December 16, 2017
Saturday
2nd Week of Advent
1st Reading: Sir 48:1-4, 9-11
Gospel: Mt 17:9a, 10-13
As they were coming down the mountainside, the disciples then asked Jesus, “Why do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah must come first?” And Jesus answered, “So it is: first comes Elijah to set everything as it has to be. But I tell you, Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him, but treated him as they pleased. And they will also make the Son of Man suffer.” Then the disciples understood that Jesus was referring to John the Baptist.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Elijah was a prophet in Israel in the 9th century BCE. He appears in the Hebrew Bible, Talmud, Mishnah, Christian Bible, and the Qur’an. According to the Book of Kings, Elijah raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and ascended into heaven by a whirlwind. Based on a prophecy in Malachi, many Jews await up till today Elijah’s return to finally usher in the coming of the Messiah.
The reason then why they refused to believe that the Messiah’s time to arrive had come was the non- fulfillment of an important precondition that Elijah had to return first. But Jesus confirmed that Elijah had already returned in the person of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11-15). They refused to recognize this because John the Baptist’s simplicity did not match that grandiosity of Elijah. John the Baptist was just a meek voice crying out in the desert “Prepare the way of the Lord”. On the other hand Elijah raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky and ascended into heaven by a whirlwind.
Our paradigm is no different. We have no problem recognizing God’s spectacular works but are reluctant believers of God’s little interventions. Consider the case of the sun reportedly seen dancing several years ago from a hill in Southern Cebu. In an instant people trooped to that hill, funds poured in and a mammoth shrine eventually popped up. When the smoke cleared only the real devotees remained while the others who were only induced to visit the place by curiosity returned to their life of modernism. “Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last”, wrote Blaise Pascal (Pensees).
While spectacular things are not absolutely alien to God’s manner of self- revelation, God’s ways are often small. Eyes trained only to recognize the spectacular will have problems in matters of faith because God usually hides his works in the ordinary. This led the Jews to utter loss because in their expectation that Elijah would come back on board chariots of fire to announce the coming of the Messiah, they failed to recognize God’s visitation. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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