Polyptych of The Resurrection:
The Archangel Gabriel.
Date: 1522.
Current location: Santi Nazaro e Celso, Brescia, Italy.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 5.
Lent.
So far, in The Church’s Calendar, we have not met with any Feast in honour of The Holy Angels. Amidst the ineffable joys of Christmas night, we mingled out timid, but glad, voices with the Hymns of these Heavenly Spirits, who sang around the Crib of Our Emmanuel.
The very recollection brings joy to our hearts, saddened as they nor are by Penitential feelings and by the near approach of the mournful anniversary of our Jesus’s death.
Let us, for a moment, interrupt our sadness, and keep the Feast of the Archangel Gabriel. Later on, we shall have Michæl, Raphæl, and the countless host of The Angel Guardians.
But, today, the Eve of The Annunciation, it is just that we should honour Gabriel. Tomorrow, we shall see this Heavenly ambassador of The Blessed Trinity coming down to The Virgin of Nazareth.
Let us, therefore, recommend ourselves to him, and beseech him to teach us how to celebrate, in a becoming manner, the grand mystery of which he was a messenger.
Gabriel is one of the first of the Angelic Kingdom. He tells Zachary that he stands before the face of God. He is the Angel of the Incarnation, because it is in this mystery , which apparently is so humble, that the power of God is principally manifested.
And “Gabriel” signifies “The Strength of God”.
We find the Archangel preparing for this sublime office, even in The Old Testament. First of all, he appeared to Daniel, after this Prophet had had the vision of the Persian and Grecian empires; and such was the majesty of his person that Daniel fell on his face trembling.
Shortly afterwards, he appeared again to the same Prophet, telling him the exact time of the coming of The Messias: “Know thou and take notice; that from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ The Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks”, that is sixty-nine weeks of years.
When the fullness of time had come, and Heaven was about to send the last of the Prophets, who, after Preaching to men the approach of The Messias, is to show Him to the people, saying: “Behold The Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sins of the world”, Gabriel descends from Heaven to the temple of Jerusalem, and prophesies to Zachary the birth of John the Baptist, which was to be followed by that of Jesus, Himself.
Six months later on, the Holy Archangel again appears on Earth; and this time it is Nazareth that he visits. He brings the great message from Heaven. Angel as he is, he reveres the humble Maid, whose name is Mary; he has been sent to her by The Most High God, to offer her the immense honour of becoming The Mother of The Eternal Word.
It is Gabriel that receives the great “Fiat”, the consent of Mary; and, when he quits this Earth, he leaves it in possession of Him, for Whom it had so long Prayed in those words of Isaias: “Drop down Dew, O, ye heavens !”
The hour at length came, when The Mother of The Emmanuel was to bring forth the Blessed Fruit of her virginal womb. Jesus was born amidst poverty; but Heaven willed that His Crib should be surrounded by fervent adorers.
An Angel appeared to some shepherds, inviting them to go to the stable near Bethlehem [Editor: Hebrew name for “House of Bread”]. He is accompanied by a multitude of the heavenly army, sweetly singing their Hymn: “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace to men of good will !”
Who is this Angel that speaks to the shepherds, and seems as the Chief of the other Blessed Spirits that are with him ?
In the opinion of several learned writers, it is the Archangel Gabriel, who is continuing his ministry as messenger of the good tidings.
Lastly, when Jesus is suffering His agony in the Garden of Gethsemani, an Angel appears to Him, not merely as a witness of His sufferings, but that he might strengthen Him under the fear His human nature felt at the thought of the chalice of The Passion He was about to drink.
Who is this Angel ? It is Gabriel, as we learn not only from the writings of several holy and learned authors, but also from a Hymn which the Holy See has permitted to be used in The Liturgy: “Mentibus lætis jubilemus omnes . . .”.
These are the claims of the great Archangel to our veneration and love; these are the proofs he gives of his deserving his beautiful name, “The Strength of God”.
God has employed him in each stage of the great work, in which He has chiefly manifested His power; for Jesus, even on His Cross, is the Power of God, as the Apostle tells us.
Gabriel prepares the way for Jesus. He foretells the precise time of His coming; he announces the birth of His Precursor; he is present at the solemn moment when The Word is made Flesh; he invites the shepherds of Bethlehem to come to the Crib, and adore the Divine Babe; and when Jesus, in His agony, is to receive strength from one of His own creatures, Gabriel is found ready in the Garden of Gethsemani, as he had been at Nazareth and Bethlehem.
Let us, then, honour The Angel of the Incarnation. For this purpose, let us recite in his praise some of the pieces which Liturgical piety has composed for his Feast Day.
Two Hymns from the old Franciscan Breviary may now be sung:
“Mentibus lætis jubilemus omnes . . .”;
and
“En noctis medium: Surgite propere . . .”
In addition, the Dominican Breviary contains this beautiful Hymn in honour of The Holy Archangel Gabriel:
“O, Robur Domini, lucide Gabriel . . .”
