"Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a reviling judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you'" (Jude 1:9).
An assembly of earthly warriors, gathered with their chief commander and appearing in ordered ranks and solemn array, presents to us either war itself, or at least a military exercise by which soldiers are trained for war.
The sight of war should stir men to deeds for the safety of the fatherland. The spectacle of military exercise should show examples to those who wish to serve as soldiers and nourish the hope of the fatherland.
If this is not so, the spectators are frivolous, and the spectacle is useless.
Today the Church has called us to behold the assembly of the heavenly host with its commander. What shall we see, and what consequence should this vision have for us?
We must ask this if we do not wish to be frivolous spectators, and if the spectacle is not to remain useless for us.
Shall we see some heavenly war? We shall, if we look with the eyes of John, the seer of heaven. Look at what he sees.
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. And they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him" (Rev 12:7-9).
Let us not be curious. Let us not dare to enter into a detailed investigation of what mysterious war the seer of mysteries beholds and shows us.
But let us be cautious. Let us think of our own safety.
It is dangerous when war is nearby. The heavenly realm, in which we see the battle, borders upon the realm of those born on earth.
It is more dangerous when the enemy did not hesitate to attack a realm stronger than ours. He dared to raise war even against heaven, which is certainly more unapproachable and more powerful than earth.
It is still more dangerous when war is already within our borders. The heavenly battle is indeed continued by the enemy cast down from heaven within our earthly borders.
True, he was cast down to us already defeated in heaven. But that is joy only for heaven. For the earth it is a new terror, as the heavenly voice announces to the seer of mysteries.
"Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to those who dwell on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, knowing that he has little time" (Rev 12:12).
The war lost in the higher realm turned ancient enmity into wrath. The swift course of the judgments being accomplished upon earth threatens him with a new casting down into the abyss.
This brings his wrath to the final degree of frenzy. "The devil has come down, having great wrath, knowing that he has little time."
Look around, you who dwell on the earth and the sea. Do you not already perceive this wrath in its very action around you?
Do you not notice how the enemy has so often brought infernal warfare into the heavenly realm of the Church?
He did this with the weapons of heresies and schisms, false teachings and scandals, superstitions and ignorance.
So often he was repelled by the Angels of the Churches and by the company of those who believe rightly and firmly.
He could not shake "the firm foundation of God," which until now "stands" unshaken, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are His," and "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness" (2 Tim 2:19).
Do you not see how that enemy came down to earth and rushed to disturb and destroy earthly societies?
He does this with varied weapons: unbelief, false philosophy, forgetfulness of the soul and of the life to come, unbridled luxury, untamed self-will, perjured plots, desperate audacity, lawlessness, and evil deeds.
Pagan commonwealths themselves would have been ashamed and horrified at these things.
And what terrible successes he has gained in a little time! If you do not have enough attention to perceive the growing "increase of lawlessness" (Mt 24:12), consider at least one thing.
People who have known the world only for a few days, so as not to trouble themselves to become better than it now is, gladly assure themselves and one another that it has always been so.
Can you fail to notice even that one thing which should strike even the inattentive?
Can you fail to perceive how clearly before our eyes a crime has been accomplished which, within Christianity, one could scarcely have imagined possible?
I mean the second crucifixion of our Lord in the very midst of Christianity.
For a people called Christian did exactly with His faith what the Jewish people did with His person.
By a public and solemn judgment they condemned it, betrayed it, rejected it, mocked it, and would have destroyed it, if by its eternal nature it were not bound to rise from death itself.
Truly, "Woe to those who dwell on the earth and the sea! The devil has come down!"
Therefore, "Take heed how carefully you walk. Be sober, be watchful, for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (Eph 5:15; 1 Pet 5:8).
Yet, lest the contemplation of this dangerous battle frighten you more than is fitting on a day when we celebrate and rejoice in our heavenly and earthly defenders against visible and invisible enemies, let us turn our eyes to a less dreadful spectacle.
It too is instructive in its own way. It will show us not war itself, but a certain exercise in warfare; not a battle, but a duel; not the enemy's rage, but the victor's skill.
"Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a reviling judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'"
"Did not dare!" How is this? Michael does not dare? The commander of the heavenly powers does not dare?
He does not dare "when contending with the devil"? He does not even dare to utter a threatening word against the devil?
Where then is the authority of the commander? Where is the courage of him who, before the eyes of the seer of mysteries, was once to gain the decisive victory over the devil?
This is indeed strange and incomprehensible to people unskilled in spiritual warfare, or still led by the audacity of the flesh.
