Word to the Wise
Saturday, December 15, 2007 - Saturday of the Second Week of Advent
[Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11 and Matthew 17:9A, 10-13]Blessed is he who shall have seen you and who falls asleep in your friendship.
Elijah stands like a giant in the Old Testament. HIs importance is illustrated in the question posed by the disicples to Jesus in today's gospel. The gospel is referring to the experience of the transfiguration of Jesus in which Moses and Elijah appear and speak with Jesus. "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Elijah represents the entire prophetic tradition, of which the Gospel of Matthew makes a great effort to show that Jesus is the fullfilment. There was a popular belief that Elijah would appear once more before the Messiah would come. Jesus points out that John the Baptist is the one who fulfilled that belief! The scribes and Pharisees and many others were no more able to see Elijah in the wild-looking, apocalyptic-preaching John the Baptist than they were able to accept a carpenter from Nazareth as the Messiah! The line quoted above offers us the blessing of faith in the one whom God has sent. But we received more than Elijah and we can see that one represented in the form of a newborn child in a manger. That newborn child is represented to us in every child of God, no matter their age. If we can see Christ in them and can act as Christ toward them, we can "fall asleep" in his friendship. May Advent enable this in us! AMEN
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