Who is Like God?

"Quis ut Deus?" Who is like God? That is the literal meaning of the name "Michael" whose feast day is observed today. Saint Michael has always been a figure of veneration in the Church, and that for a number of reasons. Saint Michael is the guardian angel of the Church, even as he was of Israel which was its prefigurement. That in itself is a worthy reason to offer him a special veneration. But that is not the only reason why the Church should venerate this great archangel. As mentioned above, his very name calls us to order things to the proper end, that is, the service and glory of Almighty God. In face of the rebellion of satan and his cohorts, the reply of Saint Michael in the face of rebellion is instructive. "Who is like God?' That is, what creature can claim the right to withdraw his obedience to the Creator and Lord of all in order to pursue an end outside of the Will of the Almighty? This cry of Saint Michael resounds down to our own day; and in fact, perhaps there has never been such a need to recall the Sovereignty of God over the created order as there is in our own time.

We live in an age where rebellion is a virtue. Even those possessing authority over the Church or the State have become infected with a manner of thinking which is the very antithesis of all authority. Liberty is the conjurer's word that lies at the base of modern thinking. But the questions that must be asked regarding freedom is: freedom from what?  or freedom to do what? The mantra of our age reminds us of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom to elect leaders, freedom to practice religion or not... the list goes on, though the chant of liberty remains the same. But this ill-defined liberty is simply a revolt of the self against all restraint not desired by man. Man decides what law is, what rights are, what being itself is. Yet this is far from any good liberty which is nothing else that the capacity to choose from various good means in order to attain the end for which man was created: that is the love and service of God and eternal happiness with Him. All else is merely the capacity to mistake evil for good and to make self as the end of man. This used to be called "license".

For Catholics, striving to live in an apostate age, the meaning of "Michael" should recall to mind the fact that liberty fits within an order of things. It itself is a created good, endowed by God so that man can choose those good acts that lead to Him. The liberty of man is not, nor can it be an absolute, for man is not an absolute. He is one creature among others, all of which are subject to the Divine order of creation, and for man, of redemption as well.

In the face of the apostate State, seeking to deify itself, the Catholic replies "who is like God"? In the face of the abominations of abortion, gay marriage, secularism, blasphemy, the Catholic repeats "who is like God"? In the face of ecumenism, of religious liberty, of collegiality, the New Mass, the Catholic asks "who is like God"? The answer is simple to this question. There is but one God, and that God, Trinity in Unity, alone is the source of authority and law, and man is His servant and instrument. Man's law takes it's authority from God who endows authorities with the power to enact laws as long as they do not contradict the Divine Law itself. The Catholic refuses any autonomy by which human activities lie outside of the Divine Authority. Christ reigns over all men and over all their activities, for He as God is the source of all authority, and as Redeemer, He has purchased all men by the price of His Precious Blood.

Saint Michael led the Heavenly Host against the powers of rebellion. Catholics may have to decide whether the time has come to say "no more" to those states that have fallen from the kingdom of Christ in order to replace Him with deified man, of man who will serve none but himself. It is a hard choice, but there cannot be be two Gods, two final ends. There can be but one. So we venerate the first champion ofChrist's kingship, of God's royalty, and take of the cry of this great warrior: who is like God?