Tag Archives: Archangel Michael

Sea of Glass

Posted on by
Reply
Russian icon depicting the victory of the Archangel Michael over the dragon, the beast, and Babylon the Great; Christ in the upper corner invites the faithful to the banquet of the heavenly Eucharist.

Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and astonishing: seven angels with seven plagues…. and I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire and, standing beside the sea of glass and holding harps of God, were those who had been victorious against the beast and its image and the number of its name. (Apocalypse 15:1-2)

St. John sees another seven angels ready to unleash another seven plagues on the earth and then he sees the victorious martyrs standing beside a sea of glass and fire, holding harps and singing “the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.” (Apoc. 15:3)

We have encountered the sea of glass in Apoc. 4 — here it is described as a molten mix of glass and fire. This sea is an allusion to the Red Sea which was deliverance for the Israelites and doom for the Egyptians. Here, the victorious sing “the song of Moses” which is no vindictive triumph over enemies but solely a song of praise to the Lord and King.

St. Andrew of Caesarea thinks

The sea of glass is both the multitude of those being saved and the future condition–the brilliance of the saints-, who will shine by means of their sparkling virtue…. the fire will both burn the sinners and illuminate the righteous. Fire is both divine knowledge and the life-giving Spirit–for in fire God was seen by Moses and the Spirit descended upon the apostles as tongues of fire–and the harps indicate the mortification of members (Col. 3:5), the harmonious life of a symphony of virtues plucked by the musical pick (plectrum) of the divine Spirit. (Chapter 45, “Commentary on the Apocalypse”)

The sea is both salvation and condemnation, just as the incense in the bowls held by the angels:

We are the sweet fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: indeed, to some the fragrance of life and to others the stench of death. (2 Cor. 2:15-16)

Tyconius, in his classic commentary on the Apocalypse, points out that the prayers of the saints–the incense offered by the angels, an allusion to the liturgical intercessions of the Church on earth–lead to both the salvation of the world and the condemnation of the fallen order.

As with so much in the Apocalypse–as in life–the same events or experiences can lead to either salvation or damnation. How do we choose to react to these events?

The choice is ours.

St. Michael and the Dragon: Victory in Heaven

Posted on by
2
The war in heaven depicted in “Las Huelgas Apocalypse,” Spain AD 1220; the commentary of Beatus of Liebana.

Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back and he did not prevail…. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world…. (Apocalypse 12:7-9)

The Archangel Michael (Jude 9) is the captain of God’s armies and the champion of the Chosen People (Daniel 10:21, 12:1); in the Old Testament, he is the most powerful figure, second only to God. Although Satan does occasionally appear in heaven (Job 1), he is definitively cast down and overthrown here.

The dragon is identified both with the serpent who tempted Eve and with the adversary, the accuser who demanded that God allow him to test the sincerity of both Job and the Apostle Peter (Luke 22:31). Satan wanted to ruin them both but did not succeed. Satan, the dragon, wants to ruin the human race. He wants to ruin the entire creation. His jealousy goads him to want to destroy everything (Wisdom 1-2) but in the end, his jealousy destroys only himself.

Often the spear that St. Michael uses to fight the dragon with is a wooden lance; it is by the wood of the Cross that the dragon is overthrown. The archangel Michael’s victory is the heavenly and symbolic counterpart of Jesus hanging-dying on the Cross. The martyrs, as members of the Body of Christ, who testify-witness about the victory of the Cross, share in this victory but the victory is demonstrated by their dying as Christ died on the Cross. The events described in chapter 12 of the Apocalypse—the woman clothed with the sun, the dragon, the war in heaven—are the central events of the Apocalypse, around which everything else revolves, because they are the representation of the central events of earthly history.

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” says Jesus (Luke 10:18); therefore the apostles are able to cast out devils who possess humans. The Lamb, “who was slain from the foundation of the world,” is both eternally the victor and the one who wins the victory at a particular time-place in the world. Both the eternal victory and the victory in time are true; neither victory cancels or outweighs the other.

The dragon is not simply THE Devil, a single angelic personality. The dragon is all the enemies of God at once; in Ezekiel 29:3 and 32:2-3, we read that the Pharaoh of the Exodus is “like a dragon in the sea,” a great water monster who attempts to devour the Chosen People. The dragon is the Roman system which attempts to eradicate the Church. The dragon is everything and everyone who attempts to deny the victory of the Cross.

St. Raphael & the Fish-incense

Posted on by
Reply
Archangels Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, identified by their names (above) and images of what they are each known best for: greeting the Mother of God (Gabriel), defeating Satan (Michael), and the fish that saved Tobias and his father (Raphael).

In the Old Testament, Tobit falls asleep in a garden and goes blind because the birds drop excrement on his eyes. Meanwhile, in faraway Media, a young woman named Sarah has prayed for death in despair. The demon Asmodeus (“the worst of demons”), abducts and kills every man Sarah marries on their wedding night before the marriage can be consummated. God sends the angel Raphael, disguised as a human, to heal Tobit and free Sarah from the demon.

Tobit sends his son Tobias to collect money that the elder has deposited in distant Media. Raphael presents himself as Tobit’s kinsman, Azariah, and offers to aid and protect Tobias. Under Raphael’s guidance, Tobias journeys to Media with his dog.

Along the way, while washing his feet in the river, a fish tries to swallow Tobias’ foot. By the angel’s order, he captures it and removes its heart, liver and gall bladder.

Upon arriving in Media, Raphael tells Tobias of the beautiful Sarah. The angel instructs the young man to burn the fish’s liver and heart to drive away the demon when he attacks on the wedding night. Tobias and Sarah marry, and the fumes of the burning organs drive the demon to Egypt, where Raphael follows and binds him. Since the wedding feast prevents him from leaving, Tobias sends Raphael to recover his father’s money.

After the feast, Tobias and Sarah return to Nineveh. There, Raphael tells the youth to use the fish’s gall to cure his father’s blindness. Raphael then reveals his identity and returns to heaven, and Tobit sings a hymn of praise.

We are accustomed to very short parables in the Gospels. Most are only a few sentences long; the longest–the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son–are a few paragraphs. The Book of Tobit is an extended parable that makes the point that God cares for his people and protects them in many ways. The fish is a good example.

Centuries before it was common to use a cross or crucifix, Christians often used a fish as a symbol of Christ and to indicate a Christian gathering place; the word “fish” in Greek is ichthys which is made of the initial letters of the words “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” The ichthys symbol is also a reference to the Holy Eucharist, which was associated with the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Christians interpreted the fish in this story of Tobit and Tobias as an allusion to Christ who saves the world from Death by his own death and resurrection.

Tobias takes the organs of the fish that are most full of blood and burns them as incense to drive away the demon. This illustrates the use of incense as an important tool in exorcisms because demons cannot stand the fragrance of incense. Blood is an allusion to both life and death; the bloody organs–liver and heart–are those associated with emotional and spiritual life, as well as physical life and death in the Ancient World. The power of Life–the power of God–made manifest in Christ’s death and resurrection drives the demon Asmodeus away.

The fish’s gall that heals Tobit’s eyes is also interpreted as an allusion to Christ, the light of the world, who heals the blind man in the Gospel of John (chapter 9). The blood of the fish (i.e. the blood of Christ) brings health (a variation of the Greek word “salvation”) to Tobit, Tobias, and Sarah–and to the world.