The Celestial Worshippers are turned toward the Earth!

[Flavio Raposo]

What is happening on earth? These angels, whose eternal mission is to praise God, are not turned toward him in the highest heavens, but toward the lowest point on earth, plainly contemplating the smallest, most helpless, most naked of the children of men! And on earth, she who is blessed among all women, far from raising her eyes toward heaven, is devoted entirely—O unfathomable mystery—to adoring this newborn child! Her child, certainly, because echoing the song of the angels, her immaculate robe is embroidered in gold with the word “peace.” Now Scripture proclaims that she will be the mother of the Prince of Peace.

And behold, the Almighty takes no offense at the fact that the angels and their queen adore the lowly one. On the contrary, the direction of his gaze and his open hands show not only that he blesses and accepts what is happening, but also that this event is the perfect fulfillment of his holy will. In his left hand he displays the key to this great mystery: his will, which is to be done on earth as it is in heaven, is that the created universe should be placed under the sign of the cross, in other words, should be saved and transfigured by his Only Begotten Son, with him and in him.

At the bottom of the picture, the painter gives us a fine text on which to meditate, the Good News that his work announces. He cites the Gregorian Gradual (response after the Reading) for Masses on feasts in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Virga Jesse floruit:
Virgo Deum et hominem genuit:
Pacem Deus reddidit,
In se reconcilians ima summis.

A branch of Jesse blossomed:
A Virgin gave birth to one who is God and man:
God restored Peace,
Reconciling in himself the lowliest and the highest.

Thus, what the painter intended to show between the thumb and index finger of the Father’s left hand could well be the image of our humanity, which is called to be perfectly transparent to the divinity of him who was born true God and true man of the Virgin Mary.

Merry Christmas, then, even though all this must happen under the sign of the cross.

This is an extract of the post taken from Gloria TV https://gloria.tv/post/BWkZzvVNLnrm3zW8B4yTjZjZh

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Thank you for posting!