Day: September 30, 2015

Sermons

Meditation for Michaelmas


“Michael and his angels fought against the dragon”

“There was war in heaven,” John tells us in the lesson from The Book of the Revelation of St. John the Divine. While it might seem to be at the opposite end of the biblical spectrum this reading from the very last book of the Bible complements the opening chapters of the very first book of the Bible, The Book of Genesis. Angels are very much a feature of creation.

Angels cannot be seen. They can only be thought. In a way, that is the whole point. They are pure, intellectual and spiritual beings. Creation is not just about the visible world; it includes things unseen and invisible. Light is distinguished from the dark before there is even a sun and a moon. There is the whole idea of the invisible reasons for the visible things of the world. Angels are an important part of the theological reflection upon Genesis.

They are an inescapable feature of the biblical landscape for Jews, Christians and Muslims. For Muslims belief in Angels is a fundamental part of the Islamic faith. For Jews and Christians, they are associated with the invisible things of creation.

Angels help us to think about our humanity and our place in the world. They are an important reminder to us of our being as spiritual creatures, creatures who think and love, activities which are invisible yet real. In the theological tradition, angels are pure intellectual and spiritual beings; like us except they are incorporeal. They are, we might suggest in ways that connect to Plato and Aristotle and their successors, the thoughts of God in creation. So they remind us of an aspect of our being as spiritual beings.

They remind us that we are not alone. We are at once attracted to and fearful of the idea that we are cosmic orphans adrift in an indifferent universe. The angels remind us of a great and innumerable company of spiritual and intellectual beings of which we are a part.

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Prayers and liturgy

Jerome, Doctor and Priest

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Jerome (c. 342-420), Priest, Monk, Translator of the Scriptures, Doctor of the Church (source):

O Lord, thou God of truth, whose Word is a lantern to our feet and a light upon our path: We give thee thanks for thy servant Jerome, and those who, following in his steps, have labored to render the Holy Scriptures in the language of the people; and we beseech thee that thy Holy Spirit may overshadow us as we read the written Word, and that Christ, the living Word, may transform us according to thy righteous will; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 3:14-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 24:44-48

Manetti, St. Jerome Supported by Two AngelsOne of the most scholarly and learned early church fathers, St. Jerome devoted much of his life to accurately translating the Holy Bible from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek into Latin.

Born near Aquileia, northeast Italy, of Christian parents, Jerome travelled widely. He received a classical education at Rome and travelled to Gaul where he became a monk. He later moved to Palestine, spending five years as an ascetic in the Syrian desert. In 374, he was ordained a priest in Antioch. He then pursued biblical studies at Constantinople under Gregory Nazianzus and translated works by Eusebius, Origen, and others.

Travelling to Rome in 382, Jerome became secretary to the aged Pope Damasus. By the time the pope died three years later, Jerome had become involved in theological controversies in which he antagonised many church leaders and theologians. He left Rome under a cloud, returning to Palestine where he lived as a monk in Bethlehem for the rest of his life.

Over several decades, Jerome wrote biblical commentaries and works promoting monasticism and asceticism. Most importantly, he produced fresh Latin translations of most of the Old and New Testaments, based on the original biblical languages. This work formed the basis of the Vulgate, which remained the standard Scriptural text of the western church for over a millennium.

Artwork: Rutilio Manetti, Saint Jerome Supported by Two Angels, 1628. Oil on canvas, Fondazione Monte dei Paschi, Siena.

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