St. Michael's Lent 2026 - Reading #26 - Lineage
Reading
Light and darkness in Genesis — Augustine reads two societies of angels.
"Wherefore, though light and darkness are to be taken in their literal signification in these passages of Genesis in which it is said, 'God said, Let there be light, and there was light,' and 'God divided the light from the darkness,' yet, for our part, we understand these two societies of angels,--the one enjoying God, the other swelling with pride; the one to whom it is said, 'Praise ye Him, all His angels,' the other whose prince says, 'All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me;' the one blazing with the holy love of God, the other reeking with the unclean lust of self-advancement."
Two loves already stand at the head of two lineages.
And since Scripture says God resists the proud, he draws the contrast further: "And since, as it is written, 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble,' we may say, the one dwelling in the heaven of heavens, the other cast thence, and raging through the lower regions of the air; the one tranquil in the brightness of piety, the other tempest-tossed with beclouding desires; the one, at God's pleasure, tenderly succouring, justly avenging,--the other, set on by its own pride, boiling with the lust of subduing and hurting; the one the minister of God's goodness to the utmost of their good pleasure, the other held in by God's power from doing the harm it would; the former laughing at the latter when it does good unwillingly by its persecutions, the latter envying the former when it gathers in its pilgrims."
Which society claims your line?
Reflection
The fifth week opens on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This is the war St. Michael's Lent is named for, and this week traces its front line down through history — because the two cities of men descend from those two societies of spirits, and every lineage runs back to one of them. Note the recruiting criteria of each side: love of God versus lust of self-advancement. Every ambition you carry enlists somewhere.
But today's feast tells you how the war was won, and it was not by superior force. The dragon who boils with the lust of subduing was thrown down by a Lamb who let Himself be subdued: they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb. Michael's sword serves the Cross, not the other way around.
Hang a crucifix where your family cannot miss it. It is not decor. It is the war memorial of the only victory that matters, and the battle standard of your house.