In today's first reading and in the gospel, we hear the names of the prophet Elijah and John the Baptist mentioned.
Popular belief in the time of Jesus, as well as the teachings of the scribes, said that Elijah would return before the coming of the Messiah.
The belief is scripturally based.
We read in the end of the Old Testament book of Malachi, it says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and awesome day that the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.
It's Malachi 4 verses 5 and 6, and that's exactly what today's first reading, Sirach 48.10, reiterates as well, that Elijah will return before the Messiah's advent.
The word advent means arrival or coming, it's the season that we're in right now, hence the reason for talking about the Messiah's coming to earth in today's readings.
What the quote-unquote biblical scholars, if you will, of Jesus' time failed to recognize was that the Messiah would have two advents, two arrivals to earth.
It's something that the Jewish people still fail to acknowledge even to this day.
The Messiah's first arrival was his coming into the world in humility, it's what we celebrate at Christmas time.
His second arrival will be at the end of the world, his coming not in humility, but in glory at that time.
This is how our Lord interprets to his disciples the words of scripture when he says, Elijah will indeed come and restore all things, meaning before his second coming, but I tell you that Elijah has already come, that is, the Messiah's first coming, in the form of John the Baptist.
And they didn't recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased, Jesus said in the gospel, Matthew 17 verses 11 through 12.
In other words, there will be a literal return of the prophet Elijah, but there already has been a mystical or what we would call a typological or spiritual return of him in the presence of John the Baptist.
What did the angel Gabriel say of John to his father Zechariah?
Well, we read in Luke 1, 17, he, meaning John the Baptist, will go before him, meaning Christ, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.
Again, quoting there from Malachi chapter 4, the angel Gabriel.
At another point in his public ministry, Jesus said, all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
Matthew 11 verses 13 and 14.
So it was right for the scribes and many other people in first century Israel to look for Elijah's return, but unfortunately they missed it, because they misunderstood or only partially understood the prophecies in scripture.
They didn't read the scripture with the same spirit who inspired or who wrote the scriptures.
It's simply that they read and comprehended the word of God without the spirit of God.
In his 2010 apostolic exhortation, Verbum Domini, Pope Benedict XVI speaks of that problem, the problem of studying and reading the scriptures with the wrong spirit.
In paragraph 16 of his exhortation, he quotes Saint Jerome who said that, quote, we cannot come to an understanding of scripture without the assistance of the Holy Spirit who inspired it.
And then he quotes Saint Gregory the Great who said that, quote, he himself, meaning the Holy Spirit, created the words of the Holy Testaments.
He himself reveals their meaning.
The problem with many scriptures scholars in the last couple centuries is that they read the scriptures and they actually don't have the light of faith.
They don't have the Holy Spirit.
And so they interpret everything with a historical, critical, rationalistic mindset.
It's like trying to study the nature and the life of a human person by first taking all the blood out of that person and then seeing how they respond to that, seeing how they do for the rest of the day.
Typically they won't do very well, it doesn't work.
Leviticus 17.11 says that the life of the flesh is in the blood while the life of the scriptures is in the Holy Spirit.
Without the Holy Spirit living and working inside of you, you really can't understand what God is saying.
Also the same problem arises when you take the scriptures out of their natural habitat, which is the church.
It's true that you can take a chimpanzee out of Africa, fly him to New York City, sit him in one of the office buildings there in Manhattan.
You can do that, sure.
You can also feed him all the bananas that you want to give while he's there, in his time there.
But neither he nor the office building is going to benefit from that visit, when you think about it.
Similarly, taking the scriptures out of the church, out of the Catholic church and forming other churches, supposedly based solely on scripture, that was never the Lord's intention.
St. Augustine famously said, I would not believe in the gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic church did not influence me to do so.
So we must understand the scriptures in the church in the light of the teachings of the church in order to properly understand them.
Paragraphs 17 and 18 of Verbum Domini says that, quote, ultimately it is the living tradition of the church which makes us adequately understand sacred scripture as the word of God.
We see clearly then how important it is for the people of God to be properly taught and trained to approach the sacred scriptures in relation to the church's living tradition and to recognize in them the very word of God, unquote.
