Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel

This is just a thought about the Holy Archangels that came to me a few days ago, as I
was praying for something to write to you on their Feast Day. I remembered
something that happened in my first year in my Monastery in Moldavia, and that
memory triggered this thought.

In our monastery, among other things, a novice was expected to do one hundred
prostrations and three hundred bows (crossing oneself, then bowing down to the
ground) each day. I soon realised that I am a physically weak young man, and that I
am very easily prone to cut short the number of my daily prostrations and bows. I
asked my Abbot about it, and he advised me to do them in church, rather than in my
own cell. His thought was that since I was both lazy and proud, I should fight one
temptation through the other. He was perfectly right, and I soon discovered that I
could push through my pain and finish my prostrations just because I didnt want the
other brothers to see me giving up. I later found the same advice in St Johns Ladder.

In a corner of the church, I found an icon of Christ that spoke to me in a personal

way, and I did all my prostrations and bows before that icon. Day by day, month after
month, for at least one year, I poured my heart before Christ in front of that
icon. About a year later, a team of restorers came to our Monastery to clean the walls
of our church and uncover the original frescoes. One day, I asked them if they could
also clean the soot that had almost covered the Face of Christ. They did, and this is
how I found out that for over one year I had been prostrating, bowing and praying
to Christ before an icon of the Holy Archangel Michael.

There is a connection between the Holy Archangels and Christ. There is a connection
between Christs Person, and the unity of St Michaels sword and St Gabriels lily.
There is a balance, a spiritual oneness between what the sword symbolises and the
joy of St Gabriels good-news.
Perhaps that is best expressed in the image of the Christ of Sinai the oldest version
of the icon of Christ Pantocrator, kept in the Monastery of St Catherine since the sixth
century. One eye of the icon expresses Christs Judgement, while the other overflows
with His Love. That unity, that balance between Christ-the-Judge and Christ-the-
Saviour is also expressed through the Holy Archangels and their different works:
one calls us to fight for the salvation of our soul, while the other confirms that our
salvation is of the Lord. One speaks about our responsibility for our salvation, the
other speaks about Him Who made our salvation possible.

One reminds us that we need to act, we need to change, we need to DO something

(inside and outside) to become Christ-like, while the other takes away our fears by re-
inforcing the Good News of Christs Incarnation. This is the balance to which we
must hold on, this is the Truth of Christ our salvation depends on us, as much as it
depends on Christ. We are not automatically saved because of His Sacrifice, just as
we cannot be saved exclusively through our acts, without His Sacrifice.

To lose this balance is to lose ones way to the Kingdom. Christ asks us to get up and
change our ways, He expects us to get better, He wants us to look at ourselves in the
mirror of His commandments, and do what we can to become more like Him. In this
world, and in a time when words have lost their depth and meaning, to say that Christ
want us to love the world and sacrifice ourselves for the life and salvation of the
world can mean the exact opposite of what He asks us to do. In this world, to speak
of love is dangerous, for love has either been romanticised to the point of losing all
connection to Christs Death on the Cross, or has been openly transformed into
another word for sex.

To remember that we are all brothers and that the only enemy is the devil, to forgive
and turn the other cheek, to die for the world, to fight ones demons so that we
become sacrificial lambs and not sacrificing wolves, to let go of our idols (our
culture, our heritage, our history, our logical arguments anything that stays between
us and Christ) all of these things have become stumbling blocks for the vast
majority of us, Christians.

These ideals are now seen as silly dreams of stupid people not relevant to this
world, not useful to this world, not of this world.

But then, I know One Who was also not of this world. And This One, hated by the
world to His death, has prophesied that the time will come when His disciples will
also be hated by the world, because they also are not of this world.

May the Holy Archangels protect us all from the enemies outside, and from the
enemy within. May they remind us the balance that is in Christ the Good News of
His Love goes hand in hand with the Judgement of His Cross. For this reason,
Christs eyes Love and Judge from the beginning of the world to its end.

Happy Feast Day, everyone! -- Parintele Serafim Aldea, 8 noiembrie 2017