This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
We know that Scripture is divinely inspired and believe that the Holy Spirit Himself guided the pen of those special individuals who authored what would come to be collected into Jewish Sacred Scripture and then the New Testament, forming the Bible.
The same level of prominence and guarantee of direct divine intervention is not spoken of in relation to the organization of Scriptures in our Catholic liturgy–but there is no doubt that we can see the same hand at work guiding this effort of organization. On so many days, the profound fulfillment of the Old Testament readings chosen in the Gospel passage is beautiful and multi-layered.
On many occasions, the Old Testament prophecies serve to add spiritual and emotional depth of understanding to the events historically laid out relatively plainly in the New Testament.
Today’s first reading is nearly unparalleled in this regard, except perhaps when one considers prophecies such as that of the suffering servant in Isaiah read on Good Friday (cf. Is. 53).
And the stunning element of today’s organization of Scriptures is not necessarily just that the Old Testament reading foreshadows or clarifies today’s Gospel passage, but that the two work together–in different ways–to foreshadow and shed brilliant, vividly colorful light on the event that we will celebrate imminently at Christmas.
There are two concepts in particular that leap off the page in the first reading. First, the word “Suddenly.” “Suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek.” The word “Suddenly” implies something unexpected, in a sense unprepared-for.
And indeed, what did man do to prepare the coming of God in the flesh, or to bring about this mad miracle of God’s love? Absolutely nothing. Until the Annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Mary, there is no evidence that any human on the planet ever dared conceive of such a radical form of divine action–even though that action was foreshadowed in the divinely inspired Old Testament Scriptures.
The miracle of the Incarnation of God in human flesh–this wonderful, unexpected initiative of God in response to our black, ugly, and hopeless rejection of Him in sin–is subject of endless fruitful contemplation and meditation. If He will take this level of creative initiative relative to the whole of the human race, what initiative will He not take in your life, if you sincerely and repeatedly invite Him in!
The second concept that leaps from today’s page is the tidy summation of the entire story arc and intent of the Incarnate Savior’s mission.
“And he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD. Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in the days of old, as in years gone by.”
There is not a single human being whom God creates whom He does not intend for eternal salvation, by the power of His Son’s sacrifice. But He also knows full well the many who will reject that gift and fall short of salvation. In the end, the final objective of His incarnate act is the “Sons of Levi”–those who willingly offer themselves to Him.
Now, one may think of the “Sons of Levi”–Levites being the priests of the Old Testament–as an image the continuum of the ministerial priesthood between the Old and New Testaments, but that is not the meaning considered in this reflection. This reflection, rather, considers this term as a metaphor for the continuum of the entire People of God between Old and New Testaments, in their common sharing of the priestly mission, the so-called common priesthood of the faithful. By that common priesthood, the entire people of God participates in the offering of sacrifice to God.
From the moment after the fall of Adam and Eve, with the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, the People of God have been making sacrifices to God representing their desire to give their very selves back to Him, recognizing that this effort involves atonement for the grave error of sin, both of the individual and of our race.
But these sacrifices are mere symbols with no effect, until Jesus comes and makes the gift of the human self back to God, with its element of atonement, actually real, possible and effective.
He does this first of all by offering Himself as THE pleasing sacrifice, single-handedly winning for us the re-opening of the door to Heaven.
But the reading points to another element of the glorious power of this act. In His redemptive act, begun with His Incarnation, the Word made flesh actually purifies the sons of Levi–that THEY may offer unto the Lord due sacrifice. Or as an ancient Catholic translation puts it, an offering in justice; or as Handel’s Messiah puts it, an offering in righteousness.
This purification of each of us is necessary, not just to offer as a race our great Sacrifice, which is Christ Himself, but also to offer in a finite way, seconding that sacrifice, our very selves. In His redemptive act, Jesus purifies us to be a truly and actually righteous part of His acceptable gift, which is elevated through His merit to a dignity that we cannot even fathom while in our earthly lives.
THIS is the great story arc of Jesus’ Incarnation, and it is worthy of a whole season’s meditation.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus: Come, Lord, come this Christmas and purify me! Set the trajectory for my life that You choose–one that, even if it incorporates some suffering, will fully purify my gift of self to You to be an offering in righteousness. I open the door of my heart completely to You, the great Refiner, with your fire of purification, and I do so without fear. Come, Lord Jesus!
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