Saturday before Christmas 2023
There is only one God, and He is not inside His own creation, of course. That’s not a spatial or temporal statement, because God transcends space and time; God is other than space and time. He exists, but it is unwise to call God the “Supreme Being” because that suggests He is one of many beings, when He is Being itself. He creates and sustains the universe and every erg and atom in the universe without being in any way bound by the universe. He is simply God. We literally cannot imagine God, but we can be in relation to God because He reveals Himself to us.
So let’s consider our first reading from the prophet Malachi. Like all the prophets, Malachi speaks for God. He tells God’s people what should concern them, revealing in a sense the mind of God. And here in this last chapter, Malachi pulls no punches. Our reading omits most of the chapter, but in that middle section of the chapter, the prophet goes after a long list of malefactors like “sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among [them] of justice.” Then he attacks the habit of short-changing the sanctuary of the promised tithe–God’s ten percent–of the harvest.
But after each of these attacks, the prophet repeats the promise of prosperity made to Abraham and his descendants. It’s like carrot and stick diplomacy. Fix what is broken, God says, and “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,”
But one error does not get this treatment–“speaking arrogantly” against God. Here’s the word: “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’” That provokes attention and the people do repent. And in the next chapter the promise is made. Elijah the prophet of prophets will come back to restore relationships in the family between fathers and their children. (Mothers are implicitly included.) Then when Zechariah hears the prophecy of the angel Gabriel in the Temple, it becomes clear that his son, John the Baptist, will be the one to bring this promise to fulfillment, by introducing the Messiah, Jesus, to bring everyone together in His community of faith. As we look forward to the Christmas season, let’s take advantage of the tradition to fast for the next couple of days, give alms to the poor, and repent of any family sins we may have on our consciences. Then we can accept with confidence all the graces of the new season of grace, and the new year of grace.
