| IV. Choir | 21 January |
|---|---|
| Beauty of holy creation | Agnes, Meinrad |
The twelve angels of Word and Answer from the choir part of the Lower Dominions carry the essences of God into creation like a rainbow. They are grouped in threes and they carry measure, law and truth into the root of all things; love, fear of God and justice into the structure of all things; wisdom, beauty and harmony into the flower of all things; and virtue, strength and triumph from the fruit of all things to the Throne of the Most High.
He who stands before our eyes today as intercessor is the eighth of the twelve angels of Word and Answer,
Saint Tiphered,
who carries beauty into the flower of all creation. Saint Tiphered stands before us with the symbol of an open seal. The Tabernacle is the blossom on the tree of life of the Church, and the holy angels show us the beauty of this blossom, which is: the hidden God Himself. He has hidden Himself from us under seven covers: from our five senses, even from our sixth sense, for hardly any ordinary mortal can distinguish an unconsecrated host from a consecrated one without help from above or below. And He has hidden Himself from our minds, of which we imagine so much. No one can penetrate and exhaust this mystery of the Incarnation. But in the grace of dark faith we recognise the Beauty of Our Lord as Bread.
This is the centre; from here, the beauty that lies in the unspoilt, in spotlessness, in purity, in love and in sacrifice, radiates over the Holy Church. The beauty of the image of God that we encounter in Mary as a woman, in Our Lord as a child, as a man, in all the beauty, clarity, innocence and greatness that is reflected outwardly in man and bears his physical beauty. It is sanctified in the Incarnation of the Son, in the Virgin and Mother, Mary, and is reflected in the innocence and purity of the pure human being. It is the second flower of beauty. When the Father spoke the “Become!” together with the Son and in the Spirit, Saint Tiphered took up his task of carrying beauty into creation and will only complete it when everything on earth is sealed. We can recognise this third beauty, creation, embedded in the wisdom and goodness of God, every hour, from the snowflake to the spruce tree on the heights and the eagle circling above.
Prayer: Angel of the beauty of all things, Saint Tiphered,
let us praise God with you
for all that He has created,
for He has done everything beautifully. Amen.