Let them learn from Michael the Archangel, both in struggles against the devil and in dealings with offensive or disobedient people.
Let them learn to conquer rage, not by stronger rage, but by perfect meekness; pride by humility; audacity by modesty; injustice by magnanimous patience.
In a word, let them learn to "overcome evil with good" (Rom 12:21).
"Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil, disputed." What a distance lies between those who dispute here!
On one side stands Michael the Archangel, pure, pleasing and beloved to God. He is not a simple Angel, but an Archangel, that is, one who rules over many Angels.
Moreover, he is not from among those Archangels who rule the order of Angels nearest to men, the lowest of the nine ranks of the heavenly hierarchy.
He is one of the seven supreme Angels who stand above all the heavenly ranks and directly before the throne of the Tri-hypostatic Godhead.
On the other side is the devil, an unclean spirit who angered God by sin and was condemned, though the sentence of this judgment has not yet been proclaimed throughout the whole kingdom of God or executed in its full force.
If we imagine one of a king's foremost friends and one of the lowest servants, convicted of a crime and condemned, the difference between them is still small.
It is small in comparison with the difference between Michael the Archangel and the devil.
How much would a nobleman allow a condemned criminal in his presence? Yet Michael the Archangel allows the devil to dispute with him.
When the narrator of this dispute notes that Michael "did not bring a reviling judgment," this lets us understand that the devil even uttered a reviling judgment.
And Michael? He did not dare to answer the fool according to his folly.
People who assume lofty titles should look upon this angelic dispute, though their titles are still no higher than earthly.
They should remember how they sometimes deal with people whom they consider beneath themselves.
How often, even without fault and without dispute, they humiliate those like themselves with insulting and reviling names.
They distort and deform the names of saints, with which the Church adorns each of us at our very birth or Baptism.
They do this in order to graft contempt onto these names, and so onto their brothers in Christ.
"What is he worth?" So thinks the rich man of the poor man, though the rich man can value and buy many human bodies, yet does not know the value of a Christian soul.
What is he worth? He is worth exactly as much as you and I.
He has truly been bought for a price higher than anything on earth or in heaven. He has been bought by the blood of the Son of God.
The one who, disregarding public order, pronounces an audacious or reviling judgment upon those above him reveals a rebellious devilish quality.
In the Apostle's words, such a one "rejects authority and reviles glories" and "does not tremble" (Jude 1:8).
Yet neither is the man inspired by an angelic or Christian spirit who nourishes pride within himself, or shows contempt for those beneath him in deed or word.
Let us turn again to Michael and listen as far as we can to what his dispute with the devil concerns.
"Contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses." The narrator does not explain exactly what the dispute about the body of Moses consisted in.
It is difficult to supplement this brevity with a satisfactory conjecture.
One Orthodox interpreter of Holy Scripture writes: "They say that Michael the Archangel served at the burial of Moses, and the devil opposed him, bringing an accusation concerning the killing of the Egyptian. He claimed that Moses was guilty in this matter and therefore unworthy of honorable burial."
If someone asks what advantage the devil would gain by contesting the burial of Moses, let him remember how often malice raves in its stubbornness.
Moreover, if the enemy had managed to show the Hebrews the body of their former wonder-working leader cast down, or even mutilated and torn by wild beasts, this could have plunged them into extreme despondency.
It could also have harmed their faith and welfare.
However anyone may reason about the subject of this dispute, no one will doubt that perfect right was on Michael's side, and perfect injustice on the side of his opponent.
Nevertheless, the devil disputes, and Michael the Archangel does not dare.
We also have guardian Angels who, without doubt, contend and battle many times with the devil for us, to preserve us not according to our worth, but according to their heavenly love for mankind.
Do we imitate, in our earthly disputes, the patience and meekness of our heavenly defenders?
Do we endure even when we are completely certain of the injustice of those who dispute with us? Do we preserve meekness even before open insolence?
Do we not often, on the contrary, dispute with stubbornness and bitterness over things whose justice we ourselves are not sure of?
Do we not even seek through judgment and lawsuits what we have no lawful right to possess?
Do some not strive by evil and cunning inventions to prolong lawsuits without end and to turn the very sanctuary of justice into dens of plunder and robbery?
According to the Apostle's reasoning, this alone is shameful for Christians, that they have lawsuits at all, even if these were entirely just.
"It is already a complete shame for you that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be deprived?" (1 Cor 6:7).
What would you say, righteous reprover, if you looked upon Christians of the present day?
You would see that many of them have not only failed to learn to be wronged and deprived, that is, patiently to endure injuries and the taking of property.
THEOSIS