We sing tomorrow in the introit, Adore God, all you his angels. Sion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced. If I am not mistaken, last year when we spoke about this introit, we understood it, the idea that the choir of angels adore God in heaven, the angels who belong to God's court, who are the immediate and the first manifestation of his glory because their will is on complete identity of being with that of God. And then on earth, The choir of angels is answered by that sign of Israel.

[01:06]

God's chosen people. Among the people of God, the law of God has taken its place in the sanctuary. And the people of God is destined and meant to follow the law of God. And in this way to imitate the life of the angels here on earth. This hope was not fulfilled in the history of Israel. History rejected the law. We see there that in the chapter 6 of Isaiah, where the glory, the doxa, ascends, leaves the temple, and the angels standing above it, they are ready to receive it, the seraphim. The seraphim are the representatives of the angelic world, of the sebo, of the divine hosts, of those who, as that is the reason why they so often appear in the external appearance,

[02:25]

appearance of the soldier. If you see that, sometimes I think even in Western civilization, at least Saint Michael retains here and there the vestige of an armour. We are much overshadowed by wings and maybe we have the golden locks that come down from his head. I think now Dolce artists of the late Renaissance, of the Baroque and the Rococo represented it. Some vestiges were left. I think by now they have nearly completely disappeared. But the angel as a soldier, I only say that because, you know, tomorrow's Gospel, you also have that great example of obedience of the soldier.

[03:30]

And that really is very decisive. The angel is God's soldier. Therefore, the angels form God's army, as we see that in the Apocalypse. And Michael, who is the angel of Israel, the Israelitic nation, Michael, the angel of Israel, he leads these heavenly hosts in their battle with the enemy. So the angels are those created beings who are a pure mirror of God's glory. They are ontologically holy, that means they are being identified with the will of God, and therefore take part in the strength of God, while at the same time they are also at the complete disposal of God.

[04:36]

That are always the two parts and aspects of the angel. Angel means to be a messenger. Messenger is the one who is, lives up neutral at the hint, just needs a hint from the part of his Lord, and he goes out in that obbedientia sine mora which St. Benedict has shown us in the chapter 5 of his rule. So these angels, these messengers form the court round God. They are the manifestations of his glory to the outside world. He sends them out into all the regions of this created world. And all various nations and regions of the world down to every individual have an angel assigned to them to lead them.

[05:44]

fulfilling for the individual and for the nations and for the world as a whole that function after the fall which the cherubim had that are standing at the Garden of Eden to, now, what is it, to guard the way. But the Israelitic, the Hebrew word there, does not, must not at least, have the meaning of closing it and guard against, but has the meaning of keeping it and leaving it, keeping it open for the time of the return. That's an important idea. Cherubim, the word cherubim, appears there for the first time in Holy Scripture. in that third chapter, the last verse, I think it's 23 of the third chapter, cherubim, which for the Hebrew here, that's also important to know, for the Hebrew here has always the association of young man, the youth, the word cherubim, young man, the youth.

[07:07]

And then, of course, in the New Testament, there we see that this cherubim, this young man in white garments, come at the moment of the Lord's resurrection. That also is important to know, if one wants to understand it, that in Genesis 3.23, the translation, one cherub, is very questionable. should be the cherubs, ha-kerubim. At least it can be understood from the plural, which also is important. And later on we meet the plural again in the resurrection. The young man at the tomb. Keep open the way to the tree of life. So that's how the angels, they are represented in the fullness of being as young men.

[08:16]

That means unbroken, unbroken by reflection, unbroken by old age, unbroken by sophistication, but the full enthusiasm of youth serving as courtiers in the court of the Lord. and then always ready, always ready at his nod to go into the direction wherever they are sent and there then to announce the will of God here on earth. That is And this union, that is the other thing too which is important, this union with the will of God is the essential disposition for their seeing God and for their praising God.

[09:17]

Those three things you must keep in mind concerning the nature of the angel. He's God's soldier. in absolute unbroken attention and surrender of his will, ready at his now to execute the will of God in the outside world. And this unity with the will of God makes the angel the one who beholds the face of God and sings the praises of God. And the angel at the east of Eden, of the garden, the angels guarding the entrance, then should be understood as a prophecy of that time when mankind as a new generation in complete union with the will of God enters again the kingdom for the praises of God.

