The angel Gabriel and the birth of God in the soul

THE ANGEL GABRIEL WAS SENT

Missus est Gabriel angelus etc. (Luc. I.). St Luke says in his gospel, the angel was sent from God into a land called Galilee, into a town called Nazareth, to a virgin called Mary, who was of the house of David.' According to Bede, the theologian, this was the beginning of our salvation. I have said before and say again that everything our Lord has ever done he did simply to the end that God might be with us and that we might be one with him, and that is the reason why God was made man. The masters say that God was ever being born in our Lady ghostly ere ever he was born of her in flesh, and from the overflow of that begetting wherein the heavenly Father begat his one-begotten Son within her soul the eternal Word received its human nature in her and she became with carnal child.

He says, the angel was sent from God.' The soul would scorn to have the angelic light were it not sent to her from God; if there were not concealed in it the light of God to make the angel's light detectable, she would have none of it.

He says, the angel.' What is an angel? Three doctors give three different definitions of what an angel is. Dionysius says, An angel is a mirror without flaw and passing clear containing the reflection of God's light. Augustine says, An angel is nigh unto God and matter is nigh unto him. John Damascene says, An angel is a reflection of God and through all that is his there is shining the image of God. The soul has this image in her summit whereon the light of God for ever shines. This is his first definition of an angel. Later on he calls him a dividing sword, aflame with divine desire, and, he adds, angels are free and inimical to matter.'

He says, the angel was sent from God.' What for? According to Dionysius, an angel has three functions. First, he purifies, next he enlightens, and lastly he perfects. He purifies the soul from stain, i.e. he purges her from matter and gathers her together to herself, cleansing her from foulness as one angel does another. Then he enlightens her in twofold fashion. Divine light is so overwhelming that the soul is unable to bear it unless it is tempered in the angel's light and so conveyed into the soul. He enlightens her therefore by reflection. The angel conveys his own knowledge to the soul and strengthens her in this way to bear the light of God.

* See also Sievers' No. 2.

If I were in a wilderness alone and was afraid, the presence of a child would dissipate my dread and give me courage, so noble, so blithe a thing is life. Failing a child, a beast would comfort me. Hence necromancers use an animal, a dog (for instance), the animal's vitality invigorating them. Knowledge is power. The angel conveyed it to the soul in preparation for the light of God.

He says, the angel was sent from God.' The soul must be like an angel in the ways that I have named if the Son is to be sent to her and born in her. But there remains the question of how the angel perfects her. May God send his angel to us. So help us God. Amen.