The Day of His Coming
But who will endure the day of his coming?
For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. …He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi… (from the first reading, Malachi 3:1-4)
Isn’t it overkill, a pure exaggeration? We are talking about a 40-day-old baby, so cute, so charming.
The 2nd reading (Hebrews 2:14-18) sheds light on this obvious discrepancy. It speaks of Jesus’ entire life as spent in obedience to the Father’s command. It also deals with the extremely high personal cost incurred by Jesus in carrying out the salvation plan which was the Father’s will from the beginning. Finally, it mentions the oneness of Jesus with all of us.
Now, if we put together the 1st (Malachi 3:1-4) and 2nd readings for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord , we realize that before being the Refiner, the Fuller, the Cleanser, although sinless, Jesus put himself through intense fire to be refined for our sake and inspiration. From even before he was born, he felt what it was like going through intense fire: there was no room at the inn. (Luke 2:7)
Then, once born, he felt the roughness of the hay in the manger and the inconvenience of the stable. He, the King of kings, knew the extent of poverty even in the offering of the poor to the Temple: St. Joseph could afford only a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons (Luke 2:24) for the ritual at the Temple rather than a lamb that the rich could afford.
That was just the beginning… Obedience to the Father in all aspects of his life led him to know rejection, betrayal, hostility, horrific torture, and the cross. The purpose of going through this intense fire, sufferings and self- discipline was that through death he, (Jesus) might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the Devil… (Hebrews 2:14)
Our being one with Jesus Christ is consistent with today’s feast of his refining because we are doing our refining through this Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Cross. We partake of Jesus’ broken Body and poured Blood so that two significant things can happen: 1) Jesus helps and inspires us whenever we are tested and 2) we may endure our life’s tests with the same trust in the Father that Jesus always had, and we may come out victorious.
And we shall do so by looking at our life’s tests from an unusual angle. We shall consider the significance of the candle that we were given on the day of our baptism. It emphasizes our intimate union with Christ, heralded here by Simeon as a light for revelation to the Gentiles. (Luke 2:32)
Thus, in John 8:12, Jesus identifies himself as light: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
The same is true of us: You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. (Matthew 5:14)
Clearly then, since we are intimately one with Christ; since we have been told that we are the light of the world; since we were given the light at our baptism, we too are meant to be a light for revelation to the Gentiles.
It is very simple. Recent political developments notwithstanding, at times we will be called to speak out boldly when we would rather keep quiet. Other times we will have to take a stand and hold our ground on important issues of life or death. Still other times, we will be singled out, ridiculed, accused of being obsolete, intolerant and all the other insults that our adversaries keep throwing at us.
In case you haven’t noticed it, we are still at war against the forces of darkness, the forces of the one who has the power of death, the Devil…
Where shall I start listing the battlefronts on which we must defend decency, common sense, human dignity, and especially children who are our future? It should be sufficient to single out all the news segments on TV that inform us of cases in which decency, common sense, human dignity are still attacked and children victimized.
Of course, our indignation is mounting with every case in which decency, common sense and dignity are attacked. And it boils over whenever we learn that children are being victimized. We should capitalize on our indignation and combine it with the inner strength we can acquire from self-discipline and the mental toughness we can achieve through the intense fire on the battlegrounds in which we choose to be engaged for the sake of the Gospel.
This feast of the Presentation of the Lord Jesus to the Temple should make us welcome our next battles because we have the Lord Jesus on our side. He shares always, continuously, in our predicament, in our mission—and in our indignation!
Hence, we resolve to fight for decency, common sense, human dignity and for our children, i.e., for our future certain that we are promised a share in Jesus’ victory.
Now we understand why the question was asked of who will be able to withstand the day of the Lord’s coming and believe that with the risen Christ on our side we shall prevail on ALL COUNTS.
