The Imperative ~ Feast of Sts. Michael, Raphael and Gabriel

By Lucy Strohl OPA ~ September 29, 2008

Reading:  John1:47-50

Conditions were so bad on the outside--near the Polish town of Kraków that Zev was smuggled INTO a concentration camp at the age of eight by his mother--because most children under 13 years were automatically killed. He learned to be silent and invisible since he was in the camp illegally.  Survival was absolutely the name of the game Zev Kedem played during World War II.  I was privileged to hear his story a couple of weeks ago when he spoke here in town.  As I read the scriptures and thought about this feast of the archangels, Zev's remarks came to mind.  He had to be surrounded by angels to survive the horrors he witnessed and endured.

During this time Oskar Schindler chose to create a safe haven for 800 men and 300 women--under the guise of using the Jews in a factory for making artillery shells.  If Schindler had been a particularly moral man, the Nazis would never have bought his scheme, Kedem told us.  No one, least of all, Schindler's Jews, doubts that what he did was an unqualified good. But no one is quite sure why he did it.  His Catholic upbringing is no explanation. He was an opportunist, a gambler, a drinker, and a faithless husband.  It was precisely the fact that he was the last man anyone would suspect of heroism that allowed him to get away with it. Somewhere in the depths of his own morally complicated character Schindler waged his own war, saving lives. The mystery of Schindler is a reminder of the audacity that distinguishes genuine heroism from merely conventional virtue, goodness or even piety. Schindler survived the postwar chaos but he was totally impoverished by his wartime enterprise. As his story became more widely known he was inducted into the list of the "Righteous Gentiles" in Israel.  When he died in 1974, he was buried as requested, in Jerusalem.  He was no angel, but certainly he was a witness for our times, author Robert Ellsberg explains.

Our speaker talked about Schindler and described watching people deteriorate from human to animals, to vegetables before his eyes.  Yet his message was one of hope. "I'm inclined to look for the better side of human beings," Mr. Kedem stated.  Zev's often disturbing comments reminded me that I can frequently be looking for only comfort, consolation or some kind of confirmation of my own ideas in the scriptures or my circumstances. I had to ask myself whether I ever seek out unlikely angels or witnesses in the scriptures and among us?

Before we meet Nathaniel in today's gospel he was labeled as contemptuous.  His friend Philip told him he believed he had discovered the long promised Messiah in Jesus.  Nathaniel reacted by declaring that Nazareth was not the kind of place from which anything good was likely to materialize.  Philip was wise; he simply said: "Come and see". So Nathaniel comes.It is not so much that Jesus saw him under the fig tree that surprised Nathaniel; it was the fact that Jesus had read the thoughts of his heart.  Still, Jesus wants to know from Nathaniel: what's the basis of your faith in me?  What is our honest answer, in these challenging times?  Do we seek companions who energize and keep us questioning and stretching beyond our comfort zones? Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are surely companions we can call on for our journey.They are certainly not the polished, harp-playing angels often depicted in art and cinema.  Michael appears in Daniel's vision defending Israel against its enemies.Gabriel's best-known encounter is with the young Jewish girl named Mary, who consents to bear the Messiah.  And in the Old Testament Raphael guides Tobit’s son through a series of fantastic adventures, ending in healing and restoration. Those we celebrate today are fighters of evil, vision and message-bearers who dynamically alter quiet lives.

I cannot help but think that many unnamed angels were with the Holocaust survivor about whom I told you. After being liberated at age11, Kedem was sent to a British orphanage, studied at Oxford and earned a degree in engineering. He lives in Jerusalem and travels the world telling his story.His thoughtful eyes and halting words spoke volumes."Today, I really speak about the imperative of love. Develop the habit of loving God, he urged. This is what energizes me," he reiterated. May we be open to the gospel message that calls us beyond comfort and convenience. May we be energized by Love at this table.We are empowered and surrounded by God's Spirit and God's angels. May our quiet lives, too, be disturbed in a new way today, by the imperative of Love.