[10:29]

The fall, the disobedience to God in Adam and Eve, that has broken the angel-likeness in man here on earth. He is not anymore at the nod of his creator. Adam is not anymore the representative of God in this world. He ends, as it were, in himself. and therefore unable to see the face of God and to sing the praises of God. Therefore, nobody can see my face and live. But you must keep that in mind, that the idea of the messianic age is that men are united to the choir of angels, the new people of God united to the choir of angels, so that what they do in heaven, God's people may here do honor, that the will of God may be done in heaven and in honor.

[12:00]

That's the last purpose of the messianic age and of the coming of Christ, the Son of Man, announced by the angels, accompanied by the manifestation of the hosts of the angels at his nativity, and then again his resurrection shown and announced by the angels to the women representing Israel. So the idea is that is Christ the Angelus Domini. You see, we have in the Old Testament, we have this strange, strange thing that there are different categories, so to speak, of angels. There are the cherubim, the youth,

[13:06]

you know, who with their wings keep the law and who at the same time offer to God the seat of his presence. Then we have others. We have the seraphim. The seraphim are fiery beings. Fiery beings, why fiery beings? Because the essence of God is fire. Fire is the will of God because fire is that that keeps... things here on earth in motion, to speak. And that fire of God takes complete possession of the angels. Every angel is a flame. That's the idea of the seraphim. They are flames. That means they are a flame with the love for the will of God. You see, there are these seraphims That's so, so interesting, so beautiful. Just as the Garden of Eden is watched, let us say, I prefer to the word, you know, that the access, the entrance is guarded.

[14:19]

That means kept by the cherubim. So when the Alpha, that's also another and other such beautiful ideas. You see, the essence of God is fire. The will of God is fire. Fire appears to Moses in the burning bush. And that is the manifestation of Yahweh. That fire then appears on Mount Sinai. And that fire is, that's the old Jewish conception. That fire, the fire of the will of God, lives, for example, in all various created beings. These created hosts, they all move unconsciously according to God's fire.

[15:20]

Man has consciously, as it were, extinguished the spirit in the sin of Adam, has lost that fire. that fire of the fulfillment of the will of God. The cherubim on Eden, the garden, they keep the entrance open to that world where fire, the will of God, leads man to. So it is the law. which is given comes to Israel on Mount Sinai. And the law is, as it were, the new offering of God's will to man. Now, not only anymore as an inner instinct, but as a deliberate, deliberate acceptance that for the Jews is really the theological meaning of the law.

[16:26]

The law is really the fire, God's fire, the flame of God's will offered in the form of the law. Why? So that this fire, which in an unconscious way directs all created beings, may now by Israel be accepted in a conscious, delivered conversion to Shuba. Therefore, the law is presented to Israel. If you do, if you don't do it, dying, you shall die. So that Israel has the choice, life or death. take the flame, take the law, or death. Israel then, in the course of history, rejects the law.

[17:34]

The result of that rejection of the law is, and that you see there in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, the result is that The divine glory leaves the temple. See, that's the picture there. It leaves the temple. The seraphim, they are the heavenly, one can say, incarnation of the holiness of the law, followed and lived by God's creature, by the angel, the seraphim. They receive the glory of God which withdraws from the temple. And these seraphim cry, but they cry to one another. They are in a dialogue only among the celestial beings. They don't have the dialogue between heaven and earth. That's the messianic ideal.

[18:37]

The messianic ideal is in tomorrow's introi. Adore God, all you his angels, Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced. You see, there the choir, as it were, of holiness, that choir which announces the holiness of God and the glory of God, is the choir of angels and men, heavenly and earthly world. In earthly world, the chosen people, God's people, take the place of the angels. And they answer one another. But when, at the moment of the catastrophe, in this vision of Isaiah's, where the end of an epoch has come and the glory leaves the temple, they kill the seraphim, cry to one another, holy, holy, holy. Holiness is the essence of God's inner being.

[19:42]

the holiness of God's will, the absolute goodness of God. The seraphim, these little flames, they sing that holiness, they mirror that holiness. And before the cry of this holy, holy, holy, as it is said in Isaiah, all the columns of the temple That means those columns which held, as it were, the place of God's presence, they go to pieces. The temple is shaken, that means the earthly temple, in which and through which Israel was supposed to keep the will of God. through which Israel was supposed to be joined to the choir of the angelic hosts, their temple is shaken by the cry, holy, holy, holy, which has become a privilege, exclusive privilege of the angelic world.

[20:57]

The angels sing that alta ad altum, one to the other, alternating among themselves, Israel is not part of that holy, holy, holy, that means of that last fulfillment of man's destiny, to be in that relation to God of absolute conformity with his will, of seeing his being, of praising his name. The angels themselves, the seraphim themselves, cry one to the other. And in the power of that cry, the earthly representation, the earthly participation symbolized in the temple goes to pieces, cannot stand because Israel is not holy. but then that is re-established by Christ, by Christ's resurrection.

