[stephenkhoo]

Scripture Reflections
Saturday, 10 December, 2011, 2nd Week of Advent
PREPARING ONESELF AND OTHERS TO RECEIVE THE LORD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: SIRACH 48:1-4, 9-11; MATTHEW 17:10-13

The resounding message in the first two weeks of advent is that the Lord is coming. When He comes He will restore us to our dignity and give us all His blessings. But are we ready to welcome Him? If we have no peace or joy or meaning in life, the problem does not lie with God but with us. For this reason, the Church throughout the liturgy invites us in different ways to make ourselves available to His coming.

To help us in this process, the liturgy gives us two of the greatest prophets, one in the Old Testament and the other, a contemporary of Jesus, to teach us the meaning of preparing ourselves to welcome the Lord, our Saviour. In many ways, both prophets are similar in character, lifestyle and in message. In lifestyle, Elijah lived in the wilderness and caves whereas John lived in the desert. Elijah was taken care of by the birds whereas John fed on locusts. In attire, they both dressed in camel hair with a leather belt around their waist. In ministry, both were persecuted by powerful ladies for their fidelity to the Lord. Queen Jezebel was after Elijah’s life, for he killed all her prophets. Herodias had John killed, for she could not tolerate his criticism of her adulterous affair with Herod. Both prophets were courageous in reprimanding the kings for their failure in moral and religious lives. Elijah admonished King Ahab whereas John rebuked Herod. Ironically, both kings were more receptive to the prophets, but under the influence of their wives, they lacked courage to obey the Word of God. For these reasons, John the Baptist was thought to be Elijah who was to come again to prepare the people to receive the Messiah. Jesus Himself in the gospel confirmed that Elijah had come in the person of John the Baptist, but the people failed to recognize him.

From their lives, what can we learn from Elijah and St John the Baptist with respect to preparing the way for the Lord? Firstly, to prepare the way of the Lord, we must begin with ourselves. If both of them were great prophets, forerunners of the coming of the Messiah, it was because both of them lived an ascetic life of prayer, mortification and watchfulness. Before they preached repentance to others, they ensured that they themselves had received the message of the Lord and acted on it. They lived a life of integrity, in close communion with God in prayer. Their love for the Lord was demonstrated by their commitment to the Chosen people of God whom the Lord loves.

The first thing we must do to welcome the Lord is therefore to put our moral and religious lives in order. We lack integration in the way we live our faith and life. Certainly if we have listened to the Word of God and have been faithful to our prayer life, especially our quiet time with the Lord, our conscience would have been pricked so often. There are certain negative habits we have refused to give up, or certain sins that cling to us so tenaciously. If we want to find the peace and joy of the Lord, we must begin by making time to be with the Lord in prayer and reflection. Only then can we become sensitive to our sins and the lack of priority and focus in life. So like Elijah and John the Baptist, let us enter the wilderness to hear the voice of the Lord, the voice of peace.

But it is not sufficient simply to welcome the Lord as individuals. We have a responsibility like Elijah and John the Baptist to prepare others to receive the Lord as well. Elijah sought to purify the hearts of his people from the contamination of the pagan practices brought in by Jezebel. John the Baptist too, was called to be the “prophet of God, the most High” to “go ahead of the Lord to prepare His ways before Him, to make known to His people their salvation through forgiveness of all their sins, the loving kindness of the heart of our God who visits us like the dawn from on high.” (Lk 1:76-78)

We too, in our own ways, must help our loved ones and those whom we know to turn to the Lord and seek His love and His grace. We must encourage them to spend more time in silent prayer and quiet expectation of the coming of Christ. We must resist joining the crowd in merry making to the extent that we are spiritually unprepared for Christ. Sure, we want to celebrate Christmas with parties, presents, etc. But reducing Christmas to a mere social event would be to miss the person whom we are celebrating. We need to get in touch with our deepest self, especially when we are coming to the end of the year, and know the things that we truly desire and the people whom we want to be reconciled with.

It would be a good opportunity to reach out to the poor, the lonely, those who are discouraged, misunderstood or have been hurt by their loved ones and need a listening ear. For such people, they can only see the face of God through us when we offer them a helping hand or some words of encouragement and hope. Like the psalmist, they too are saying, “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved. Once again, O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven, and see. Take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted, the son of man whom you yourself made strong.” Like John the Baptist, we are to be a signpost for them so that they can encounter the Lord’s grace and mercy. Do not allow this Advent to pass by without offering hope to someone who has lost hope in God, in himself, or in others. Have you given hope to anyone recently?

We can be prophets of hope only if, like Elijah and John the Baptist, we receive the Spirit of God. We know that both of them were filled with the Spirit of God, which enabled them to witness courageously to the Lord. Yet John the Baptist also encourages us to wait for the Messiah who will fill us with the fullness of His Holy Spirit. As Christians, we have received this fullness of the Holy Spirit. We must now pray to Him to renew our lives and the face of the earth once again, so that the world will come to have faith and hope in God as they see the face of Christ in us.