Heaven Laid Open

Feast of Archangels Sts Michael, Gabriel and Raphael - (Saturday, 29 September 2018)

Daniel 7:9-10,13-14 or Revelation 12:7-12

John 1:47-51

“You will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.”

"You should be aware," St Gregory the Great writes, "that the word 'angel' denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message." Sorry to say that angels have no wings, no body, no whitish brilliance, and no material body. An angel is an office, a function which refers to a message of God, and above all, the presence of God. Moreover, heaven is not a place, it is a state of life. Therefore, angels are not those species filling up the "place of heaven." They both are related to our world, to our living here and now. Otherwise what's the use of a heaven and its angels only in the next world? They are for our use, for our better living of our lives now. See what Jesus tells Nathanael in today's gospel, "You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that. I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending."

The finite manifests the infinite, and the physical is the doorway to the the spiritual. In other words, all you need is right here and right now—in this world. This is the way to that! Heaven includes earth. This is an invitation to see everything as connected to God's plan. This is an invitation to see everything fully, respectfully. There is nothing that is not holy or beautiful or valuable. Everything has its place. Everything belongs.

For those who have learned how to see fully, everything—absolutely everything—is “spiritual,” everything is an experience of God. Once we can accept that God is in all situations, and that God can and will use even bad situations for good, then everything and everywhere becomes an occasion for good and an occasion for God (an encounter with God). God’s plan is so perfect that even sin, tragedy, and painful deaths are used to bring us to divine union (=heaven), just as the cross was meant to reveal. And God wisely makes the problem itself part of the solution. Therefore, it is all a matter of learning how to see rightly, fully, and therefore truthfully.