St. John of Kanty, priest 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24

Now I am sending my messenger

Ahead of me to clear the way; then suddenly the Lord for whom you long will enter the sanctuary. The envoy of the covenant which you so greatly desire already comes, says Yah­weh of hosts. 

Who can bear the day of his coming and remain standing when he appears? For he will be like fire in the foundry and like the lye used for bleaching.  He will be as a refiner or a fuller. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.

So Yahweh will have priests who will present the offering as it should be. Then Yahweh will accept with pleasure the offering of Judah and Jerusalem, as in former days.

I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the day of Yahweh comes, for it will be a great and terrible day. He will reconcile parents with their children, and the children with their parents, so that I may not have to curse this land when I come.”

 

Ps 25:4-5ab, 8-9, 10 & 14

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

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 1:57-66

When the time came for Elizabeth, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the merciful Lord had done a wonderful thing for her and they rejoiced with her.

When on the eighth day they came to attend the circumcision of the child, they wanted to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” 

They said to her, “No one in your family has that name”; and they asked the father by means of signs for the name he wanted to give. Zecha­riah asked for a writing tablet and wrote on it, “His name is John,” and they were very surprised. Immediately Zecha­riah could speak again and his first words were in praise of God.

 A holy fear came on all in the neighborhood, and throughout the Hills of Judea the people talked about these events. All who heard of it pondered in their minds and wondered, “What will this child be?” For they understood that the hand of the Lord was with him.

 

Gospel Reflection：

“ O come, O come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel”so goes one of the most beautiful advent songs! It is the song of “captives” waiting for the coming of the redeemer! Indeed, all humanity is in the grip of Satan as “captives” until the shoot from the Radix Jesse came to free those in Satan’s tyranny!

We have cause for rejoicing even as Satan and his minions tremble at the good news of the birth of a Savior (as did Herod and all of Jerusalem, so Matthew tells us with the visit of the Magi to Herod.)

The joy of Advent is the joy of expecting “what great things the Lord has begun to do beginning with Mary’s “fiat” and the call to repentance to prepare the way of the Lord by the precursor John, and ultimately the birth of Jesus, the king of all Nations.

And since joy is best captured in poetry rather than prose let us conclude our reflelctions on the O Antiphons by singing this beautiful Advent prayer:

O come, O come Emmanuel  And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear

Refrain:

Rejoice, rejoice, Emanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel

O come thou rod of Jesse,

Free thine own from satan’s tyranny

From depths of hell thy peope save

And give them victory o’er the grave….