| VII. Choir | 19 August |
|---|---|
| Virtue of order in love | John Eudes |
The angels are still standing around the Throne of God wearing the blue ribbon of Mary over their shoulders, just like deacons’ stoles. They are still jubilantly commemorating the Solemn Feast of Mary’s Enthronement—for the first time—as Queen over the millions of holy angels.
But hardly any of these angels standing before God’s Throne bears the features of Mary’s Being as much as this inconspicuous angel of the virtue of order in love, Saint Rachiel.
God created everything in the measure and order of His love. It was the no of His creatures, the non serviam, that brought disorder. From then on, this insufficiency reigns with the fallen angels wherever these enemies of God can gain a foothold.
The insufficiency is the brokenness of man, original sin, the inclination toward evil, the broken and impaired will, the impulse from below. No man is free from it. We all carry this terrible stamp of bondage until the water of Holy Baptism flows over us. Then, through Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Gates of Heaven are opened again… but a weakness remains.
Disorder lurks wherever it can get hold of us… and since love is the greatest thing, the evil one is not idle, sowing his poisonous seeds of disorder precisely there, in love. One is tempted to say that from this disorder sown into love, which causes disorder in love, all temptation to sin, and thus all sin, armed with the rebellious sword of disobedience, has its origin. For disobedience is also reminiscent of a lack of love, since the disobedient man loves himself more than the Lord and thereby renounces obedience.
Saint Rachiel
carries the order of love. He carries Mary’s orderly love as creation’s response to God’s perfect love. Mary’s orderly love, which is clearly above all earthly measures, shows us how our love should be: orderly!
As a symbol, Saint Rachiel carries a radiant circle, a hoop like a halo in his hands. Every point of the circle is equidistant from the centre: from God, the centre of Mary’s whole life. Mary oriented everything in Her life with equanimity toward God: Her thoughts, words, and deeds, all Her glorious virtues, and all Her pain. God is always the centre; this should always be the case with us, never an insufficiency or an excess of love, never weakness or over-exuberance, but order of the highest degree, as exemplified in Mary.
Prayer: Holy Angel of Virtue, Saint Rachiel, who carries order in love, ask God to give us the measure by which we must direct our lives and our love, a measure adapted to our weakness, for we will never be able to reach Mary’s measure. Help us, O Angel, Saint Rachiel, that God may judge us only according to this minimum measure, that we may endure. Amen.