He is Elijah, the one who is to come
REFLECTIONS TODAY
Elijah the Tishbite, who prophesied during the reigns of Ahab and Ahaziah of Israel, appears as a prophet who insisted on the unique divinity of Yahweh and the repudiation of the cult of any other divinity. He challenged the prophets of Baal patronized by Queen Jezebel to a showdown at Mt. Carmel and had them all killed (1 Kgs 18). He is presumed not to have died because he was taken into heaven by a chariot of fire (2 Kgs 2:11). This presumption was the basis of the later belief that Elijah would return.
A well-known prophecy of Malachi runs: “Now I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day; he will turn the hearts of fathers to their sons, and the heart of sons to their fathers” (3:23-24). Since the Jews believe that the coming of God’s Kingdom will be preceded by the return of Elijah, the scribes can therefore argue that Jesus cannot be the Messiah because Elijah has not yet appeared.
When John the Baptist appears in the desert baptizing, wearing clothing made of camel’s hair and having a leather belt around his waist which recall the austere dress of the prophet (2 Kgs 1:8), people ask whether he might indeed be Elijah. Out of humility, John does not claim to be Elijah (Jn 1:21), but the evangelists and Jesus himself see him as coming in the spirit of Elijah. In today’s Gospel, Jesus clearly points to John as Elijah who was expected to come. The people, therefore, are to listen to his message of repentance and change of life.
First Reading • Is 41:13-20
I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you.”
Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the Lord; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and double-edged, to thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff. When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them. But you shall rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water. I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine, that all may see and know, observe and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Gospel • Matthew 11:11-15
Jesus said to the crowds: “Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force. All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John.
And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.