Today we celebrate the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. His name in Hebrew means, "Who is like God?" He is portrayed in Scripture as the leader of the angelic army who will conquer Satan and his armies of demons. He is considered to be the defender of the Church.

The reading from the Book of Revelation tells us of the great battle in Heaven where evil is confronted by good. Michael leads the forces of goodness and truth in the struggle against spiritual forces of evil. It is part of the same struggle that began when God breathed life into humankind. God gave us the ability to choose good and evil. Angels were also given a choice. Just as humans were expelled from Eden, so angels who opted for evil were expelled from Heaven.

You may find it troublesome when that shadow falls across the concept of angels. They can fall. They can taste pride, hatred, enmity. They can know conflict. That story of the fallen angels is recounted by Milton in Paradise Lost. At Coventry Cathedral in England there is a magnificent sculpture of the Archangel Michael with Satan beneath his feet. If you look at both faces they are the same. Both show power and strength. You get the sense that while Satan is subdued, he is certainly not vanquished. The struggle is far from over.

That is certainly not the popular picture of angels. It is the whole concept of angelic beings carrying messages of God's love that has captured the hearts of people. Even the most secularized people seem to relate to angels. There are stores devoted to angel memorabilia. Countless sites on the Internet recount stories of encounters with angels, of people protected from great danger, of people guided to do the right thing. We watch heart-warming programs like Touched by an Angel with its message, ‘God loves you. God will be with you.’ Art galleries are full of imaginative depictions of angelic beings. What Christmas tree would be complete without a lovely winged angel on the top?

There are many views about the existence of angels among Christians. In the creed we affirm our faith in "God who has created all things "seen and unseen". We don't simply dismiss what we cannot see as non-existent. What we cannot see we use our imagination to embody. So we have come to symbolize angelic messengers from God as winged beings that appear in white clothing and glowing bodies. We personalize and make like us what we can only imagine. It reflects our desire to be close to God, to be caught up into the presence of God. It is a universal hunger for something to bridge the gap between us and God. It is that hunger that expresses itself through our worship and in the rites that we undertake.

Are they real? Do you believe in them? Herbert O'Driscoll, a priest in the Canadian church and a gifted preacher says, "I believe that the question, 'Are angels real?' is the wrong question. If we ask, 'What realities are being expressed in the Bible when it tells us of angels? I believe we are asking the right question."

There are numerous Biblical accounts of visits from angels. They are not limited to the Christmas story or to the New Testament. Judaism affirmed a belief in one God, but also had a tradition of angels. They usually carried a message. Claud Westermann in his book God's Angels Need No wings points out that "quite often their message is, 'You are going to have a baby' and comments that may make some of us want to reconsider whether we really want angels around us. Angels could also be mediators or protectors as we learn from the story of the Archangel Michael.

Angels often appeared in dreams. In the Old Testament reading for today, Jacob encountered angels in his dream. He had tricked his brother Esau into selling him the birthright. His father and mother sent him off to his uncle’s home to escape his brother’s anger. He is on the run. Furthermore he knows that what he has done is wrong. He goes to sleep out in the wilderness, a stone for a pillow. There he dreams about a ladder set up on the earth. The top of it reaches to Heaven. Angels are ascending and descending on it. It is God’s reminder of the promise that has been made to him. "Surely the Lord is in this place," Jacob says. The dream with its angelic message gives Jacob a wonderful sense of the presence of God. It tells us of the kind of relationship that Jacob enjoyed with God. It expresses to us the kind of relationship that we too have with God.

As a young person I went through a very troubling time in my life. I needed to make a decision that was very difficult for me. I needed to leave an abusive situation, but I felt as if everything that had happened was my own fault. I thought that I was not being faithful to what God wanted of me and that was why things had gone so wrong. It depressed me so much that I didn’t think I could go on living. I received a message from God. I can’t express in words how the message came, just that it changed my whole perception. The message was "You are making the right decision. You love God. God loves you. God will be with you through all of this." There were no wings or halos. The room didn’t light up with a gentle glow. But there is no doubt in my mind that God sent an angel that day to guide me.