December 11, Saturday Advent Weekday

Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80:4

Mass reading: Sirach 48:1-4,9-11 / Matthew 17:9,10-13

Transformation

As a college student I worked summers in a steel mill where the blasting fire transformed iron ore into molten liquid which, when cooled, becomes fiercely strong iron. The role of the prophets Elijah and John was to prepare for the transforming fire of love that Jesus would bring.

Within 70 years of Jesus’ death, His teaching had changed the whole western world, the result of the example of the earliest Christians who, strengthened by the fire of the Holy Spirit, treated each other with love, considered marriage as sacred, and gave dignity to women and slaves. By the year 103, St. Ignatius of Antioch can call Jesus’ community “catholic”: universal. Even so, we still have much growth to cultivate.  

Prayer: Help me, O God, to bring others to You by my example and Christian values.