“Elijah will indeed come and restore all things,” Jesus said, “but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks to his disciples as they come down from the mountain after the Transfiguration. By referring to John as Elijah who had come and faced rejection and suffering, Jesus foreshadows his own rejection to come: “So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” How do I recognize the coming of the Son of Man today and every day of this Advent?
Help me understand, Lord, the significance of this question of the disciples who had just witnessed Jesus’ Transfiguration. Elijah will come, and Elijah has already come. In the same, way Jesus has come and will come again. God, give me the grace to understand that you exist outside of time. You are the alpha and the omega—always and forever present in love and mercy.
In the Responsorial Psalm, the refrain is “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.” The disciples saw God made Man face to face in the Transfiguration. Let me turn back to you time after time in the fog and frenzy of the day’s activities. Stay beside me, Lord!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.