Friday, December 15, 2017

Saturday of the Second Week in Advent


‘Elijah Taken up in a Chariot of Fire” by Giuseppe Angeli 1760’s


Commentary:

Reading 1: Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11

Commentary on Sir 48:1-4, 9-11

The final nine chapters of Sirach are devoted to praise of the glory of God. The first of these chapters is focused on God in nature; the final chapters to great prophets and leaders of Israel. In this selection, we hear of the Prophet Elijah who came with a fiery message. Reference is made to Elijah’s passing (2 Kings 2:1ff). The image of Elijah is the precursor to St. John the Baptist during Advent, and echoes his prophetic work.

This passage gives specific praise to the Prophet Elijah who clearly chastised the Hebrew people, trying to bring them back to the faith. He is one of the great Prophets whose miracles attempted to provide proofs that God was with him and to influence the people to repent and return to faithfully following the Law of Moses.

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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16, 18-19

R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.


The call to the “Shepherd of Israel” is David’s plea for God to hear. This same “Good Shepherd” image is later applied to God’s Only Begotten Son. While this psalm is a lament, or plea for God’s help in time of distress for King David’s armies, we see in the language an indication of the Messiah to come: “May your help be with the man of your right hand, with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.” The psalmist prays for God’s intervention and help, and in return promises faithfulness. He implores the Lord to send the Messiah: “Rouse your power, and come to save us.” This will be the gift that fulfills all hopes: “Then we will no more withdraw from you; give us new life, and we will call upon your name.

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Commentary on Mt 17:9a, 10-13

This Gospel passage is the epilogue to the story of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8). The disciples ask Jesus: “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" To which the Lord replies: “but I tell you Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him.” Here the Lord is referring to St. John the Baptist, who came fulfilling the mission of Elijah. Jesus, titling himself as “Son of Man” indicating his human nature, then indicates that he would also not be recognized as the Messiah, and would suffer at their hands as well.

Jesus is helping the disciples understand the prediction from scripture that before the Messiah comes, Elijah must return to prepare the Hebrews.  This prophecy is fulfilled by John the Baptist, the new Elijah (cf Malachi 3:23-24 [4]).

The way the passage ends can be confusing. Jesus predicts his passion, and it is then that the disciples understand that John, fulfilling the role of Elijah, prepares the way for the Messiah – Christ.

CCC: Mt 17:10-13 718
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Reflection:

The message for us in scripture today carries the weight of ancient prophecy behind it.  Yeshua [Jesus son of Sirach], recalls the prophetic mission of Elijah in the first reading. It is a mission thought by the Sadducees of Jesus' [the Son of God’s] time to be completed in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.  When his disciples asked the Lord if the Sadducees were correct, he told them, yes, Elijah must come again before the Messiah will complete his mission.  But he had come, and they did not recognize him.  Here he referred to John the Baptist, described in scripture as the very image of Elijah.  Also like Elijah, the Baptist was vociferous in dealing with those who violated the tenets of the faith.  The Sadducees did not make the connection.

Then the disciples saw.  They also knew the fate of John the Baptist, executed and beheaded by King Herod in a fit of drunken lust.  There would be no chariot of fire for the herald of the Son of God, just as there would be no exalted end for Christ himself.  The fireworks are reserved for his return in glory.  The Lord alludes to this as well as he tells his friends: “So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.

What message are we given beyond a powerful reminder of how God’s plan from before time was to send his Only Begotten Son so that we might have salvation through him? Clearly one message is expressed by the cliché: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”  But perhaps that is too passive.  A better understanding would be that we, the modern-day disciples of the Lord, need to be looking carefully for God’s presence in our lives.  We cannot afford to miss the signs that God sends for us.  The big message is this: that we must use a spiritual power of perception to view the world about us.  We must see it with awe and wonder, as God’s salvation is at once part of what he created for us.

As our Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, says in Spe Salvi: “Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a “not yet”. The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.[5]

Our faith, shaped by the past, sees the present, and its future hope redeems us now.

Pax

[1] The picture used today is ‘Elijah Taken up in a Chariot of Fire” by Giuseppe Angeli 1760’s

[4] Note in many Protestant Bible translations, this citation is Malachi 4:1-5
[5] Spe Salvi 7.

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