By Fr. George Dorbarakis
On the 26th of the month of March we celebrate the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, which has been handed down to us from the beginning and from God, because this Archangel ministered in the divine, supernatural, and ineffable mystery of the economy of Christ.
According indeed to the note of the Venerable Nikodemos the Hagiorite in his Great Synaxaristes, “Gabriel means man and God (that is, man of God), according to Proclus of Constantinople. For this reason he is the one who served in the mystery of the incarnate economy of God the Word. And Theophanes Kerameus, the Bishop of Tauromenium, also says that the seven letters contained in the name Gabriel signify that Christ, whose Birth Gabriel proclaimed, will come for the salvation of the whole world, which is measured by the week and comes to completion in seven ages.”
The Holy Hymnographer, namely Joseph the Hymnographer, is moved ecstatically as he refers to the “all-great Gabriel.” There is almost no troparion either at Vespers or in the Canon for the Archangel that does not reveal his admiration and his awe-filled stance toward him, not only for the fact of Gabriel’s participation in the revelation of the mystery of the coming of God into the world as a man to the pure maiden Mariam, but also for his twofold unceasing and eternal stance before the Lord of all, the Triune God: the glorification of His holy name and the readiness of obedience to the commands of His will. For example:
“Gabriel the greatest mind… beholding and seeing the light thrice more radiant than the sun… proclaimed the divine and dread mystery, having come to the Virgin” (Sticheron of Vespers).
“Being full of light always, and doing the will and carrying out the commands of the Almighty, O leader of angels, most excellent Gabriel” (Sticheron of Vespers).
“Being illumined by participation in the first Mind, you were seen as a second light, crying out with the infinite ranks of angels: Holy is God the all-sustaining, the Son co-beginningless, and the Spirit co-enthroned” (Ode 5).
The supreme command of Gabriel and his primacy over the other angels appeared, according to the Hymnographer, chiefly from the fact that the Almighty Lord chose him in order to entrust to him the revelation of the mystery hidden from the ages, His coming into the world as man, to the pure child of God Mariam. And this assignment of such an exceptional ministry is at the same time also a revelation of the glory of this particular Archangel, something which means that the greater a ministry is, the greater also becomes the one who undertakes it and brings it to completion.
"The great mystery, formerly unknown to the angels and hidden before the ages, to you alone it was entrusted, O Gabriel” (Sticheron of Vespers).
“You were deemed worthy of the greatest renown, having disclosed to us the great mystery, O greatest of angels” (Ode 3).
Certainly, the Holy Hymnographer does not omit, together with the above evaluations, to make also two observations. First, that the Holy Archangel Gabriel ministered to the mystery of the salvation of the world even before the Annunciation to the Theotokos, given that we find him also with the Prophet Daniel: enlightening him and revealing to him the things to come in the Spirit of God (“Stand… O most wondrous Gabriel, illuminating the prophet Daniel and imparting the explanation of the unknown things in the Spirit” - Ode 4), and with the priest Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist: revealing to him that his wife Elizabeth would give birth to John and ‘punishing’ him with muteness because of the unbelief he showed (“When the divine one saw you, Zechariah, formerly standing at the time of the incense, you remained mute; for you did not believe his dread message which Gabriel, the supreme commander, proclaimed” - Ode 5). Second, that while the entire Service rightly centers on the Holy Archangel Gabriel, the Hymnographer suddenly also remembers the other greatest archangel, the Holy Archangel Michael, dedicating to him one troparion at the end of the Service, evidently to show that both are equal in honor before God.
“The most comely and most glorious pair, Michael and Gabriel, standing before the throne of the divine glory…” (Ode 9).
However, the ecclesiastical poet, despite the amazement he feels before the Holy Archangel of God, so much so that, as we said, he continually characterizes him “by reason of his participation in the most immaterial light of God… a second light” (Ode 3), does not cease to emphasize that he too is a creature of God, therefore limited both in power and in knowledge. Repeatedly, as we have already seen, he notes that the mystery of the coming of God into the world was hidden even from the angels, and Gabriel himself, the servant of the wonder, was unable to comprehend what was taking place. Indeed, the Doxastikon of Vespers of the feast, a work not of Joseph the Hymnographer but of the equally well-known hymnographer John the Monk, is one of the most beautiful troparia that exist in the hymnography of our Church.
“The Archangel Gabriel was sent from heaven to announce to the Virgin the conception. And coming to Nazareth, he pondered within himself the wonder, being astonished, how He who is incomprehensible in the highest is born of a Virgin! He who has heaven as His throne and the earth as His footstool is contained in the womb of a woman! He whom the six-winged and many-eyed cannot behold — by His word alone He was pleased to be incarnate from her! He who is present is the Word of God. Why then do I stand and not say to the Maiden: Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with you?”
At the same time, along with the amazement of the Archangel, the amazement of the all-pure Mariam is also emphasized, who, with the revelation of the will of God — that through her God would be born as man — is shown on the one hand to be most wise and most discerning, literally the opposite of the first Eve, since she does not hasten to accept the paradox and the wonder; on the other hand, she is truly Most Holy, since after the explanations she hastens to obey whatever constitutes the will of God: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
“What is this fiery appearance of yours?” the Modest One said to Gabriel with astonishment. “What is your rank and the meaning of your words? You promise me childbearing, but I have not known a man. Depart far from me, lest you deceive me, O man, as formerly the crafty serpent deceived Eve, the foremother” (Aposticha of Vespers).
It is not possible, of course, for the holy poet, before the holiness of the Archangel, not to arrive at that which is the aim of every believer: his intervention and intercession for the salvation of himself and of the Church.
“Scatter the counsels of the nations, strengthen the Orthodox faith, cease the schisms of the Church, O archangel, by your supplications to the Creator of all” (Ode 6).
But even more, the poet asks for the grace that the Holy Archangel may become the guide of his own life and of people. For precisely the angels, as second lights after the First — the Triune God Himself — are the guides of human beings.
“O Supreme Commander of God, minister of the divine glory, guide of men and leader of the bodiless powers…” (Kontakion).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
