St. Michael's Open Hand
Last summer, visiting the chapel in the castle at the top of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, I was interrupted by a statue of St. Michael created by Lyn Constable Maxwell, commissioned in 1989.
The Mount was named after the archangel due to its history of apparitions. St. Michael would appear to Cornish fishermen during storms to save them from being dashed on the shoals.
In the iconography of St. Michael, most of the imagery is martial and is pulled from Revelation 12:
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
In light of this text, Michael is often depicted with a foot on Lucifer’s neck and thrusting a sword or spear at him. Some examples:
Basically, you expect to see violent imagery, the archangel as the Spear of God, associated with St. Michael. This is why Lyn Constable Maxwell’s sculpture interrupted me. Here’s a picture I took:
Notice two things. First, Michael isn’t stabbing down with the sword. Instead the sword is held upside down to create a cross. The sword is inverted to become a sign of grace, mercy, pardon, and forgiveness. Second, Michael’s hand is held out and is upturned. Michael is extending an invitation. Of help? Of grace? Of return? It was that open hand which interrupted me.
Grace for the devil. Now that is a provocative idea! In all the debates about hopeful eschatological visions this is an issue that rumbles in the background. The arguments are pretty exclusively focused upon if all of humanity will be saved. The eschatological focus is anthropocentric. Rarely do these discussions tackle the issue of angelic redemption or to ask the verboten question, “Is mercy extended, even to Lucifer?”
And yet, this question about an illicit grace is asked by a statue at the top of St. Michael’s Mount.
That is disrupting! I’ve just recently heard a talk where the speaker was encouraging the listeners to dream about what it will be like for Satan to be cast into hell forever, the freedom from fear and deceit and accusation. I can probably go along with the idea of any human receiving such grace as we all have such limited knowledge of reality. But the devil? I’m not sure he gets that excuse.
My own thinking is that we are to extend grace to humans, regardless of their sinfulness, but with wisdom and caution. Regarding how spiritual beings interact, we are in over our heads. By that I mean if an evil spirit asked you to pray for its salvation, assume its a trap. I know that sounds an impossible scenario, but I've heard of it happening. It was a disaster for all involved.