Dec 12: Every Believer an Angel

Wayne Hajos: John the Forerunner (Angel of the Desert)

Third Sunday of Advent
Gospel: Mt 11:2-11

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you (NRSV, Mt 11:10b).”

Lord God, in Jesus, you have made clear for us a truth that has been spoken to us all, to everyone, from the very beginning: you are not a distant God, dwelling in your high heaven, only looking down upon your creation from afar. We do not have to go up alone, as Moses did, into the clouds and storm of a mountain to find you or into the Tent of Meeting to speak with you. Or, as the high priest did once a year, enter alone into the Holy of Holies of the Temple to stand in your presence. From Jesus we have learned that when we wrestle over the deepest problems of our life, it is not, as Jacob did, with some lesser being that we wrestle, but it is with you, Lord, that we wrestle, with your very self.

In Jesus, Lord, we have learned that your own divine life has been pour out upon us so that we share immediate in your divinity, in everything that you are. Yes, you dwell, not on a high mountain away from us, or even in a Holy of Holies that we are forbidden to enter, but, as long as we are ready to accept you, you live in the depth of our being, closer to us that we are to ourselves. Even when we say “no” and turn away from you in the selfishness that is sin, when we reject the Spirit that brings us your life, your Word remains ever present to us, challenging us to repent and to turn back to you. Because we are human beings, made in your own image and likeness, it is impossible for us to remove ourselves from your immediate presence. And that is the real horror of sin: to live in the presence of a loving God who is rejected.

It is only in the saving witness of Jesus that we have come to grasp that which has been revealed from the beginning. For too long, Lord, we thought of you as so very distant. When, in a privileged moment, we allowed you to break through our confusion, we said it could not be. It had to be, not you, but at best a messenger, an angel, who was bringing your word to us.

We thought that it was only your angel who spoke to Abraham, who saved Isaac from immolation, who wrestled with Jacob, or who challenged Moses from the burning bush.

The prophet Malachi promised us that a messenger would announce the definitive coming of the Day of the Lord. That “angel” was understood to be Elijah returned from heaven. Jesus himself spoke of that messenger, of Elijah returned, as John the Baptist. Because of this, in the Church, John has, over the centuries, been portrayed as an angel with wings, the swift messenger of the Lord, the angel of the desert.

Yes, Lord, John is messenger, but not merely one who brings your word from on high. John, like all of your saints, lives your divine life, and that life radiates out from him. Jesus is your incarnate presence in the world but your divine life shines forth from all of your saints.

Help us all, Lord, to continue to say “yes” to your gift of divine life, that the mission entrusted to John, to announce your coming, may also be a mission shared in different ways by all of us, that we may become more fully your messengers and thus serve one another by mediating to one another your life and love that are always present in every human situation.

Alleluia. Amen