| Choir I | 1 June |
|---|---|
| He comes as Saviour | St Angela |
“The light came into the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.” This word characterises the essence of this angel who stands in the midst of the twenty-one Seraphim, the highest angels, the clearest created reflection of the Triune God. This one Seraph, who himself lies like a luminous veil around the Name of his Lord and God, will not be comprehended by the darkness, by mankind, until the end of time. And yet on one day of the year he stands before the Throne of God as an intercessor for this darkness, difficult to describe.
Every day until the end of time, through his being before the Eyes of God, he is the reminder for the Father of His Word, which the Angel Saint Gabriel once delivered to Mary: “And thou shalt give Him the name Jesus.” We are all far too much darkness to be able to truly comprehend this moment, when the Father lifted up the mystery of the Triune God with this word and offered Himself and His Son and the Holy Ghost to Mary as a gift to establish the Death of His Son as man. The highest pinnacle of the human race, Mary, touched in Jesus the Triune God; the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
Jesus, the Saviour, has come, and the darkness has not comprehended Him. He was crucified, died and was buried, rose again and returned to Heaven to His Throne of old. Since then He has stood before the Father for us, showing His Wounds and His Pierced Heart a million times. Since then He descends a million times at every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and becomes Flesh and Blood and offers Himself for us, darkness that we are, who will not comprehend Him. He pours out His Blood—one does not know how often and for whom.
All this transposed into the creaturely mirror is the angel standing there in the midst of the Seraphim, of whom one cannot say, “Is it he? Is it Thou?” He, too, pours himself out, one knows not whither, for his path of light has no visible end. There is no angel directly below him but only the Angel of Repentance (Saint Baranael) deep down on earth. Mary is completely immersed in his cone of light. The cone of light surrounds Her threefold like a gloriole, for it is of the Father, of the Son and of the Spirit. The word of God, “I Am,” as the essence of the Triune God always lies in this seraphic form, like the “I come!” as the answer of mankind. Between these two words, the Heart of the Redeemer bends towards the Heart of His Mother. Here they touch. That is why this Seraph whose Queen is Mary, whose Lord is our Lord Jesus, stands today, at the beginning of the month of the Sacred Heart.
Prayer: Holy, Strong, Immortal God, Thou Who didst descend into darkness, let us, through Thine angel, Saint Jesu, Thy mother, whom Thou Thyself hast given us as mother, be lifted up to the Heart of the Queen of Heaven, to be placed thence by Her Hands in Thy Divine Heart, O Jesus, O Thou our Saviour. Come, O Lord, come! Amen.
Translator’s note: The German sets “Thine angel” and “Thy mother” side by side without “and”, so that the angel shares in the motherly role while Mary remains the Queen of Heaven to whom he lifts us.