Reflection for the Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent

23 December 2019
The Birth of Saint John the Baptist, circa 1525, Spain, polychromed and gilded wood - Art Institute of Chicago. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

 

Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent

Year A

Reading 1: Malachi 3: 1-4; 23-24

Responsorial Psalm: PS 25: 4-5; 8-10; 14 

“Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.”

Gospel: Luke 1: 57-66

 

Luke 1: 63 – “He asked for a tablet and wrote, ‘John is his name,’ and all were amazed.”

Today’s Gospel reflects on the absolutely pivotal figure of John the Baptist. It’s fair to say that you cannot really understand Jesus without understanding John, which is precisely why all four evangelists tell the story of John the Baptist as a kind of overture to the story of Jesus. John sums up Israel, and without the Israelite background, the story of Jesus becomes opaque.

The story of John’s birth brings his parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, into focus. Both are strongly priestly personages. Elizabeth is a descendant of the family of Aaron, the first priest of Israel, and Zechariah was a practicing temple priest.

What’s important for our purposes is that John was of very priestly stock. So why, when we first hear of him in his adult life, is he out in the desert and not in the temple?

Well, there was a long prophetic tradition that criticised the temple for its corruption. In John’s time, the temple was mired in very messy, vile, and violent politics. So what is he doing in the desert? He is offering what the temple ought to be offering but wasn’t, due to its corruption, namely, the forgiveness of sins.

Pray for all our Parish Priests today. Thank God for their spiritual guidance.

 

With thanks to Holy Name of Mary Parish, Hunters Hill, who have supplied these daily Advent and Christmas 2019 reflections from their publication Daily Inspirations of Faith: A Season of Prayer – Advent to Epiphany 2019-20.

 

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