| VI. Choir | 3 January |
|---|---|
| Angel of clarity | |
Two high princes stand together as if they were inseparable. They carry a sheaf and a fishing net as a sign that they are going out to harvest. One of them is Saint Asmodel, the angel of clarity and of childhood in God; the other is Saint Barachiel, the angel of valour and heroism.
Saint Asmodel
is set before us by God on this day, and it is well necessary to hear of clarity and of devotion to God.
We only need to take look at the symbolism of this angel and to note his position in the celestial hierarchy to understand what is expected of us.
Saint Asmodel is a prince, an administrator of a great distant heavenly body, (for everything is under God’s protection in creation), but he is also our helper appointed by God. With one hand he holds the rope of a fishing net, which is still partly sunken in the waves of a body of water, and partly held and lifted by hundreds of angels. In the other—in the hand raised before his face—he holds a transparent shell, completely filled with water… and the light of his eyes and the light from above, from the Eyes of God, refracts and reflects in this water and makes it shine.
This sea, from which the fishing net is lifted anew by the angels, again and again, day after day: this is our life. These are the vibrations, the up-swellings of longing for God, and the sinkings into the dark, like waves. The fish: these are our deeds; the angels are already sorting the good from the bad. The water in the shell is our tears of repentance; the shell is a symbol for our eyes. Through the tears of repentance, in which God’s Face and the faces of the angels can be clearly reflected, we attain not only clear sight of God, but also that filiation which can win back the worst sinners.
This filiation is a surrender to God through the blood and the water. The surrender to God through the blood is the surrender of the whole man through dying, through dying completely to God every day. The water is the tears of repentance.
The great angel, Saint Asmodel, who belongs to the sixth choir of the princes, has the third choir of the thrones above him. In fact he receives the stream of life through Saint Malachim, that throne of God in creation, who carries both the cradle and the cross, the becoming and passing away. Between the cradle and the cross Saint Asmodel embeds the life of man; thus it is enclosed in Jesus’ life on earth.
Prayer: Prince of clear-sightedness through the tears of repentance, Saint Asmodel, first melt the ice of our indifference and coldness of heart, that we may ask for the grace of the tears of repentance: the key to the Heart of Our Lord. Amen.