Peter, James, and John descend the mountain, shell-shocked by the miracle they had witnessed moments before, the glorified Jesus with Moses and Elijah.
The exchange between Jesus and His closest Apostles is meant to prepare them for what is to come: His suffering, death, and resurrection. When they ask about the second coming of Elijah, Jesus tells them that he had already come in the person of John the Baptist. Or rather, that John the Baptist continued the mission of Elijah to help restore the union between God and man. He came, “and they did not recognize him,” Jesus says.
This Advent season is also a time of preparation, reminding us that God comes to us in ways that we often do not recognize. God speaks to us through unexpected prophets who say what we don’t want to hear but need to heed, or are too afraid to accept. He often speaks into our lives as a father giving his clueless daughter dating advice, a friend encouraging our dreams, a stranger lending a hand, or a spouse helping us to grow in virtue.
Do we recognize Him in those moments? When confused about our vocation as young adults or in life-altering circumstances, we question our path. We agonize about whether God intends to reveal Himself or cruelly let us struggle through the unknown. Other times, we don’t even ask if God wants more for us in this life. Advent reminds us that God always reveals Himself to us. He entered time definitively on that first Christmas and daily approaches us as the infant Jesus, calling us deeper into the mystery. Like the Maji, we walk closer to the newborn King, but do we allow Him to work more deeply within us? Or do we monotonously drift through the season like every other one of the year?
No one ever expected God to come to Earth, to share in the human experience as a man. No one ever expected the all-powerful God to come to Earth as an infant. Few expect God to show up in their life in a profound way and draw them unto Himself. Advent is the perfect time to look for the prophets that God sends to you. Be attentive. Gaze upon this new creation of the infant God-man and let Him “restore all things” in you. Permit Him to shatter your expectations and bring you new life.
Daily Reading
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Reading 1 Zechariah 2:14-17 Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD. Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on…
Saint of the Day
St. Juan Diego
St. Juan Diego
Feast date: Dec 09
On Dec. 9, Roman Catholics celebrate St. Juan Diego, the indigenous Mexican Catholic convert whose encounter with the Virgin Mary began the Church’s devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.In 1474, 50 years before receiving the name Juan Diego at his baptism, a boy named Cuauhtlatoatzin — “singing eagle” — was born in the Anahuac Valley of present-day Mexico. Though raised according to the Aztec pagan religion and culture, he showed an unusual and mystical sense of life even before hearing the Gospel from Franciscan missionaries.In 1524, Cuauhtlatoatzin and his wife converted and entered the Catholic Church. The farmer now known as Juan Diego was committed to his faith, often walking long distances to receive religious instruction. In December of 1531, he would be the recipient of a world-changing miracle.On Dec. 9, Juan Diego was hurrying to Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But the woman he was heading to church to celebrate came to him instead.In the native Aztec dialect, the radiant woman announced herself as the “ever-perfect holy Mary, who has the honor to be the mother of the true God.”“I am your compassionate Mother, yours and that of all the people that live together in this land,” she continued, “and also of all the other various lineages of men.”She asked Juan Diego to make a request of the local bishop. “I want very much that they build my sacred little house here” — a house dedicated to her son Jesus Christ, on the site of a former pagan temple, that would “show him” to all Mexicans and “exalt him” throughout the world.She was asking a great deal of a native farmer. Not surprisingly, his bold request met with skepticism from Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. But Juan Diego said he would produce proof of the apparition, after he finished tending to his uncle whose death seemed imminent.Making his way to church on Dec. 12, to summon a priest for his uncle, Juan Diego again encountered the Blessed Virgin. She promised to cure his uncle and give him a sign to display for the bishop. On the hill where they had first met he would find roses and other flowers, though it was winter.Doing as she asked, he found the flowers and brought them back to her. The Virgin Mary then placed the flowers inside his tilma, the traditional cloak-like garment he had been wearing. She told him not to unwrap the tilma containing the flowers until he had reached the bishop.When he did, Bishop Zumárraga had his own encounter with Our Lady of Guadalupe – through the image of her that he found miraculously imprinted on the flower-filled tilma. The Mexico City basilica that now houses the tilma has become, by some estimates, the world’s most-visited Catholic shrine.The miracle that brought the Gospel to millions of Mexicans also served to deepen Juan Diego’s own spiritual life. For many years after the experience, he lived a solitary life of prayer and work in a hermitage near the church where the image was first displayed. Pilgrims had already begun flocking to the site by the time he died on Dec. 9, 1548, the 17th anniversary of the first apparition.Blessed John Paul II beatified St. Juan Diego in 1990, and canonized him in 2002.