He promised that he would be there so that she would not have to die alone. The hospital called that her time was closer while the priest was visiting another ill parishioner. He finished up as fast as he could, and unfortunately ran into traffic, and too many lights turning red instead of staying green. And although he pushed the speed limit, when the priest arrived at the nursing station and asked for the name of the woman, the nurse informed him that he was too late, she had already passed.

He felt horrible because he promised her that she would not die alone. As he was mulling over the unfortunate timing, the nurse continued. “An interesting thing happened. An orderly came in with another patient, and I had no order for her to be in this room. This woman looked at your friend and asked if she could have her bed closer to hers, then reached out her hand. They held hands while the orderly and I left to check into the matter. When we returned, your friend was dead. The orderly then moved her bed out. The funny thing is that I have been checking since they left and found no record of this orderly or his patient being in the hospital.”

She did not die alone after all. Was this a visit from two angels?

Today we celebrate the feast of the archangels, Michael, Gabriel, and Rafael. Angels are eternal, spiritual beings. They are not human but can take on human form in their appearance. Also, when we die, we do not become angels. We are human beings, and as such we are human and spiritual.

One of the possible reasons for Satan, who is an archangel, and the other angels, now called demons, rebelled against God was because in our participation in the life of Christ, we become higher than the angels. That was too much for them to take and so choosing their pride over God, they rebelled.

Jesus as fully God and fully man is infinite and eternal as Son, while at the same time finite as human. In Jesus coming close to be one with us in our humanity, we can become one with him in his divinity. Like the angels God has given us the reason and freedom to choose. We can choose to grasp at divinity on our own terms through our pride or we can receive the gift of God’s love, the very presence of his Son in whom we can become one with.

The wonderful reality we can ponder today is that in God’s order of creation, we all have a significant part to play and we are all interconnected: God, angels, humans, and creation. We also can enter into the day with the affirmation that we belong to an incredibly extended family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the angels, and the saints. We can be at rest, no matter what challenges we are going through, in knowing that we are not alone, we are loved, and that many in heaven and on earth are not only cheering us on but also willing to help us on our journey.

Photo: Angels bowing before the Body of Christ in the tabernacle, St. Peter Catholic Church, Jupiter, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, September 29, 2023