Fine Feathered Friends

Learning to walk in the company of the angels

10/02/2017

Matthew 18:1-5, 10 The disciples approached Jesus and said, "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?" He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me. "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father."

             A wonderful way to understand something is by comparing and contrasting it to its opposite. Nowhere is this more true than in the universe of angels, the spiritual world. If you like to visualize angels as having wings with feathers, you might say we’ll contrast our “fine feathered friends” (the angels) against the “fine feathered fiends” (the demons). You’ll recall that the devils are really fallen angels; they were all originally created good.

             A classic book on the catastrophe that befell the angels is John Milton’s Paradise Lost. He explains that God created the angelic hosts before making man and woman, and in the beginning God fashioned angels as beings of immense light and intelligence and power. Then God revealed his further plan to create human beings and additionally that the angels should serve man. For this reason, the brightest and most brilliant of the angels, named Lucifer (meaning light-bearer), said, “Non servium” (I will not serve), and was hurled into hell.

              Satan says: “Farewel happy fields / Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail / Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell / Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings / A mind not to be changed by Place or Time.” Next follows one of the most famous lines in Milton: “The mind is its own place, and in it self / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” A few verses later he explains why hell is preferable: “Here we may reign secure…Better to reign in Hell then serve in Heav’n” (Paradise Lost, Bk. 1, nn. 249-263). In other words, the crux of this angelic calamity was a refusal to serve, a lack of love, and that’s what created those fine feathered fiends.

               The good angels, our fine feathered friends, by contrast, are ready to serve, eager to love. We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Angels have been present since creation…serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham’s hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announce births and callings; assisted the prophets…Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of the Precursor (John the Baptist) and that of Jesus himself” (Catechism, 332). Now, notice in this description how eager the good angels are to serve, not only the Creator but also his creatures, and even lowly human beings. That takes holy humility and loads of love, and that’s the difference between the good angels (our fine feathered friends) and those fallen angels (the fine feathered fiends).

                My friends, who are your friends? Do you believe in angels? Are you like Indian Jones, who scoffed and laughing said: “Oh, Marcus. What are you trying to do scare me? You sound like my mother…I don’t believe in magic, a lot of superstitious hocus pocus” (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”, movie quotation). But I am convinced that every time we choose the path of virtue or choose the road of vice, we walk in the company of angelic friends or angelic fiends. When we choose the cardinal virtues of justice, temperance, courage and prudence and the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, our Guardian Angels guide us. However, when we pick the path of perdition, and embrace the seven capital vices of envy, gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, anger and pride, we accept the company of the fallen angels. But note this well: when we sin through these vices, the fallen angels do not serve us, we serve them. We become slaves to the one who said arrogantly, “Non servium!” “I will not serve!” This is not superstition; this is salvation.

              Folks, be careful of the company you keep. Do you walk with fine feathered friends, or with fine feathered fiends? They would both enjoy your company very much.

Praised be Jesus Christ!