that

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we receive comes as a gift from God, and not merely our own best

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efforts. The world is packed with angels and archangels

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and all the company of heaven, as we say.

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Note that when the celebrant who will stand before the altar even this morning and

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call us therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, what

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he's not doing is defining a small circle of angels around the altar.

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What he's actually declaring is a geographic cosmic reality that

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is always with us. We are never without the presence of angels.

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Even if you're sitting at a restaurant over lunch, even if you're having a fight

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with your spouse in the privacy of your own home, even if you're feeling utterly

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alone as if there is no one else to turn, in each of those places,

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God's angels are present. We are never fully

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alone.

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No matter where you are, there are angels surrounding you, and it is more than

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right to invoke their assistance as we do.

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Recently, at a house blessing that I did for a couple in this parish, I prayed as a

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part of the liturgy, "God, send your angels from heaven to guard, visit, and

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defend this place and all who dwell there." And I meant that

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prayer literally.

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The dark struggles of fear, lust, resentment, and malice, the selfish desires for

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more money, more power, the temptation to hoard rather than generously give

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all come with the seductive encouragement of the forces of darkness.

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They lure us to yield to our worst impulses, keeping us stuck in the

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lying illusion of the need, only the need, for increased

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self-sufficiency. If I could only do this on my own, I would be just fine.

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And the human need that accompanies it, to accumulate more money and more power to

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help make that happen. But when that happens, what it does is that money

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and that power is extracted from the poor who need it more than we do.

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Notice, it is the goodness of God that opens our hearts to receive His

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mercies and to share those mercies with generosity.

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It is the wickedness of the evil one that works to sear our hearts

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shut to everything but our own insistent desires,

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making my need to get my needs met, whatever they may be, the

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most important factor in our lives.

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You see, when God is at work, what happens is it expands us.

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It allows us to see people in a different way.

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It allows us to think about our income in a different way.

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It causes us to see the world as a world that God loves and cares for deeply and

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profoundly. And to shut out that world, even though we can't stand the noise

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sometimes, actually is to withdraw into ourselves, where the enemy is only

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waiting to nurture our self-pity, to help us

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lick our wounds and close the door and hope that no one

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disturbs us.

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That is wickedness

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disguised as self-pity.

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Friends,

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ask God to help you see the spiritual world in which we live.

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Yield to God's direction to give and to serve.

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For at the center of that world, that world of generosity, that center of joy, that

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central world where all is made right and where provision is provided, is the place

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where we are called to live. Jesus stands in the middle of that world with arms

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wide open, inviting us to come and take our place in His

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world. Jesus is not so much interested in you helping

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Jesus to find a place in your world as He is inviting you into a

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place in His world, because that's where life truly

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matters. Call on the power of angels to assist you.

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Rebuke the power of evil if need be.

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But above all, you're invited into the arms of Jesus and to rejoice in His

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eternal victory. And that is in fact what matters most, which is

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the victory of God in Jesus Christ.

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Amen.