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| Like Jacob |
In the Book of Daniel we discover the battle between the Beasts, representing occupying foreign empires, and the people of Israel.
* [7:9–10] A vision of the heavenly throne of God (the Ancient of Days), who sits in judgment over the nations. Some of the details of the vision, depicting the divine majesty and omnipotence, are to be found in Ezekiel 1. Others are paralleled in 1 Enoch, a contemporary Jewish apocalypse.The first chapter of the Gospel of John ends with the calling of the disciples and the connecting by Jesus of Nathaniel to Jacob’s vision of a ladder to heaven.
* [1:47] A true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him: Jacob was the first to bear the name “Israel” (Gn 32:29), but Jacob was a man of duplicity (Gn 27:35–36).Eileen Wirth notes Catholics believe that angels are pure spirits.
It’s interesting that the first prayer that many mothers teach their children is the “Angel of God.” Like countless others, I said it every night when my mom put me to bed. Is it possible that our moms were our real guardian angels? They also were the messengers who first taught us about God. If you had an angelic mom as I do (she’s 95), I hope this makes you smile.Don Schwager quotes “The Lord of Angels”, by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).
And remember that even if angels are pure spirits, we can emulate them in fighting for good and in being messengers of God’s love to others
"Do you see how he [Jesus] leads him [Nathanael] up little by little from the earth and causes him no longer to imagine him as merely a man? For one to whom angels minister and on whom angels ascend and descend, how could he be a man? This is why he said, 'You shall see greater things than these.' And to prove this, he introduces the ministry of angels. What he means is something like this: Does this, O Nathanael, seem to you a great matter, and have you for this confessed me to be King of Israel? What then will you say when you see 'angels ascending and descending on me'? He persuades him by these words to receive him as Lord also of the angels. For on him as on the king's own son, the royal ministers ascended and descended, once at the season of the crucifixion, again at the time of the resurrection and the ascension, and before this also, when they 'came and ministered to him' (Matthew 4:11). They also ascended and descended when they proclaimed the good news of his birth and cried, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace' (Luke 2:14), when they came to Mary and also when they came to Joseph... Our Lord made the present a proof of the future. After the powers he had already shown, Nathanael would readily believe that much more would follow." (excerpt from the Homilies On the Gospel of John 21.1)The Word Among Us Meditation on John 1:47-51 comments that our view of the future is often colored by what we are experiencing in the present.
So follow Nathanael’s lead and make your own declaration of faith. Every day, repeat to yourself, “God has known me before I was born. He loves me more than anyone else could. He longs to spend eternity with me.”Friar Jude Winkler, OFM conv, informs us that in Jewish tradition There are seven, the perfect number, of archangels who bear in their name “el” the title for God. The messenger, warrior, and healer are represented in the Archangels. Friar Jude connects the calling of Nathaniel in the Gospel to angels in the Hebrew Testament.
Over time, as you internalize these truths, your perspective on the future will change. You’ll begin to look forward to that day in heaven when you finally see Jesus face-to-face. Can you imagine standing before the throne of God, with his angels and archangels “ascending and descending,” just as Jesus promised (John 1:51)?
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, reminds us that the unifying theme in [Judaism, Christianity, and Islam] is that God loves us unconditionally. . . . A hadith [saying] of the Prophet Muhammad expresses the unconditional love of God: Allah says, “Take one step towards me, I will take ten steps towards you. Walk towards me, I will run towards you” (Hadith Qudsi).
The great Sufi teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan [1882–1927] placed special emphasis on the sacred phrase Ishq Allah Ma’bud Allah, which he translated as “God is Love, Lover, and Beloved.” [1] In Love, Human and Divine, Inayat Khan writes, “The Sufis say that the reason of the whole creation is that the perfect Being wished to know Himself, and did so by awakening the love of His nature and creating out of it His object of love, which is beauty.”. . .Angels who are the messengers of God and our assistance in the battle against evil have played an important role in interaction between God and humanity in salvation history and in our personal journey. Our recognition of these spirits contributes to the awe we encounter as we discover God calling us closer.
References
(n.d.). Daniel chapter 7 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved September 29, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/daniel/7
(n.d.). II. The Book of Signs. Retrieved September 29, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/john1.htm
(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved September 29, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved September 29, 2018, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(n.d.). Meditations - The Word Among Us. Retrieved September 29, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/
(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved September 29, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/
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