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Angels and Mortals from Father Barry Carter, Vicar of St Michael and All Angels, Lancing South Street, Lancing |
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Every year children from Thornberry School visit St Michael’s Church. My first question is always, “What is the name of this Church?” They have been well prepared, and always get the answer right: “St Michael and All Angels”. I show them the statue of St Michael at the back of the Church. “Why has he got wings?” I ask. “Because he’s an angel” is the reply. I tell them part of the story about St Michael in the Bible, from the Book of Revelation (Chapter 12, verses 7 and 8):
Now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels, but they were defeated and driven out of heaven.
In statues, stained glass windows, religious pictures and Christmas cards angels are always portrayed with a human body and wings. That is the way angels are described when they appear to people in the Bible. They may appear that way when they take a visible form but angels do not really have a body at all. They are pure spiritual beings.
The name ‘angel’ means ‘messenger’—so even the name we have for them, as well as the image we have of them, is based only on our human experience. We only know how people have seen them when they take a visible form, and what they do when they appear—deliver a message from God, or act as God’s agents to protect and help us.
Our way of visualizing angels—as super-human beings—leads some people to suppose that human beings can become angels. Some people imagine that when someone dies they become an angel—“Mummy’s gone to be an angel, darling”. But human beings are not angels and they cannot become angels. Our bodies are not just disposable containers for our ‘real’, ‘spiritual’ selves—our bodies are part of who we are. Human beings are material, animal beings—but with a difference. We are animals with souls, with the capacity for a personal relationship with God.
The story of St Michael shows the angels involved in spiritual warfare—in the battle between God and the forces of evil that oppose him. In our own fight against evil we have the angels on our side, and we know that ultimately God has defeated evil through the cross of Jesus Christ his Son.
The angels also join with us in worshipping God. The children like to draw the two angels depicted on each side of the entrance to the chancel in St Michael’s Church. Angels remind us of the dignity of worship and also of our real place in God’s creation. They remind us that, as some wise people have said, “The only thing you need to understand about God is that you ain’t!”