The First Reading (Malachi 3:1-4.23-24) today tells us:
“I am going to send my messenger
to prepare a way before me.
And the Lord you are seeking
will suddenly enter his Temple ...
Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet
before my day comes.”
This is linked to today’s Gospel (Lk 1:57-66),
which narrates the birth of John the Baptist.
Scripture has taught us that it was John the Baptist who was
that promised “messenger”,
arriving with the spirit of “Elijah the prophet”,
and that the Lord did “suddenly enter his Temple”
with the sudden arrival of Jesus Christ in history.
Two things strike me
when wanting to apply these Scriptures to us today.
Firstly, God prepares us for an event.
God always seems to first “send a messenger.”
When we look back over our lives, we can often identify
incidents and episodes, which could be interpreted as a
preparation for a particular experience:
we met someone, we had an intuition, we read something
in the newspapers or saw something in TV,
someone passed a comment, or I suddenly experienced
an act of love and acceptance from someone low down on
my list! I notice this “preparation” especially with a death
of someone: he/she said something prior to death,
as if that person “knew”…;
or the build up to a relationship culminating in marriage;
or the onset of a serious illness or even a great joy.
Circumstances are hence described as “more than coincidence”
such that we can apply the text
“I am going to send my messenger
to prepare a way before me”
to our experience.
This understanding can impact in two ways:
(a) surely, then, this invites a new look at understanding
The Will of God of the Present Moment with new eyes?
I can hence accept many challenges in my life
as “God preparing me” – they are not tragedies at all;
(b) furthermore, perhaps God is sending me
as an “Elijah” into other people’s lives -
when we interact, chat on a phone, visit or are visited.
I must be the Elijah of God sent as a prophet into a situation,
to prepare the way for the Lord to enter that situation!
The Lord wants to heal, but I am needed to prepare the way.
The Lord wants to intensify joy,
but I am needed to open the door of the heart of that person.
The Lord wants to forgive,
but I have to become the “absolution”
for the Lord’s forgiveness.
The list is endless.
Secondly,
“the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple.”
While my Blog often refers to “the sudden arrival of the Lord”
in the liturgies concluding the previous liturgical year
(i.e. prior to the First Sunday of Advent four weeks ago),
today’s announcement suggests to me:
always anticipate the arrival of Jesus in your life
as something that will inevitably, but suddenly, happen.
The pre-condition?
Malachi describes it: “The Lord you are seeking.”
Ask yourself, "Am I 'seeking the Lord' in my life?"
I must be “busy with seeing the Will of God” in everything
that is happening around me.
I need to be pre-occupied with “seeking the Lord”
in every circumstance of my life.
God is Love. God would never allow something to happen
if there was no reason.
God is Love. God wants to enter the Temple of my heart
to bring me the promised fullness of life (Jn 10:10).
“I stand at the door and knock…”
I must ask myself:
(a) “how can what I am experiencing now
be the Will of God-who-is-Love for me now?”
How can I ensure that the Lord will suddenly enter
the Temple of my heart, mind and soul
through “this” experience
(no matter how “simple” or “grave” that experience may
appear to be)?
And (b) how can I be a catalyst for someone else to experience
the sudden arrival of Jesus in his/her life?
What must I say? What must I do?
What is required of me in a particular situation?
The Word of God will tell me…
What a way to prepare to be thoroughly blessed again this Christmas!
G
[pic: My friend, Stefano Battaglia, in Lucca.]
[ Check in with the Word of life
Confrontarsi con la Parola di vita
Confrontar-se com a Palavra de vida
Se mesurer avec la Parole de vie
Comparar nuestra vida con el Evangelio
Immer wieder Maß nehmen am Wort Gottes
Jezelf confronteren met het Woord van leven ]
