Sermon - Behold I Send My Angel before Your Face
Opuscula IV - Sermons, Liturgical Works
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Ecce ego mitto
Behold I Send My Angel before Your Face
EcceEgoSermon on the Second Sunday of Advent
EcceEgoItem sermo fratris Thomae de Aquino editus Mediolani coram clero et populo civitatis.
Sermon of friar Thomas Aquinas preached at Milan in the presence of the clergy and people of the city.1
EcceEgoMathaei. XI
Matthew 11:10
EcceEgoEcce ego mitto angelum meum ante faciem tuam.
Behold, I send my angel before your face.
EcceEgoSumptum est1 de Malachiae ultimo.
These words are taken from the last chapter of Malachi (3:1).
EcceEgoIn hiis verbis describuntur tria circa Salvatoris gratiosum adventum, scilicet dignatio mirifica Dei Patris, dignitas gratifica Precursoris et benignitas mirifica Salvatoris.
In these words three aspects of the gracious arrival of the Savior are described: (1) the marvelous estimation of God the Father, (2) the obliging ardor of the precursor, and (3) the marvelous kindness of the Savior.
EcceEgoPrimum ibi: ecce ego mitto;
The first, where it says: behold, I send;
EcceEgosecundum ibi: angelum meum;
the second, where it says: my angel;
EcceEgotertium ibi: ante faciem tuam.
the third, where it says: before your face.
EcceEgoNota igitur quantum ad omnia quod tam Salvator quam Precursor fuerunt nobis missi a Patre angeli officio non natura; etenim fuerunt vere nostri angeli divinitus missi;
So note, regarding all these things, that, just as the Savior was sent,1 so also the precursor was sent to us by the Father through the commission of an angel, not through nature.2 For they have truly been our angels who were sent to us in the name of God,
EcceEgoad caelestium mansionum paranda itinera, Genesis XXVIII: vidit Iacob scalam et angelos Dei ascendentes et descendentes per eam.
in order to prepare the ways1 that lead to the heavenly dwelling places. Genesis 28:12 reads: Jacob saw the ladder and God’s angels ascending and descending on it. This was [as follows:]
EcceEgo(a) ad divinarum voluntatum patefacienda secreta, Galatas1 III: lex fuit ordinata per angelos in manu mediatoris;
(a) In order to disclose the secrets of the decrees of the divine will, the law was issued by the angels at the hand of a mediator, as it says in Galatians 3:19.
EcceEgo(b) ad divinarum condescensionum implenda ministeria, Mathaei IIII: angeli accesserunt et ministrabant ei.
(b) In order to fulfill their duty concerning the divine things coming down from heaven, angels came to him and served him, as Matthew 4:11 reads.1
EcceEgo(c) ad spiritualium perfectionum prebenda exempla et documenta, Genesis XXXI: fuerunt Iacob obviam angeli,1 et post: castra Dei sunt haec.
(c) In order to render examples and proofs of spiritual perfection, the angels of God had gone to meet Jacob, and when he had seen them, he said: ‘these are the encampments of God’; (Gen 32, 33:12.)1
EcceEgo