December 14, 2024
by Edward Morse
Creighton University's School of Law
click here for photo and information about the writer

Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Lectionary: 186

Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11
Psalms 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16, 18-19
Matthew 17:9a, 10-13

 

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Holding Hands with God: Pondering Isaiah

In our advent journey, we continue to ponder the ways our Lord comes to us.  He came in the incarnation, through the womb of his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  And he comes to us today, seeking us and calling us to a life of faith and charity, rooted in hope that does not disappoint us because of the faithful and merciful love of God.   

The first reading from Sirach extols the prophet Elijah, who was called by God through an experience that included wind, earthquake, and fire.  But God was not in these voracious events.  Instead, he came to Elijah through a still, small voice asking: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  See 1 Kings 19.

Elijah had complained that he was the only faithful prophet left in a time when the people had abandoned the covenants of God and killed the other prophets.  But God simply reassured him he was not alone, as seven thousand others had been preserved from worshiping false goods.  Keep on keeping on, Elijah.  And so he did.  He turned the “hearts of the fathers toward their sons”.  The future of faith entails passing on the deposit of faith to others, who in turn, pass it to another generation.  The chain remains unbroken.

In today’s gospel, our Lord connects Elijah to John the Baptist, as both prepared the way for future works of God in fulfillment of the Divine plan.  In our own day, we tend to long for better days in years gone past.  But it is good to recall that those years gone past had their troubles, too.  We are left to work out what is needful in our own times, witnessing and living out the truth as best we know how, and looking with confidence to a future that is in the hands of God, who has graciously called us to live as his own people. 

We may cry out from time to time for God to bring his power in a dramatic way to right wrongs in this world.  Indeed, many wrongs need to be righted.  But let us also cry out with the Psalmist for what may be an even greater miracle: “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.”  Not even the great prophet Elijah was able to see the face of God, but we have seen him in the face of our Lord.  He has come, he will come again, and he comes to each of us.  Let us prepare the way.  Thanks be to God.

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