Sirach 48:1-4,9-11b/Ps.80:2ac…/Matt17:10-13

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In today’s Gospel, Jesus responds to his disciples’ question about Elijah by saying something very striking: “Elijah has already come. ” By this, Jesus is referring to John the Baptist. According to Jewish expectation, Elijah was to return before the coming of the Messiah.

Jesus affirms that this promise has indeed been fulfilled- but in a way that many failed to recognize.

The First Reading from the Book of Sirach helps us understand this more deeply. Sirach speaks of Elijah as a prophet “like fire,” whose word burned like a torch.

He was sent “to turn back the hearts of fathers toward their children and to prepare the tribes of Israel.” Elijah was not a comfortable prophet. He disturbed the powerful, challenged injustice, and called people back to God. Because of this, he was both revered and feared.

John the Baptist came in this same spirit and power of Elijah. Like Elijah, John spoke boldly, lived simply, and called people to repentance.

Like Elijah, he challenged rulers and religious complacency. Yet, as Jesus says in the Gospel,“they did not recognize him but treated him as they pleased.” John’s prophetic voice was silenced by imprisonment and beheading at the hands of Herod.

Jesus knows that what happened to John will also happen to him. The same failure to recognize God’s work in John will lead many to reject Jesus himself.

Both John and Jesus were prophets who threatened vested interests, and both paid the ultimate price. Advent, therefore, is not only a season of joyful expectation; it is also a season that reminds us of the cost of faithfulness.

At the heart of today’s Gospel is a powerful truth: failure to recognize the true dignity and calling of a person often leads to their mistreatment.

John was dismissed, ridiculed, and destroyed because people could not see him as God’s messenger. Jesus, too, would be rejected because people saw only what suited them to see.

This challenges us to examine how we see others. Do we truly recognize the God-given dignity in the people around us-the poor, the vulnerable, the inconvenient, the ones who challenge us? Or do we, like the crowds of John’s time, see only what confirms our own comfort and interests?

The Gospel invites us to refine our vision, to see others as God sees them. True respect begins with recognition-recognition of the sacredness of each human life. When our seeing is limited, our loving becomes limited as well.

As we draw closer to the celebration of Christ’s birth, the Church reminds us that welcoming the Savior also means welcoming his message-and sometimes that message will unsettle us.

Proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed has a cost. It will not always be applauded. But like John the Baptist, we are called to remain faithful.

That is why today’s Responsorial Psalm becomes our prayer:

“O Lord, rouse up your might; O Lord, come to our help.”

May the Lord give us the courage of Elijah, the faithfulness of John the Baptist, and the grace to recognize Christ in one another, so that our lives may truly prepare the way of the Lord. Amen.