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| Artist - Sylvia Benert |
As this morning, we celebrated the Annunciation, we heard the Hymn of 'Virgn, wholly marvelous', the amazing line, 'Cherubim with fourfold face' astonished me'. Gabriel is centre role in the Annunciation but we can recognise all the Angels around Mary. *A Note, see below, may clarify the 'Chrubim with fourfold face', as from St. Ephrem.
Saint Ephrem Hymn - Annunciation
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1 Virgin, wholly marvellous,
Who didst bear God's Son for us, Worth-less is my tongue and weak Of thy purity to speak. 2 Who can praise thee as he ought? Gifts, with every blessing fraught, Gifts that bring the gifted life, Thou didst grant us, Maiden-Wife. 3 God became thy lowly Son, Made himself thy little one, Raising men to tell thy worth High in heav'n as here on earth. 4 Heav'n and earth, and all that is, Thrill today with ecstasies, Chanting glory unto thee, Singing praise with festal glee. 5 Cherubim with fourfold face Are no peers of thine in grace; And the six-wing'd seraphim Shine, amid thy splendour, dim. 6 Purer art thou than are all Heav'nly hosts angelical, Who delight with pomp and state On thy beauteous Child to wait.
St. Ephrem of Syrus, c. 307-373
Tr. J. W. Atkinson, S.J., 1866-1921 The Parish Hymn Book L.J. Carey & Co, London 1965 |
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ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD
From a homily on the nativity by Saint Ephrem
(Brock: The Harp of the Spirit, pages 65-66)
Look upon Mary, my beloved,
how, when Gabriel entered in to her
and she spoke with him words of inquiry:
How shall these things be?
and the minister of the Spirit gave reply to Mary and said:
It is easy for God; all things are simple for him
how she held it true when she heard, and said:
Behold, his handmaid am I.
Therefore he came down, in a manner he knows,
he stirred and came in a way that pleased him,
he entered and dwelt in her without her perceiving,
she received him, suffering nothing.
He was in her womb like a babe,
yet the whole world was full of him.
Of his love he came down
to renew the image of Adam grown old.
Therefore, when you hear of the birth of God,
remain in silence;
let the word of Gabriel
be depicted in your mind,
for there is nothing that is hard
for that glorious majesty,
which for our sakes leaned down,
and for our sakes was revealed;
for it leaned down toward us,
and among us was born, from one of us.
This day Mary has become for us
the heaven that bears God,
for in her the exalted Godhead
has descended and dwelt;
in her it has grown small, to make us great,
- but its nature does not diminish;
in her it has woven us a garment
that shall be for our salvation.
In her the words of the prophets and the just
are all contained;
from her the luminous One has shone forth
and dispelled the darkness of paganism.
The titles of Mary are many
and it is right that I should use them:
she is the palace where dwells
the mighty King of Kings;
not as he entered her did he leave her,
for from her he put on a body and came forth.
Again, she is the new heaven,
in which there dwells the King of Kings;
he shone out in her and came forth into creation,
formed and clothed in her features.
She is the stem of the cluster of grapes,
she gave forth fruit beyond nature's means,
and he, though his nature bore no resemblance to hers,
put on her hue and came forth from her.
She is the spring, whence flowed
living water for the thirsty,
and those who have tasted its draught
give forth fruit a hundred fold.
EPHREM (c.306-373), the only Syrian Father who is honored as a Doctor of the Church, was ordained deacon at Edessa in 363, and gave an outstanding example of a deacon's life and work. Most of his exegetical, dogmatic, controversial, and ascetical writings are in verse. They provide a rich mine of information regarding the faith and practice of the early Syrian Church. The poetry of Ephrem greatly influenced the development of Syriac and Greek hymnography. |
Notes on Ezekiel's Cherub Part Seven: Fourfold Vision
Ezekiel describes the Cherub as having four faces and four wings. What exactly these four aspects represent is never stated clearly, but the subject offers a bountiful source of meditation. Here is one idea: each of the four faces may correspond to a different realm of nature—lion (wild), ox (domestic), eagle (air), man (man). And in fact, each of these four animals is lord over its realm—the lion is king of beasts, the ox is the mightiest of the domestic creatures, the eagle is king of the air, and man has dominion over them all by virtue of his intellect. What is important, beyond any specific ideas attached to each of the animal faces, is the fact that there are four of them, each unique, and each presumably facing in one of the four cardinal directions (as in Genesis).
In the divine Man, these four natures, at variance with one another, work together in unity. Like the energy produced from the opposing winds in the whirlwind, these four spirits whirl about one another to create a massive energy of coordinated opposition. No one of the four natures is supreme—rather, it is the space between them that renders spiritual vitality possible. If the lion, for example, were to gain ascendancy over the other three, the balance would be thrown off, and the creature would dissolve itself into chaos. All four are necessary and must be kept whirling against one another within their limits, creating a spinning order like a gyroscope. The four wings emphasize this motion, and the importance of their unity (they are “joined one to another”) is also pointed out. Further, Ezekiel describes wheels covered with eyes which roll along with the Cherubim, stating that “the spirit of the cherubim was in the wheels.” The wheel is elaborated as having a “wheel in the middle of a wheel.” This suggests, once more, the idea of coordinated opposition as the wheels spin, one within the other. Together, the faces, wings and wheels suggest a whirlwind motion, echoing the previous verses. This is the nature of spirituality—a constantly striving, opposing, changing, twirling nature, never at rest and never off balance. The life of the flying spirit can never hold still—to stop moving would be death and spiritual entropy. Ceaseless mobility is required—the root of repentance is to change, and we must continually transform and keep in motion for our spirits to live. This is why the LORD issues the ultimatum: repent or die. That is simply how our spirits are structured—the LORD is not threatening to kill us; rather, he is pleading with us to save ourselves by protean metamorphoses from the relentless decay of the cold, entropic, universe.
The feet of the Cherub are straight and hooved, offering a balancing vision to the frenetic energy of the four faces/wings. The feet sparkle like “burnished brass” and when the Cherubim move, they go “straight forward.” The whirling spiritual energies are channeled into disciplined, purposeful, controlled movements.
The appearance of the Cherubim is described as “like burning coals of fire,” and like “lamps.” The fire goes up and down in the midst of the creatures, rather like the purifying fire infolding itself, which I previously touched on. And again, it is in between the creatures that we find the fire. The Cherubim are filled with bright spiritual fire, which burns against the ashes of the universe of death. Victor Hugo, who later published a volume of poetry entitled The Four Winds of the Spirit, partook of some of Ezekiel's prophetic spirit when he expressed this concept with passionate clarity:
Well have I filled my drinking cup; you dash
Your wings at it, yet none of it is gone.
My spirit has more fire than you have ash
And more love than you have oblivion!
Ezekiel’s vision is of a being in perpetual motion, animated by coordinated opposition, seething with inner fire, and governed by brazen discipline. Ezekiel’s fourfold Cherub is his image of the Human Form Divine.
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