Mon 23 December 2024 – 4th Week of Advent

Mon 23 December 2024 – 4th Week of Advent

Memorial: St John of Kanty, 1390-1493, taught in Kraków, Poland.

1st Reading: Malachiah 3:1-4, 4,4-6

God will send a fore-runner to prepare for the final day

The Lord God says this: “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — indeed, he is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Look, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.

Responsorial: Psalm 24: 4-5, 8-9, 10, 14

R./: Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.

Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my saviour. (R./)

The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray.
He guides the humble in the right path;
he teaches his way to the poor. (R./)

His ways are faithfulness and love
for those who keep his covenant and will.
The Lord’s friendship is for those who revere him;
to them he reveals his covenant. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 1:57-66

The birth of John the Baptist

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

The Converter of Hearts

Christians have seen in John the Baptist the messenger, promised in the prophet Malachi, whose task was to prepare the way so that “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” In other words, John was the messenger of the covenant, now offered to us all, in the Jesus in whom we delight. John is honoured in all four Gospels, for his service of preparing hearts and minds to receive the message of Jesus. Luke, above all, highlights how John was received with joy — as a great gift not just to his parents and relatives, but to the humble people generally. A spirit of joyfulness and praise runs through all of the story surrounding John’s birth. And are our hearts open to John’s message? Does the Lord whom he proclaimed wish to enter our lives, our homes, our world? The answer is clear and unmistakable: Yes, He does! How do we know? Simply by listening to what God is saying to us in the Scriptures, and in our community gathered in prayer.

Centuries before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah described the Messiah or Saviour as Someone who would live among His people and be one of them. The very name given to the Messiah points this out: “Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.” In today’s reading from Isaiah, we are reminded that the Lord wishes to live among us. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel. ” What was foretold by Isaiah came to be fulfilled as we hear in today’s Gospel, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”

The promised Messiah or Saviour is none other than God, who in his Son Jesus took on our human nature, became one like us in all things except sin and dwells among us. “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (cf. Jn 1:14). Does the Lord wish to enter our lives, our homes, our world? Indeed, He does! He did that on the first Christmas and He continues to do that if we let Him.

The naming of a child can cause some dispute in a family. Different people have different preferences for naming their children; but in the end it is the choice of the parents. Their relatives and neighbours expected Zechariah and Elizabeth to be conventional and call their little son Zechariah, after his father. But Zechariah and Elizabeth felt this was not the name God wanted for their child.. At this moment in history, convention was ignored, for God was doing something new. This child would be different to other children. Relatives and neighbours rightly wondered, “What will this child turn out to be?” John the Baptist’s privileged role was to prepare people for the coming of One greater than himself, One who would be called Emmanuel, God-with-us. The grace of God was working in a new way, making a new covenant with his people and with all of humanity. It is this wonderful gift that we celebrate at Christmas, and it never ceases to fill us with joy and gratitude.