Sickles and Angels of Death
by Frank Savadera, SJ
In the movies or if I remember the comics strips and magazines which I used to read, there had always been a depiction of an ANGEL OF DEATH ... someone or something that is dark and hooded, that floats in the air and carries that ubiquitous sickle (kalawit). Thus, when you see that dark figure coming, one is immediately given the impression that death is imminent. I’ve been asking: How has a sickle come to be associated with death??? Off hand, we can say simply perhaps because a sickle is a "deadly" instrument. One can get hacked by it. Second, it’s an agricultural implement used in harvesting or cutting. Harvest time has come ... and the hooded dark creature comes to reap the fruits of what he had planted. Apparently, in Jewish tradition – there are 2 angels of death. One who deals with Gentiles and one who deals with Jews. They even have names for them ... one SAMMAEL and the other GABRIEL. While affirming that it is God who decrees death for everyone, the Jews believe that it is the ANGELs of DEATH who are responsible for separating the body from the soul (that may perhaps explain the sickle). This imagery ... all the more heightens our natural fear and anxiety about death, about the end of times, about judgment day, about things that come like a thief in the night.
by Frank Savadera, SJ
In the movies or if I remember the comics strips and magazines which I used to read, there had always been a depiction of an ANGEL OF DEATH ... someone or something that is dark and hooded, that floats in the air and carries that ubiquitous sickle (kalawit). Thus, when you see that dark figure coming, one is immediately given the impression that death is imminent. I’ve been asking: How has a sickle come to be associated with death??? Off hand, we can say simply perhaps because a sickle is a "deadly" instrument. One can get hacked by it. Second, it’s an agricultural implement used in harvesting or cutting. Harvest time has come ... and the hooded dark creature comes to reap the fruits of what he had planted. Apparently, in Jewish tradition – there are 2 angels of death. One who deals with Gentiles and one who deals with Jews. They even have names for them ... one SAMMAEL and the other GABRIEL. While affirming that it is God who decrees death for everyone, the Jews believe that it is the ANGELs of DEATH who are responsible for separating the body from the soul (that may perhaps explain the sickle). This imagery ... all the more heightens our natural fear and anxiety about death, about the end of times, about judgment day, about things that come like a thief in the night.
Thus,
some people would rather not look at the reality of death. Death is nothingness. Death is uncertain. It is thus safer for anyone to simply focus
on the visible and certain ... the many preoccupations of this life ... because
DEATH simply provides no PROMISE ... one can believe. Thus, who cares about the ANGEL of
DEATH? Let us not think about it. Let us not terrify ourselves. Let us not cause unnecessary fear and anxiety
for ourselves. There is this ONE and ONLY life to live.
God provides us a lot of assurances of His presence and
promise even amid the realities of death.
For one ... in the Letter to the Hebrews, we are assured of God’s distinct
attention and care for humankind. Apparently,
God did not save the angels from death (angels can fall down from the heavens like
lightning). But He makes every effort to
save us ... the descendants of Abraham ... from death. Wow!
Aren’t we better than the angels ... in this sense?
And
more ... to show us the way to overcome death ... God shared flesh and blood
with us (as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us) ... he allowed Himself to be
tested in every way, to suffer and experience death ... just so ... just so ...
He may identify with us in our experiences of temptation and death, that He may
understand us and be more merciful to us ... to deliver us from our experiences
of death. Isn’t this why he came? Isn’t this what we see usually note in our many Gospel
stories? Jesus moves about ... visiting
the household of Simon and Andrew ... grasping the hand of Simon’s mother in
law ... curing her and restoring her to health ... exorcising the devil ... the
angel of death from those who had been for years possessed by it.
Friends, let us derive consolation from our Psalms ...
such that despite our many fears and anxieties about how things will end ...
our experiences and anticipation of death and the end of times ... may we trust
in God’s assurance that HE REMEMBERS HIS COVENANT WITH US FOREVER. He saves us from death. He cures us of all the maladies that inflict
us. He exorcises the devil from us. Because it is He who himself said: “It is for this purpose that I have come” ... that is, to preach and to show the way to
a LIFE that overcomes DEATH.
