By Fr Antony Christy, SDB.
THE WORD IN ADVENT – Second week Saturday
December 16, 2023 – Ecclesiasticus 48:1-4,9-12; Matthew 17: 10-13
How do we prepare the Reign? That has been the question we asked all through this week and today, we conclude the week with a warning from the Word – beware of your stubbornness! We know, we understand, we realise, but we do not wish to accept or change our ways – isn’t that called stubbornness? Or is there another name for it? Have we the audacity to justify ourselves – as individuals and as humanity?
The Word today speaks of Elijah – a great figure who connects the Old Testament and the New Testament, who is re-presented by John the Baptist in his person and significance. Two things were similar in Elijah and John the Baptist, that made people think of them resembling each other when Jesus hinted at it. One the fiery zeal – they were not simple ordinary men of average commitment who did what they could. They were extraordinary persons whom people dared not stare at. Secondly, they were forerunners or proclaimers – they both were announcing Christ: one remotely the saving Son of Man and the other immediately the coming of Jesus the Christ.
The message that stands out, again, is twofold: one that the Lord certainly gives us signs of God’s message; secondly, that it is our responsibility to behold the sign and act upon it. Preparing the Reign can be a risky call – failing to do it, not only is a failure but can be a cause of our damnation, the reason for our eternal perdition, or the ground for our final judgement.
Can we say we have not seen the signs? That would be a blatant lie and an escapism – because they are so vivid like a fire, flaring like a torch, consuming like a whirlwind of fire. How can we miss it? Imagine the lessons that the humanity was given, be it in the two major wars of the past century, or the continued armed arrogances around the world that have claimed a toll of thousands of lives only in little more than two decades of this new millennium, or the pandemic that turned our lives upside down in the three years of this new decade – are they not loud and clear lessons to learn? Have we learnt anything at all?
Can we say we have heeded to the signs? Indeed, Elijah has come and we have treated him the way it pleased us! How many lessons we have turned down? How many true prophets we have sent to the dungeon? How many warnings we have washed down the drain? And we wish to be yet called the people of the Reign? What excuse have we? What justification do we have to say we are still worthy of the Reign that has been promised by the Lord?
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He has completed his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.