Three Musketeers with Christ and Us: Three Archangels: St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael

On September 29, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast of three Archangels: St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael. I call these three as Les Trois Mousquetaires Archanges. Among them, St. Michael is the general in the forces, while St. Gabriel heads public relations, and St. Raphael manages the damage control/restoration program, as well as, the protection program.

In the optional First Reading of this feast (Revelation 12:7-12ab), we take a glimpse into the warn in heaven, St. Michael expelling Lucifer the Satan, portrayed as the ancient serpent, the dragon.

Having fallen on earth, Satan tempted Eve, then, she tempted her husband, Adam, to sin against God. This was how the beginning of the corruption of the world with sin, allowing Satan to continue infusing and inflicting his wickedness to the world. As a result, Adam and Eve were evicted from Eden (Genesis 3:16-24), through God prophesized the destruction of Satan by the Son of the New Eve, who is Mary the Theotokos, the incarnated Christ, born of her (Genesis 3:15).  Knowing this, Satan in the dragon tried to destroy the incarnated Christ in the womb of Mary altogether. But he did not succeed. So Mary was able to give birth to the Son of God (Revelation 12:4), as God protected her and the Son in her womb.

Through the incarnation in Mary’s womb (Luke 1:35) and birth from her body (Luke 2:7), Christ came down to save us from where Satan has inserting his influence (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9), as he continue to oppose God’s scheme to redeem the children of Adam and Eve, the fallen humankind. So, the war between St. Michael and Lucifer the Satan, has been transplanted on earth as the war between the faithful, who have been adopted as children of God through Christ (Galatians 4:3-7; Ephesians 1:5), and Satan and his evil collaborators (Ephesians 6:10-17).

As Jacob had seen in his dream, the angels of God descend from heaven and ascend from the earth (Genesis 28:12), St. Michael can come to us on earth, leading our battle against the evils. Certainly, we have received the incarnated Christ (John 1:1, 14; 3:16; 1 John 4:9; Luke 1:35; 2:7), who has descended from heaven and ascended from the earth (John 3:13; Ephesians 4:7-10), 40 days from his resurrection (Acts 1:3-9), but remains with us in the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:20; John 14:18, 28), so that we can continue to fight against Satan’s forces. And we have the sword of the Holy Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 1:13-14; 6:17). Thanks to Mary, through St. Dominic, we also have the Holy Rosary as our powerful weapon against evil (Leo XIII, Octobri Mense).

St. Raphael may come down to us to protect us from Satan’s attack and to heal us from wounds inflicted in our battles against Satan on our pilgrim journey to the Kingdom of God, as he protected Tobias on his journey, healed his wife, Sarah, from demonic possession and his father, Tobit, from blindness, as written in the Book of Tobit. When he served Tibit and his family, St. Raphael appeared in disguise of a Jewish man, Azariah. But he eventually revealed himself as one of the seven archangels, who stand and serve before the glory of the Lord (Tobit 12:15). Remember, as Jacob had seen, any angel can come down and go up between heaven and earth (Genesis 28:12). So, it can be St. Raphael to be our protective and healing companion, reminding Jesus being with us. And it can be St. Michael, spearheading our battles against Satan on earth as we are, indeed, Ecclesia Militans, Christ’s militant Church (i.e. Ephesians 6:12).

Now, what about St. Gabriel?

St. Gabriel may come down to us to help us understand a revelatory vision from God, as he did to Daniel (Daniel 8:16-27) and did to Mary on the Paschal Mystery of her Son (Luke 1:26-35). He may bring good tidings about God’s salvific scheme and how we will be involved with it, as His messenger to us, as he did to Zachariah (Luke 1:11-18) and to Mary (Luke 1:28-37). This way, we know what we are doing in our battle against Satan on earth and remain in confident hope for the victory in the battle.

Along with His only begotten Son, God has provided us with these three archangels, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael, though they can be quite busy going back and forth between heaven, where he stand before God in His court, from where the Christ the Son comes and returns, as in Daniel’s vision, reflected in the First Reading (Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; cf. Revelation 5:11-14; 7:1-17). And, what is so good to know is, as Jesus said to Nathaniel, as found in the Gospel Reading (John 1:47-51), as the angels of the Lord, these Archangels, not simply descend and ascend between heaven and earth but do so on Christ (John 1:51), who is with us until we victoriously enter the Kingdom as saints (Matthew 28:20). Indeed, the ladder to heaven seen by Jacob, through which angels can descend and ascend (Genesis 28:20) is a prefiguration of Christ. Therefore, as Christ remains with us, so do Les Trois Mousquetaires Archanges: St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael, to lead us to the victory, to guide us with salvific wisdom, and safeguard our pilgrimage through battles against Satan.

Mary is the first one to have made it to heaven ahead of us, being the heavenly gebirah to her Son, the King, by his throne. Now, we are on the way, with Christ in the Holy Spirit, on whom Les Trois Mousquetaires Archanges: Saint Michel, Saint Gabriel et Saint Raphaël ascend and descend.