Word to the Wise
Saturday, December 11, 2010 - Saturday in the Second Week of Advent
[Sirach 48:1-4 and Matthew 17:9a, 10-13]Blessed is he who shall have seen you and who falls asleep in your friendship. [Sirach]
Those wonderful words from the Book of Sirach refer to Elijah, who is a monumental figure in the Old Testament. He was more than a historical figure, as we see from today's gospel passage in which Jesus identifies John the Baptist as the Elijah who was to return as a sign of the coming of the Messiah! That made him a sign of hope. Jesus points out that Elijah has returned and has been rejected: Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.
Although we focus our attention in this season on the birth of Jesus, it is necessary to understand that the entire life of Jesus - the big picture, as it were - is celebrated in the story of his birth! The cute little baby in the manger is destined to suffer. We may not want to "spoil" the celebration by thinking of such things, but we have to be honest about the gospel and why this birth is taking place.
Elijah and John the Baptist are continual "signs" to us of the hope that God offers. We may not find them easy to relate to personally, but Jesus points to them. It might be a useful "exercise" in this season to think about people who turned out to be "signs of hope" to us and whom we didn't see as such till it was too late! It might help us to look more carefully through all the hoopla of the secular season for those signs! AMEN
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