O IMMANEUL, OUR KING AND JUDGE

23 DECEMBER

Mal 3:1-4,23-24; Ps 25:4-5,8-9,10,14; Lk 1:57-66

The coming of John the Baptist

The Church brings our attention again to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ the Lord. This second look at the one who goes before the Lord is to help us assess the dignity of the heavenly Visitor we expect in two days. The prophet Malachi prophesied of the messenger who was to come to prepare a way for the Lord himself. “The Lord God says this: Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of Hosts.” The messenger’s role is to prepare a way for God to come to us. God is sending him to prevent us from missing the opportunity of our visitation, for the consequences of missing the opportunity is a loss that would be irreparable or irreversible. The messenger is to help us prepare adequately and be able to meet the demands of the coming of our God. “Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fuller’s alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made.” The messenger comes to us and gives us the proper orientation so that his refining fire may not reduce us to dross and ashes.   

According to the prophet, he will achieve this by turning the hearts of the fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers. As earlier noted, while reflecting on this passage, the messenger would call us back to reflect on the outcome of our lives of disobedience to the will of God and his commandments. Our behaviour and lifestyle are the fruits of the thoughts of our minds and loves of our hearts, and by extension, those who follow our words and lifestyles are also called our children. Listening to the proclamation of the messenger and reflecting on the outcome of our lives, we return to God, who is truly our Father. Our behaviour, lifestyles, and those following us will follow God’s will. Elijah achieved this during his life as the prophet of God; God sent John to do the same before the Lord. The Son of God will appear to sharpen and fulfil the longing for the heavenly teaching and knowledge of the will of God that the messenger will initiate. For the knowledge and doing of the will of the Father is the true sacrifice the Lord is coming to teach us and prepare us to offer. Thus, his purification work will not be for the sons of Levi alone but for all who will receive salvation. The scripture called us sons of Levi because his purification work would make us priests to serve our God by doing his will in all things in love.

The doing of the divine will of the Father is the sacrifice acceptable to God. Hence, his purification work in each of us will give us the desire and love to do the will of God in all things. The messenger received his name from this most important role he was to play in preparing the bride of the heavenly Bridegroom. They called him John, which means God is gracious. God is coming to show his graciousness in himself pouring to men; he will reveal himself and make us know his gracious will. “Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. ‘No,’ she said ‘he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘But no one in your family has that name’, and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’” The time of salvation is upon us, as John announced; our salvation consists in recognising the presence of our God in our midst and learning from him how to offer the sacrifice acceptable to God our Father. To fail to recognise and receive God’s revelation of his immutable will through his only Begotten Son is to be unfit for eternal life. Let us make our own the words of the Psalmist: “Lord, make me know ways. Lord, teach me your paths. Make me walk in your truth, and teach me: for you are God my saviour.”

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, as we see how the Nativity of your Son according to the flesh draws near, we pray that to us, your unworthy servants, mercy may flow from your Word, who chose to become flesh of the Virgin Mary and establish among us his dwelling, Jesus Christ our Lord. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.