December 23, 2009
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent
But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner's fire, or like the fuller's lye. He will sit refining and purifying (silver), and he will purify the sons of Levi, Refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD. Malachi 3:2-3
“What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.” Luke 1:66
Piety
“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell, lead all souls into Heaven, especially those who are most in need of Thy Mercy!” Lead me then to the refiner’s fire of conversion so that I may turn my heart from selfish pursuits and devote my life to you. Amen.
Study
The question in today’s Gospel hangs in the air: “What then will this child be?” The question in the mind of every expectant parent hangs in the air: “What then will this child be?” Did these two poor, simple women of Nazareth, Mary and Elizabeth, ask that question? Did they have any real notion of what roles their sons would play in world history? Could they even think that people would have been reading and writing about their lives 10 years later or 2010 years later? The signs were there but would people believe it? Consider that even John’s own father doubted the message of the angel.
The angel announced to him inside the holy place that his son would “turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17b) To that, Zechariah says doubtfully, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
If Zechariah was here today, he may have said, “Say what?” We live in a skeptical age and can more fully understand and identify with where Zechariah’s doubt came from than where the perfect faith of Mary and Elizabeth sprang forth.
This is one of the reasons why I love the Bible so much. It is not only filled with pure, God-loving, faithful creatures. But we encounter through its inspired and revealed Word, people just like us…with their doubts and insecurities and ambitions. People like Adam, Zechariah, Peter, Nicodemus, Matthew and more. The Bible also is filled with people who don’t even have a name, just a story or a noun clause. Yet people like the woman at the well, the man born blind, and the ten lepers allow their stories to become part of the case for our conversion.
In their conversion stories, we learn the path to our conversion. That is exactly what would become of this child…he would become a mirror of the entire Bible calling for us to change the direction in which we look for happiness in our lives, “to guide our feet on the path of peace.”
The reading from Malachi describes the role of the prophet who will announce the coming of the Messiah. “He is like the refiner's fire, or like the fuller's lye. He will sit refining and purifying (silver), and he will purify the sons of Levi, Refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.”
What does fire do to anything that touches it? To some things, they improve as when we cook food or warm a home on a cold day. Other things are destroyed by fire. Whether for improvement or destruction, whatever is touched by the refiner’s fire can not be changed back into the form it was in prior to being heated and changed. You can never make your well-done steak medium rare ever again. You can not rebuild a home that burns down with the same material. You need to start over from the beginning with fresh materials.
The refiner’s fire is not the fire of destruction. It is the fire of purification, filtering and improvement. What touches the refiner’s fire comes out better in the end. The refiner gets rid of impurities in order to make things better in the end. The fire of destruction is the fire of hell taking away God’s creation. The fire of perfection is the fire of heaven polishing God’s creation so it changes for the better.
What then will this child be? John will be the refiner. Purely from the act of naming him, John’s refining ways were immediately first put to work on his very own father, Zechariah.
Action
“What then will this child be?”
After nearly four full weeks of Advent have passed, the question should be moot. However, the underlying theme remains. Listening and truly hearing still does not ring true to the neighbors of Elizabeth and Zechariah.
Are we listening any better than they are? What then will these people be? What then will we be? What then will we become? After nearly four full weeks of Advent have passed, are we ready to let this question ring out in the way we live our lives? Are we ready to turn our lives around to answer the cry in the wilderness? Are we ready to turn our hearts to obedience and faith? To get on the “path to peace,” we have to turn away from the path to all other goals.
