| I. Choir | 6 January |
|---|---|
| Almighty God | Epiphany |
Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord
Both natural and believing men want to see the Lord God as ruler and king over them in order to be able to look up to Him and be guided by Him. That is why the righteous of the Old Covenant, who were waiting for the Saviour, always saw the Messiah as King and expected Him to establish an earthly kingdom. That is why the disappointment among the followers of Jesus was like a catastrophe when they saw their hope for this earthly kingdom destroyed with the bitter death of Christ on the cross.
But didn’t the Lord say:
“My kingdom is not of this world!”?
It was only through the light of the Holy Ghost that the disciples, and after them the whole Holy Church as a community of believers, came to know the true Kingdom of Christ, that knowledge which Mary of Bethlehem had when the colorful procession from the East stopped in front of the lowly stable and, kneeling, offered the most glorious treasures of Asia to Her Child, wrapped in such poor, cheap cloth. These men from afar were not offended by the outward poverty and ordinariness, for the grace of the Holy Ghost was already working in them and the angels of God led them safely from afar to Jesus, the King of heaven and earth.
Oh, when the eyes of eternity will be opened to us that we may understand from the angels who and how great the Lord our God is!
The good guardian angel holds his hands before our eyes when we turn our gaze to the Throne of God today, so that we do not fall down blinded. Before the Throne of God, a Seraph is keeping watch today: so great, so powerful, and so luminous that he almost bursts our hearts. How ridiculously we portray the seraphim as many-winged angel heads—and how majestic, incomprehensible and inscrutable they are in reality, beings that can no longer be pressed into any human form and yet are personalities equal to the most powerful rulers. When God lets us see them, many times veiled, in the image of jubilant flames circling around themselves and around God with infinite rapidity, like suns, always three together, with eyes inside and outside and wings inside and outside, who can imagine this as the highest bliss of a creature?
That seraph who praises and serves God today before the Throne of God as a special intercessor of mankind is assigned to the Son, Jesus Christ. Today the Holy Church formally celebrates the birthday of the recognition of Christ the King by the world.
Saint Jahwe
is the name of the Seraph, “Almighty God.” His light shines throughout time and space on the way of Christ the King. His two brothers, the Seraph of the Father, Saint Elchim, the “Victor,” and the Seraph of the Spirit, Saint Adonai Zebaoth, “Lord and King,” give him the royal escort. Notwithstanding all the glory and majesty, however, the way is called: Love… the glowing and victorious love of God! The seraphim spread their wings like carpets under the royal love descending from the Throne of God. By them we can recognize Who is coming: the Lord of Creation, the Lord of Humanity, the Lord of Angels. When the angel Saint Jahwe looks to his brother Saint Adonai, we see the distance coming near for the King’s Eye to rest upon. And when Saint Jahwe looks to his brother Saint Elchim, we see the deep growing high, so that the foot of the Victor may pass over it. But if we look at Saint Jahwe himself, we see into the realm of beatitude, the heaven of all love of the Royal Heart of Jesus, Which holds the Heart of Mary within Itself, like a jewel, in whose Maternal Heart we are all enclosed!
Prayer: Lord, only through Thine angels can we grasp how great and how glorious Thou art. With them and at the feet of our Queen Mary we want to adore Thy majesty and Thy love, but most of all Thy mercy that dost not reject us! Amen.