No angel was worthy; Angels: Day 197

In Revelation, an angel holds a scroll and asks, “Who  is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” St. Victorinus says that the scroll is the Old Testa– ment, and to open it is to overcome death—something  no angel could do. Only Christ could accomplish it.

“And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals” (Rev. 5:1). This book sig- nifies the Old Testament, which has been given into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, who received judgment from the Father.

“And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’ And no one in Heaven or on Earth or under the Earth was able to open the scroll” (Rev. 5:2-3).

Now to open the scroll is to overcome death for humanity. There was no one found worthy to do this—neither among the angels of Heaven, nor among men in Earth, nor among the souls of the saints in rest. Only Christ the Son of God alone was worthy, whom he says that he saw as “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns” (Rev. 5:6). –St. Victorinus, Commentary on Revelation

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do I read the Old Testament, which even the angels could not unseal, in light of the New—with the knowledge of how Christ has opened the meaning of it?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, I thank you that you have given us the truth that even the angels in Heaven could not have unsealed without you. Though I am mortal with a frail nature, teach me to be delighted with the sweetness of your oracles.

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