[22:25]

First we can say at his coming in the Nativity, where again we have the manifestation of the doxa of God, not in the temple, but on the field in front of the shepherds, because the whole world will be full of his glory, outside the temple. And there the angelic hosts sing glory to God in the highest. peace to men of honor, of his goodwill, of his grace. Who are the men of his grace, of God's goodwill? They are those who are reborn with Christ, and they are those that died with Christ, those who are children with Christ, and those who reach the fullness of a new life in Christ. Therefore, we have the participation of the angels always in two places in the Christian idea.

[23:40]

One at baptism. The manifestation of the angel is at baptism. We speak always, Tertullian already, from the Angelus Baptissimi, the angel of baptism. That's that cherubim. That's one, let us say, of those cherubim who watch the entrance to the Garden of Eden in the east. And baptism is the entrance, is the porta, there is the angel, there is the access. And then again at the Holy Eucharist, there where the death and the resurrection of Christ are celebrated, we enter into a full participation. Instead of milk, solid food is given. That means the body and the blood of Christ. the angel that watches the altar, that's the other one, Angelus Altaris, or the Angelus Sacrifice, that Angelus which we implore in the Canon of the Mass, that the Holy Sacrifice may be brought, these gifts may be brought upon the heavenly altar.

[24:51]

Yet again are these the cherubim that stand watch at the entrance of the Garden of Eden, Because here it is, here is paradise, here is the garden, around the altar. You just read in the epistle of the Hebrews where the essence of the Christian life is considered as that we join the hosts of the angels. That's the essence of the church. in the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. But you are common to Mount Sinai and to the sitting of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the festive assembly, the church of the firstborn, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

[26:10]

See, Jesus is the Angelus Domini, the angel of Jave. In the Old Testament, you have the cherubim, and you have the seraphim. But you have one who is outstanding, and that is, he is called the Angelus Domini, Malachiabe. And this Malachiabe, very often, and that's the difficulty too, so difficult to distinguish the Malachiabe, the angel of Jahwe, from God himself. Christ is the angel of God, the Son of God, made man, and therefore the one who leads mankind back into the vita angelica.

[27:23]

There are two places I want to call your attention to in the Gospels where that Vita Angelica is. One is Matthew 18.10. Take heed that he despised not one of these little ones, these little ones, children. For I say unto you, that in heaven there are angels to always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. You see, the child there is for Christ, the symbol of that complete union between the will of God and the human being, where that break has not yet taken place. as we also speak of the innocence of children in that way.

[28:32]

He does not say, however, that these children behold the face of God, because that is not true after the fall. But the angels of these little ones, they see the face of God. And that is the reason why we should have reverence and despise not the little ones, the children, because of the close connection of the child and his angel. And the angel represents, as it were, and expresses that specific relation that the innocent or helpless child has to God. It's absolutely a being of God's grace. And that is expressed in this way. The angel of the little one, of the child, sees God. So that is the vita angelica in that stage of the little ones, the childhood.

[29:38]

Then we have another one in the Gospel of Saint Luke. It's in the 20th chapter. And that is 36, verse 36. Neither can they die any more, for they are equal, equal unto the angels, angel-like, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. They are the children of God being the children of the resurrection. See, that's the other aspect. I would put it this way.

[30:47]

You know, we have in the rule of St. Benedict, we have two references to the angelic life. main reference to the angelic life. One is in chapter 7, you know, the famous picture of the ladder, the angel rising, ascending and descending, and the angels, and even the same word quoted, you know, in chapter 7, that they always, you know, see and watch and announce to God our deeds. I understand. and the other one is in chapter 19. Now, as you know, chapter 7 and chapter 19 are only separated by an interpolation. Something has been put in between. After chapter 7, which is the last chapter of, one can say, the sum total of the art

[31:52]

of purifying the heart through obedience. And after chapter 7, we enter into a completely different thing. That's chapter 8 to 18, which is a special book. As most of the commentators to the Holy Rule always say, chapter 8 to 18 is originally a book by itself. really more for the use of the abbot, in which the order of the divine office is explained. Then chapter 19, what is called the Disciplina Psalendi, really continues chapter 7. Chapter 19 is ubiquitous.

