By St. John
of Kronstadt (+1908).
Who maketh
his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire [Pss 104:4]
These are
the words of the King and Prophet David. With these words, he said that God
created the wisest minds, the fleshless spirits, servants loyal to Him, who bum
with eternal love for God, fulfill God's will and abide in the unapproachable
light of the Throne of Glory. The Lord created the angels as wise, powerful,
eternally holy, pure and within Divine truth. Ponder this, dear brothers and
sisters, delve into this with your minds. The Lord divided all the angels into
nine orders, or ranks: Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, Authorities
and others; they all obey each other—the lower orders obey the higher orders.
In the likeness of the heavenly hierarchy, the Lord established three ranks in
the Church Militant: the bishops, priests and deacons, who also obey each
other.
God created
an innumerable multitude of angels. When you came to liturgy this morning,
maybe someone among you looked into the sky and saw how many stars fill the
heavens. There are so many stars that it seems that the sky is filled with
poppy seeds. No mortal can count them all. Likewise, one cannot count the
number of holy angels. One star shines brighter, another less so, but each of
them is greater than our world, larger than the Earth; this is known and has
been proven.
The countless
multitude of angels abide in the heavens, in the presence of God, fulfill God's
will and eternally glorify God.
Some of
them are appointed by God to humans, these are our guardian angels who protect
people throughout their lives, from baptism until death, keep evil away from
them and direct them to all truth and goodness. If a person lives righteously,
lives well, he will feel this himself. Think, dear brothers and sisters, how
close the angels are to us!
You know or
have heard of the miracle performed by Archangel Michael. A few impious people
had decided to kill St. Archippus and the destroy the church he built; they
channeled a great river towards the church, but Archangel Michael appeared to
Archippus, consoled him, split a cliff asunder, and directed the river towards
the rocky chasm, so that the water did not flood the church, and the church and
Archippus were saved.
Angels are
not prone to sin, they cannot even think sinful thoughts—their notions and
desires are pure. They are imparted with all perfection, they are always wise,
always strong, always good. They firmly established themselves in love for God,
in holiness and truth and do not fall into sin, only some of them, a third
overall, saddened the Lord with their disobedience and could no longer be
citizens of the heavens; they were cast down by God.
And you, my
friends, should emulate the angels loyal to God, and after being citizens of
the earthly fatherland, you will become co-citizens with them of the heavenly
fatherland. Emulate the angles, especially since you are created in the image
of God; this gift is common to angels and men. Honor the angels, my friends,
imitate their holiness, their love and devotion to God, and you will be worthy
of the blessed live in heaven together with them. Amen.
ORTHODOX HERITAGE. VOL10, ISSUE 01-02. BROTHERHOOD OF ST. POIMEN.
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