The powers

Some people think it is silly to believe in angels: thinking it to be only the stuff of children stories.

But it is human arrogance to think that we must be the greatest and most powerful creatures in this universe.

Yet even the most powerful of beings at best are but instruments in the hand of God.

One of the Scripture passages available for the first reading on today's Feast of the Archangels (Revelation 12:7-12) gives us a glimpse of the mother of all cosmic battles: a clash of forces never to be equaled.

War broke out in heaven;
Michael and his angels battled against the dragon.
The dragon and its angels fought back,
but they did not prevail
and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
The huge dragon, the ancient serpent,
who is called the Devil and Satan,
who deceived the whole world,
was thrown down to earth,
and its angels were thrown down with it.

But the victory was not Michael's - he was but an instrument of the Lord.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have salvation and power come,
and the Kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed."

The universe can be a scary place: full of unknowns and powers beyond reckoning.

But our God reigns.