Elijah and John the Baptist

December 15, 2018
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)

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 the Messiah’s time to come was already up was the non fulfillment of the precondition of Elijah’s return. But Elijah already returned in the person of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11-15). They couldn’t accept this theory because John the Baptist’s simplicity couldn’t give justice to the greatness of Elijah.

We too readily recognize God’s handiworks in the spectacular. Consider the case of the sun reportedly seen dancing several years ago from a hill in Southern Cebu ascribed to the Blessed Virgin. In an instant people trooped to that hill. Funds poured in substantially enough to build a shrine and to erect a big statue of the Blessed Virgin.

But when the sun was seen dancing no more and another place announced the shedding of tears of another statue of the Blessed Virgin, the pilgrims frequenting that hill dwindled in number as everyone flocked to where Mary’s statue was seen shedding tears. “Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last”, wrote Blaise Pascal. We are not questioning the quality of Marian devotion in these two Marian sites. (Actually occasional claims of miracles separate the chaff from the grains in the sense that after the spectacular event is gone, only genuine devotees remain). All we want to point out is the people’s inordinate desire for spectacular happenings.

While spectacular things are not absolutely alien to God’s manner of self revelation, God’s ways are often small and insignificant to the eyes trained only to recognize the spectacular. 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. Email:[email protected].

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