In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Saturday 12 December 2020

Second Week of Advent

Word for today
The Gospel of Matthew 17:10-13

Elijah

It is written in the Bible that the coming of the prophet Elijah will be one of the signs of the Messiah's coming. Jesus explained that Elijah had already come, not the prophet himself, but the one who represented Elijah as the soul and symbol of the prophecy. The prophet the Bible refers to is John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, the last voice God would send to Earth to restore all things and to prepare mankind for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.
The scribes, the leading experts of the Bible, had been repeating for centuries  that the Messiah's arrival  would be preceded by the prophet Elijah, and they were there throughout history straining their eyes and examining every sign with their analytical minds in order to recognize the coming of Elijah, the prophet that would unequivocally signal the Messiah's coming. The eyes of the Bible's intellectuals were wide open and their minds were anxiously waiting. Elijah arrived, but it was not a reincarnated Elijah as they were expecting; instead it was John the Baptist, the voice dressed in camel skin crying out in the desert.
Elijah did come, the prophecy was fulfilled by the greatest of his prophets, yet no one was aware of it. The scribes and priests of the temple, the kings and governors did what they wanted to him, and they cut off his head. And if they did not recognize the precursor of the Messiah, how could they recognize the Messiah himself? In fact, Jesus explained that the Son of Man would be subjected to the same violent treatment.
But why, why is violence always resorted to in the face of what is new or different?
Violence  expresses non-intelligence and the non-utilization of intellectual capabilities in the most acute way.
The mind's  fear of  having to open itself to the intelligence of what is new and better is the very source of its ignorance and stupidity.