[32:56]

We think we know that everywhere there is God's presence. And the eyes of the Lord see in every place the good and the bad. In a very special way, we believe this when we assist at the divine office. I would put it in this way, that in chapter 7, the angel-likeness of the monk, who really represents mankind too, just as Christ, the man, represents the whole of mankind, just as Israel, as a people, as a meaning, only as a representative of the whole of mankind, so also the monks.

[33:57]

In the chapter of humility, the angel-likeness of the monk is that which we saw in the first world in Matthew 18.10. The little ones, the children, those who descend, those who become small little ones, those who descend in humility. Humility is that what makes us children, where we descend. And in that way, really, I said, that humility which is represented in our imagination through the swaddling cloth of the little child, Jesus, in the manger, which is really, as we said on Christmas always, the presentation of that being child in absolute identity with the will of God.

[35:00]

These bonds, they represent the law. They are the law, that's the will of God, and completely immovable in that will of God. That is that child, that's that rebirth through humility, the absolute obedience of the angel as a messenger, at the nod of God's glory, ready there. And then there's the other one, you see, and that is the resurrection, where we enter into the angelic life by dying and rising. And that's, of course, the end. What has begun at the Nativity ends in the resurrection, where we meet the angels again. Dying and rising with Christ is, just as with the martyr, the absolute identification with the will of God.

[36:08]

Therefore, the martyr is the Holy One. He is in the company of the angels immediately to his death. So also the monk dies. in the seven first chapters of the Holy Rule, he enters into the will of God, becomes a child again. When he does that and enters in this way, enters in this way through obedience, dies with Christ, he rises with him. So that in chapter 19 then we find that aspect of the angelic life which is the praising of the glory of God. the praising of the glory of God, seeing the face of God, praising his glory. So that also for us, especially for us as monks, to assist at the Holy Eucharist, or as we do it here so beautifully,

[37:26]

during the canon of the Mass, you know, at the end of the preface, where that's so much emphasized by Christian tradition, you see, cum angelis archangelis, cum tronis dominationibus, cum, cum, cum, with this angelic world. See, that is the fulfillment of the messianic aspiration. That is the messianic age. That is the age of the Messiah. For what reason did Christ come? but to reunite mankind with the hosts of the angels. Where is that fulfilled? At the Holy Eucharist. There we sing, the whole ecclesia sings. We join the company of many thousands of angels. And there we sing, holy, holy, holy. That's so beautiful. There we really become one with them. That is really the essence of our holiness.

[38:29]

But you see, we cannot as monks, you know, as I say, start the monastic life, you see that so clearly, with the kind of aesthetical joy, you know, in the glorification of God, without forgetting the first, and forgetting perhaps the first seven chapters of the Rule. That's not possible. See, those two things have to be united. That's the beauty also of tomorrow's Gospel, that becoming a child of God through obedience, and in that way return to the one whom we left in the sloth of disobedience in Eden, in the garden in Eden, return on the way of obedience, That's the way which the cherubim guard, you know, so that we can enter into Eden, you know, into the garden. And then comes the other one, chapter 19 and chapter 20, where we get a glimpse, you know, of that, one can say, of the mystical glory of the life of the monk as Vita Angelica.

[39:54]

the seeing of the glory and the praising. But that praise is holy, holy, holy, absolute identity with the will of God. But for us, then, that holy, holy, holy, which in Isaiah was shook and destroyed, one would say, the earthly structure of the temple, so that the fire of God burned, you know, and the whole house was filled with smoke. Which, to my mind, is not the smoke of incense. It's the smoke of destruction, you see, that burns, you know, as the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of it. but then the whole world is full of his glory. And that's then the New Testament, and that is here our chapel, and there are millions of other chapels all over.

[41:02]

And then, you know, to think, you know, that we as monks, you know, become completely children with Christ, you know, through the obedience, that we then can You know, stand around the altar, and in the glory of the resurrection, you see, enter into that mystical hymn, holy, holy, holy. But you see, again, you know, the highest, our highest offering to God, you know, the highest offering, the last word, so to speak, of our existence as monk, as, and you fulfilled our vita angelica, is not so much glory be to God, you know, but holy, holy, holy. Which again means that specific identity between man and the will of God.

[42:06]

That means that, you see, that's the beauty, you know. We can put it in this way, that as the cherubim watched the entrance, you know, to Eden, the garden, The seraphim really are the heart of it. The young man, that means the men of obedience, the children, watch the entrance. That are the first seven chapters of the rule. And then comes chapter 19 and 20, you know, and that is the chapters of the seraphim. They sing, holy, holy, holy, being flame.

[42:48]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_95.29