Revelation Ch 12(Thursday of the Second Week of Advent)
Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant, and she cried out because she was in labor, in pain from giving birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: it was a great fiery red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads. His tail swept down a third of heaven’s stars and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child. She gave birth to a son, a male child who is to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was snatched up to God and his throne. Then the woman fled into the desert, where God has prepared a place for her. There she will be taken care of for one thousand two hundred sixty days.
Then there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they did not prevail, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. So the great dragon was thrown down. The old snake, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was thrown down to the earth; and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say,
“Now the salvation and power and kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ have come. The accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down. They gained the victory over him on account of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their witness. Love for their own lives didn’t make them afraid to die. Therefore, rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them. But oh! The horror for the earth and sea! The devil has come down to you with great rage, for he knows that he only has a short time.”
When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he chased the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she could fly to her place in the desert. There she would be taken care of—out of the snake’s reach—for a time and times and half a time. Then from his mouth the snake poured a river of water after the woman so that the river would sweep her away. But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was furious with the woman, and he went off to make war on the rest of her children, on those who keep God’s commandments and hold firmly to the witness of Jesus.
Then the dragon stood on the seashore…
Commentary
After that probation which witnessed the fall of Lucifer and his angels, those angels who were confirmed in grace, with the archangel Michael at their head (Rev. 12.7-11) entered upon the state of glory; and since then, bearing the marks of glory, they exemplify created Wisdom in the world of bodiless spirits. Why then do even they, for all their nearness to the throne of God—so terrifying to us—yet seem to stand incomparably lower than the holy Mother of God? We must see the reason for this, on the one hand, in their present provisional relationship toward the world of humans, with which they are united in a kind of fellow humanity in virtue of the ministry which they fulfil therein (the very name “angels” signifies ministers of God to the world of humans). The Fall separated the angels from humans. The Incarnation united them anew (John 1.51) in the person of the God-human, but as yet far from completely on the part of humankind. For the rest, it still remains to undergo judgment and pass that subsequent parting of the ways before the state of glory, when angels themselves are to be judged (1 Cor. 6.3), apparently upon the execution of their service.
Therefore until the glorification of humankind and the full manifestation of its Divine-humanity, even the angels do not enjoy the fullness of their glory, for they have yet part of their course to run. Meanwhile, the holy Mother of God has already attained the fullness of her glory; she is in heaven, set above the angels, who indeed worship her, as sharing with her Son the humanity of the God-human.
She has not to come to judgment. But this judgment awaits both humans and angels, who reach the term of their assimilation to humankind only with the Second Coming of Christ (Matt. 25.31). And, accordingly, what is said of the God-human extends also, though indirectly, to the Mother of God: “Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they” (Heb. 1.4). It is the plenitude of creation manifest in the Mother of God which makes her “incomparably” more excellent than the relatively unfulfilled world of bodiless spirits, appointed to render angelic service to the world of humans. Nevertheless, in virtue of their holiness the holy angels, with the archangel of the Annunciation at their head, appear to form the immediate entourage of the holy Mother of God; thus the liturgical chants extol her: “O thou who are full of grace, thou art the joy of every creature: the host of angels and the race of men”; thus, too, icons depict her. The angels serve the holy Mother of God, recognizing in her the full expression of created Wisdom. For them, too, she is their “Lady” and the heavenly “Queen.”
She is united by her holiness also with the Saints, insofar as they, in their own holiness, display the likeness of created Wisdom, bear the marks of Christ, are sealed with the Holy Ghost, and form part of Divine-humanity. Indeed she has closer connections here than with the world of angels, for, being human, the Mother of God is Mother also of the whole human race, the center of humankind. But she stands contrasted to the rest of humankind and elevated above it, insofar as she abides already above or beyond the world in its present age, with death and resurrection now behind her. In her is revealed all the fullness of the glory of the world; now nothing can be added to it. And at the last agony of the age, in the terrible judgment of Christ, she will be present only in order to intercede. Even in the very greatest saints that inward discernment of good and evil must be accomplished, though almost all emerge scatheless in the power of the good. In her there is no room for any such discrimination: “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” (Song of Sol. 4.7).(Sophia: The Wisdom of God)
Musical Selection
The Father has given Christ all power, honor and kingship All people will obey Him
We praise You, the Lord God Almighty Who is and who was You have assumed your great power You have begun your reign
The nations have raged in anger But then came Your day of wrath And the moment to judge the dead The time to reward Your servants the prophets And the holy ones who revere You The great and the small alike
Now have salvation and power come The reign of our God and the authority of His Anointed One For the accuser of our brothers is cast out Who night and day accused them before God
They defeated him by the blood of the Lamb And by the word of their testimony Love for life did not deter them from death So rejoice, you heavens And you that dwell therein!
Glory to the Father And to the Son And to the Holy Spirit As it was in the beginning Is now And will be forever Amen.(John Michael Talbot)
Collect
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for your only Son, that his coming may purify our minds and make us worthy to serve you. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.
