Coffee With God

Reflection: John 1: 47-51

Today we celebrate the feast of the Archangels. Neither Michael nor Raphael is mentioned in the Gospels. Gabriel is remembered in the annunciation to Zechariah and to Mary (Lk 1:19-26). This is why the liturgy has chosen a passage that mentions the “angels of God” in general. “You are an angel!” We all have heard this compliment at least once: from a friend to whom we have given a hand at a difficult time; from an office colleague, delighted in seeing us react to an offense with a smile and calm words, by a married couple we helped to reconcile. An angel is not just a figure of speech, or an image, or a metaphor; instead, it is a reality— tell the Word of God. Bible introduces an angel as someone who acts to fill in a distance. The Hebrew word mal’ak comes from the root la’ak which means “to send.” It is attributed to anyone who is sent to convey a message, gather information or take a specific action in the name of an agent. The Bible does not make any distinction between agents of people and agents of God. Anyone who goes between people or between distant communities or between God and people is called mal’ak—angel. The feast of the archangels is an invitation for us to turn around and to recognize the angels who are at our side. They do not move with wings, but guide with caution; they do not wear a bright robe, but the sari of Mother Teresa, the gown of a doctor, the worker’s suit. And if they do not have shoes it is because they removed them to offer them to the poor. The Gospel presents a reference to Jacob’s ladder of the Old Testament when Jesus tells Nathanael that he would see the “angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” The ladder that Jacob dreamed about is now replaced in the New Testament with a new figure – the Son of Man Jesus himself. Now we understand: Jesus is the ladder that God has sent down to us and that allows us to climb up to heaven (Jn 3:13). He is the only mediator between heaven and earth (1 Tim 2:4). And the angels are all those who help people on earth to be united to God – they bring the divine in the world, and people back to God. These angels bridge the gap between God and man. They disturb and provoke disturbances because their mission is to change the hearts and tune them with the projects and dreams of God. The word of God wants to remind everyone that every true disciple of Christ is an angel for his brothers and sisters.