Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you

SUNDAY 15 DECEMBER (Mt 11,2-11)

In the prophecy of Malachi, confirmed by Sirach, it is said only that Elijah is sent to prepare a well-disposed people for the Lord, so that by coming he will not hit the earth with extermination: “Till like a fire there appeared the prophet whose words were as a flaming furnace. Their staff of bread he shattered, in his zeal he reduced them to straits; By God’s word he shut up the heavens and three times brought down fire. How awesome are you, Elijah! Whose glory is equal to yours? You brought a dead man back to life from the nether world, by the will of the Lord. You sent kings down to destruction, and nobles, from their beds of sickness. You heard threats at Sinai, at Horeb avenging judgments. You anointed kings who should inflict vengeance, and a prophet as your successor. You were taken aloft in a whirlwind, in a chariot with fiery horses. You are destined, it is written, in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the Lord, To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons, and to reestablish the tribes of Jacob. Blessed is he who shall have seen you before he dies” (Sir 48,1-11). The Gospel reveals that it is not Elijah the one who comes. Instead, John the Baptist is the one sent with the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare hearts to welcome the Christ of God. Moreover, it is he who reveals that Jesus is the true Messiah, the true Christ, the Lamb of God and the Son of God. He sees and witnesses what he has seen.

Then, why does he send some of his disciples to ask Jesus if he is really the Messiah? He asks because he is just a prophet. He says what the Spirit puts on his mouth. He is not a scribe and does not even know what was not revealed to him. Jesus does not fulfill the expectations of the men of his time. He does not present himself as a new David. He has no army. What Messiah will he be? Doubts can arise. Jesus reassures him: tell John what you have seen. The Scriptures are fulfilled in me. However, I did not come to realize the earthly expectations of men, but the divine ones of my Father. I am the Messiah who came not to bring war, but light, peace, conversion, eternal life, the forgiveness of sins and the redemption of man from evil.

When John heard in prison of the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to him with this question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.’ Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

The temptation of then is the temptation of today, tomorrow and always. Is the Church not under attack today? Is not she undergoing the temptation of reducing everything to immanence? Are we not making the messianism of the purest and highest transcendence a fact for the things of the earth? Are we not even once again crucifying the Christ of God on the cross of our worldly theories? To keep his being Messiah in the will of the Father, Christ Jesus went to the cross. We are removing Christ from the cross and the cross of Christ, so as not to have even the memory of that divine messianism, according to the Father. We must choose. Man is saved only by God’s Messiah according to the truth of the Holy Spirit. Other ways of salvation have not been given.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, do not allow us to reduce the Church to a human event.