Readings: Sirach 48:1-4,9-11; Psalm 80; Matthew 17:9a, 10-13
From the description of him given in the first reading it seems that Elijah ought to be immediately recognizable. He comes with fire and departs in fire. His words are a blazing furnace, a torch bringing famine, drought and destruction. Awesome is the word for it, even in the contemporary American use of that term, and we are not surprised that he should depart as he came, in a whirlwind of fire, on his chariot of fiery horses. He comes, we are told, to allay God’s wrath before fury breaks, to put an end to anger, to re-establish the tribes of Jacob, and to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children. It sounds as if he is the wrath and the fury rather than the one who prevents the wrath and the fury from breaking out.
From the description of him given in the first reading it seems that Elijah ought to be immediately recognizable. He comes with fire and departs in fire. His words are a blazing furnace, a torch bringing famine, drought and destruction. Awesome is the word for it, even in the contemporary American use of that term, and we are not surprised that he should depart as he came, in a whirlwind of fire, on his chariot of fiery horses. He comes, we are told, to allay God’s wrath before fury breaks, to put an end to anger, to re-establish the tribes of Jacob, and to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children. It sounds as if he is the wrath and the fury rather than the one who prevents the wrath and the fury from breaking out.
John the Baptist is Elijah, Jesus says, he has come
already, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.
Rather than fire, blazing furnaces and torches, drought and famine, John came
as a strange preacher of repentance, calling for water rather than fire, a baptism
in which the people could confess their sins and ask God to cleanse their
lives. In some accounts John’s words are fiery, he takes no prisoners, and his
steely integrity finally provokes the fury that leads to his martyrdom.
In his reply to the disciples Jesus seems to refer to the
passage of Sirach which is today’s first reading. Elijah / John will restore
the tribes of Jacob, will restore all things, and see that everything is once
more as it should be. This is so that what is to happen next, can happen; so
that the one coming next, can come. He is a precursor, then, Elijah / John setting
things right somehow before something more radical can happen, allaying the
wrath before the fury breaks.
If Elijah is the prophet of fire, drought and famine,
he is also the prophet of the still small voice. In his moment of deepest
intimacy with God, it is not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire that Elijah
is in God’s presence. It is in the still small voice, in the sound of fine
silence, that Elijah is in the presence of God. The recognition of the presence
of God, the acknowledgement of his prophets and messengers, is not then in dramatic
cosmological convulsions, in awesome and terrifying physical events. Perhaps it
will be like that at the end of time. But for now recognition of the presence
of God is more radical, a matter of converted hearts, changed minds, new ways
of thinking, new ways of responding, things opening up, things beginning to
move again, sins forgiven, love reborn. Shutting up the heavens may be dramatic
and fearful but opening hearts is much more radical, much more creative, much
more fruitful for the world’s salvation. Oh that you would tear open the
heavens and come down: this is the prayer of a later prophet, a prayer fulfilled
precisely in the moment in which Jesus will be baptized by John, the Messiah baptized
by Elijah.
The strangest thing Elijah will do is turn back the
hearts of fathers towards their children. It is a puzzling expression. Are the
hearts of fathers not naturally turned towards their children? Does it mean
that the order of creation has become so distorted that only divine power can
enable fathers to do something which ought to come naturally to them? It is an essential
part of the mission of Elijah as the angel Gabriel explains it to Zechariah, the
father of John the Baptist, when he brings him the news of his son’s conception
(Luke 1:17): he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Perhaps it
continues this theme of opening rather than shutting, opening to the future and
to what is yet to be, to what the young are bringing, opening to new life, fresh
and original, rather than relying on old ways, old patterns, old compromises.
We can if we wish entertain ourselves with images of
cosmological convulsion, fire and thunder, earthquake and erupting mountains.
But the work of the Spirit is otherwise, internal, deep down, radical, hidden
for the most part, until it bears fruit in the awesome works of love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
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