Doors And Angels

It’s a swirl of activity here as most celebrate Holy Week in one way or another. One special activity during this time is the welcoming of Víctor Sánchez Espinosa as the new bishop to Puebla. To commemorate his appointment the huge doors at the cathedral which remain closed for years at time are opened for the week. Any who pass through these doors, make confession to a priest, and take the wafer of Christ’s body are forgiven of all their past sins.

We on the other hand will take a more low key approach to Resurrection Day. Our Passover was scrubbed due to colds and stomach bugs, but we do plan on meeting with the Church and observing the Lord’s Table. For us that means an opportunity to remember the body of Christ given up to the cross and the shedding of His blood. It also means an opportunity to examine our own lives to make sure we are entering into all the riches He gave us when we were rescued from the empty way of life handed down to us from our forefathers. It’s a time of reflection, but also definitely a time of celebration.

Did you ever consider the events of the cross and resurrection from the perspective of the angels? Randy Alcorn does that in his fiction Deadline. It’s well worth the read and consideration. Here’s a small portion as one of the angels describes it:

“And just when we thought Elyon (a Hebrew name for God) could not surpass this greatest miracle with another, there came the greater one…That little hill, where little men were permitted to do unspeakable things to Elyon’s Son. My comrades and I jammed against the portal, begging permission to break through and strike down the cowards, to unleash the relentless wrath of heaven’s army. We longed to raise our swords as one, to destroy every atom of the dark world. All that was in us thirsted for revenge. We ached to once and for all obliterate that cancer of rebellion against the Most High God.

“Here were these puny men obsessed with the offenses of others against them, while themselves committing the ultimate offense of the universe, driving nails through the flesh of God. We longed to make them eat the dust of the ground and vomit clay. Any one of us could have struck them all down, and we yearned to do it. Millions of us, legion upon legion, crowded forward, from every corner of heaven, pressing and pushing, crying out and begging leave to destroy those who would dare to curse and mock and savage the holy Lamb of God.

“But Michael would not permit us…For Elyon would not permit him…We writhed in agony…We had never thought such pain possible here in the perfect realm. And yet we grew to know- though not completely understand – that all this was necessary to meet the demands of Elyon’s justice and His love. He did not need us to rescue Him. With a single word, with merely a thought He could have unmade all men, destroyed the universe, purged all creation of the ugliness that nailed him to that cross. But He did not. He would not. He did not go there to be rescued. He went there to rescue.”