(Readings: Sir 48:1-4,9-11; Mt 17:10-13)
Fire from Heaven
Three great figures tower before us in today’s readings: Elijah, John the Baptist, and the Lord Jesus. What seems to bind the persons and mission of all three of them together may be summed up in the one word fire. Sirach uses this word four times in connection with Elijah, while John the Baptist says with reference to his own ministry: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Mt 3:10). And of his cousin Jesus, John affirms: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt 3:11). We may say that, in each of these three looming Advent figures, their private persons were fused into one with their mission by the fire of God’s love for them and their love for God. In their inmost heart and whole being, they became their mission.
And what about ourselves and our own persons and mission? How do we fit into this picture as disciples of Jesus? What is the fire driving us? Is it the fire of our blind passions, the fire of our reckless self-will? Or rather, in union with the Lord Jesus, is it the fire of the Holy Spirit, of divine charity, which made Jesus hand himself over into the hands of sinners, knowing very well the suffering this would entail?
Let us now, then, brothers and sisters, confess our sins and so prepare ourselves to receive transforming Fire from Heaven: the Blessed Eucharist.