“War broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.” Revelation 12: 7-8
How does the Omnipotent act when the first war ever breaks out. He acts through his good and faithful creatures. Good, because they remain in God, the absolute good and perfection of love. Faithful, because they did not allow even a vapor of pride to corrupt their thinking, understanding of the truth or their relationship with their Creator. It is always a supreme insult to bite the hand that feeds you.
God, being perfectly just, said his “Enough!” and removed from Heaven this first appearance of evil through the justice of his faithful angels. Because the unfaithful had corrupted or essentially changed their spirits, there literally was no place for them in Heaven. Just as water and oil don’t mix, their spiritual beings no longer conformed to the characteristics required for integration within the heavenly realm.
But losing their place in Heaven also was determined by those who stood firm and did not succumb to rebellion and ingratitude toward God. By standing up for God and against those against-God, they proved by contrast and differentiation the true color of the unfaithful’s defection and confirmed their ejection. It was in the standing firm that the fight was enjoined. Without a fight, all would have been corrupted.
So, here we find God’s first sifting of his creatures in the angels. Did God know the outcome in advance. He knew. But it still had to run its course as a lesson to all.
God – the Eternal Being without beginning or end, the Original One and Origin of all – let’s us all decide whether we will be with Him or against Him. To be with Him and in Him is to be one with the perfection of being – the one and only source of all being, the one true mode of being from eternity. Once he tests us and finds us worthy of all He wants to lavish on us, He rewards us in a way we cannot imagine.
Heaven can only contain the just and the pure. And whatever we personally lack of either, we make up for and take care of in Purgatory. If we let faithfulness, obedience to God’s commands and gratitude predominate in our lives, God will help us through our lapses. And no one is without their lapses. But we must have the will to take up the fight again and continue our efforts to seek the truth and live a just life.