Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
In today's Gospel, our Lord is talking about St. John the Baptist coming as the mystical Elijah,
that he comes in a spiritual sense, for Scripture says that at the end of time,
the prophet Elijah will come to announce the second coming of the Lord,
but we know there is an extreme difference.
There is a difference between what Elijah will announce and what St. John the Baptist announced.
For St. John the Baptist announces the first advent.
He announces that the Messiah has come into the world,
and so St. John the Baptist announces the age.
The age of mercy, where Elijah will be announcing the age of justice,
that is, the time when the Lord will come and judge each and every one of us
according to how we have responded to his mercy.
And so, he is praising St. John the Baptist here as the precursor of the Christ,
the one who begins to announce, and his message was the same message that Christ would give.
For St. John the Baptist would go about preaching that we must repent,
for the kingdom of God is at hand.
That is, we must accept the mercy of God by a life in which we try and seek always to conform ourselves
by the grace of God to his holy commandments.
And so, there is a difference between the coming of Elijah, the person of Elijah,
and the coming of St. John the Baptist in the spirit of Elijah.
For St. John the Baptist, again, is the one who announces that in the first advent of the Savior,
he comes to show us his mercy.
He comes, as it were, to hold out the palm of peace for each and every one of us.
And if we do not respond to that, then we have much to fear in the second advent of the Christ,
which Elijah, the prophet, will announce,
because we will have true reason to fear because we have not accepted the graces God has given us,
and we have not entered into and lived the Christian life that he wishes to bequeath to us.
And so, he will have...
He will have no recourse, but, as it were, to judge us according to our sins and to our depravity.
And so, let us strive always to be thankful for the precursor who has announced the first coming,
and let us enter into that mystery of the first coming by our repentance
so that we truly come to understand the mystery we are presently preparing for,
that is, the mystery of Christ in which we will enter into the cave at Bethlehem
in order to receive the Christ.
The Christ child, the infant Christ child in our souls.
And let us always remember that he is received by humble entrance into the places where Mary dwells.
And so, we must enter into the life of Mary if we are truly to receive the life of Christ.
And so, let us always consecrate ourselves, let us always dedicate ourselves totally to our mother
who will protect us from the onslaughts of the modern world,
and especially the sins of the modern world,
which seek...
which seem to be so attractive to the majority of mankind.
St. John the Evangelist gives us a stark warning in regards to the coming and the announcement of St. John the Baptist.
He points out in his first chapter of the Gospel of St. John
that the majority of mankind would reject the preaching of St. John the Baptist.
There was a man named John who came and announced the advent of the Christ,
but we prefer to dwell in the darkness
rather than to live in the darkness.
And so, let us strive always by all acts of humility by accepting all our trials and our tribulations
for love of him who first loved us and sent St. John the Baptist to announce
that he has come not to condemn but to give us life
so that we may dwell with him and all the...
that we may dwell with all the angels and saints
praising the divine trinity together for all eternity in heaven.
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Thanks for watching!