Without the church who's animated and guided by the Holy Spirit, without the church you can't clearly understand divine revelation.
Just as an example of this, we hear again in the scripture today how the scribes believed in only one advent and only one coming Messiah.
The Jewish people nowadays, at least those who are religious, believe the same thing.
In the mass today, actually in the preface before the Eucharistic prayer, which we'll pray in a second, the preface speaks of two advents of the Messiah, not just one.
That's an example of how the church and how praying in the church and how being in the church in her liturgy, it points us to the proper interpretation of scripture and a prophecy.
Without the church, everyone's interpretation is just as valuable or just as suspect as everyone else's, actually.
One other thing to note here is that prophecy and the interpretation of prophecy are also connected to the charismatic gifts, too.
St. Paul speaks of that.
For example, 1 Corinthians 14.1, he says, earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
In a broad sense, prophecy is speech that's inspired by the Holy Spirit.
It's done under the spontaneous inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
St. Paul says that it is, quote, for building up, encouraging, and consoling others, 1 Corinthians 14.3.
So, it's actually for the edification and the up-building of the church itself.
It can be prophetic words, prophetic dreams or visions, prophetic predictions, the reading of hearts.
Prophecy is a gift that makes God's unchanging revelation in Jesus Christ actually come alive, even here and now, nowadays.
So whether it be through the scriptures or in the tradition of the church or as a charismatic gift, prophecy and the understanding of prophecy has as a foundational element that it comes from the Holy Spirit and is led by the Holy Spirit.
This is the Spirit that led Elijah and St. John the Baptist in their ministries, but it wasn't active in those like the scribes who didn't recognize the coming of the Messiah in Jesus Christ.
If you want to understand the Lord, you have to have His Spirit dwelling in you, which means that as Catholics, bare minimum, we have to be living in a state of grace, not in a state of mortal sin.
The other brief reflection that we'll offer today is on the nature and the missions of Elijah and John the Baptist.
We heard about that in the first reading where the book of Sirach said that Elijah was destined to turn back the hearts of fathers towards their sons, Sirach 48.10.
It's the same thing spoken of Elijah in Malachi, Malachi 4, verses 5 and 6, the prophecy we already quoted, and it's the same thing that the angel Gabriel said that John the Baptist actually would do in his ministry.
He, again, the Baptist, will go before him, Jesus, in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, Luke 1.17.
What Malachi adds in the hearts of children to their fathers, Malachi 4, verse 6.
So interestingly, one of the signs of the Messiah's coming is actually family reconciliation, the healing of relationships between fathers and sons that represents all family members.
But the Hebrew expression used by Malachi also indicates community repentance, i.e. the fathers, meaning the older generation, and the sons, the younger generation, both turning back to the Lord.
The word that Malachi uses is hashiv, which means to turn around, to turn back, to return.
One thing that our country and our culture desperately need is a return to God and a return to the practice of the faith.
Certainly pray for that in the new year.
When fathers and mothers turn their hearts toward their children, it's a sign that they are beginning to prioritize what's really important in life, which is relationships.
And when children turn their hearts back to their parents, it's a sign of renewed respect for authority and an appreciation and an honor due towards those who have given us life and have provided for us.
In short, this father-son reciprocal dynamic demonstrates the working of God's grace in our hearts.
And it shows our openness to returning to those two great commandments, to the love of God and the love of neighbor.
As a love of a father for a son is meant to mirror the love of our Heavenly Father towards us, so too love and respect for our parents is meant to mirror that which reflects or should reflect our attitude towards the Lord.
So God's work in our lives is one of healing and restoring.
And all those who assist and go before the Messiah, they participate in his work.
First and foremost, the two great prophets, Elijah, John the Baptist, but then also all the workers in the Lord's vineyard.
We are all called to prepare the way of the Lord in our own hearts and in the hearts of others as well.
So let's ask our lady in this Advent season to prepare the way for her son in our hearts, one by giving us the grace to turn back to God, to come back to the church, to truly live our faith, to live in God's grace, but let's also ask her to heal our fractured relationships and to help bring about a spiritual revival in our country and in our Western world.
Praise be Jesus and Mary now and forever.
Amen.