Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
2ND WEEK OF ADVENT
Psalter: Week 2 / (White)
St. John of the Cross, priest & doctor
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 80: 2ac & 3b, 15-16, 18-19: Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
1st Reading: Sirach 48: 1-4, 9-11
Then came the prophet Elijah, like a fire, his words a burning torch. He brought a famine on the people and in his zealous love had them reduced in number.
Speaking in the name of the Lord he closed the heavens, and on three occasions called down fire.
How marvelous you were, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! Who could ever boast of being your equal?
You were taken up by a whirlwind of flames in a chariot drawn by fiery horses.
It was written that you should be the one to calm God’s anger in the future, before it broke out in fury, to turn the hearts of fathers to their sons and to restore the tribes of Jacob.
Happy are those who will see you and those who die in love, for we too shall live.
Gospel: Matthew 17: 9a, 10-13
And as they came down the mountain, the disciples asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”
Jesus answered, “So it is: first comes Elijah; and he will restore all things.
But I tell you, Elijah has already come; and they did not recognize him; and they 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.
REFLECTION:
“They did not recognized him.”
Today’s Gospel narrates that as Jesus and his disciples were going down from the mountain where Jesus transfigured, the disciples asked Jesus about the return of Elijah.
We may remember that Elijah was one of the great prophets in the Old Testament. Elijah was carried to the heavens by a flaming chariot in the sight of his disciple Elisha (cf. 2 Kgs 2:11).
Malachi also prophesied that Elijah would return prior to the advent of the day of the Lord (cf. Mal 3:23).
In today’s pericope, Jesus told his disciples that Elijah had already come, and already carried out his mission to help restore relationships (cf. Mal 3:24; Lk 1:17). But the people failed to recognize him. The passage narrated that the disciples understood that Jesus was referring to John the Baptist as the Elijah they had expected to return.
John the Baptist’s mission was to help restore relationships in order to prepare people, making them worthy in the coming day of the Lord. Is there still somebody with whom we must be reconciled? This is the time to be reconciled.
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