33d Sunday of Ordinary Time
Nov. 13, 1977
Mal 4: 1-2a
St. Andrew’s, Upper Arlington, Ohio
On the Nov. 12-13 weekend,
I was ministering to Boy Scouts and preached to them with a barebones outline—which
I also used at a later parish Mass. From
the archive comes this homily preached when I was a deacon.
Early
in the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet,
the troubled prince of Denmark is conversing with two friends when a ghost
suddenly appears. The spirit beckons
Hamlet follow it, and Hamlet feels some connection between the specter and his
recently deceased father. Despite their
fearful warnings, the prince leaves his friends and pursues the apparition. All
of which leads one of Hamlet’s companions to mutter a now famous line:
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I, iv. 90).
The
prophet Malachi lets his hearers and us know that something is also rotten in
the state of Israel. “Behold, the day
comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be
stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts…” (4:1).
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| source unknown |
Malachi
is the last of the OT prophets; he preached about 450 years before Christ. In today’s verse and a half, he uses a style
called technically “apocalyptic,” as in the NT book of the Apocalypse.
The
apocalyptic style is a characteristic of times of crisis. When everything seemed to be going wrong,
when the bad guys seemed to be winning, when the saints seemed most oppressed,
Jewish and early Christian writers resorted to a kind of ancient science
fiction to describe colorfully all the terrible evils of the day. But not just the evils. The key point is that the Lord of hosts is
still in charge! He is going to act amid
earth-shaking terrors that destroy the present world: “burning like an oven, leaving neither root
nor branch”—do you see where we get our popular imagery for the end of the
world and the last judgment? The Lord is
going to save those who fear his name, inaugurating a new age in which his
chosen ones are top dogs: “the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in
its rays” (4:2a).
If
Malachi had been an Irishman instead of a Jew, he might have prophesied thus:
God’s plan made a hopeful beginning
But man spoiled his chance by
sinning.
We trust that the story
Will end in God’s glory,
But at present the other side’s
winning.
Well,
what was so lousy about Malachi’s times?
From the 3 main chapters of his book, we learn that Jerusalem is plagued
by divorce and dangerous remarriages between Jews and pagans, by a corrupt
priesthood that is ignorant, lax, and greedy, and by social oppression such as
dishonest business tactics and the enslavement of the poor. To those who engage in such sinful
activities, Malachi promises in the Lord’s name swift justice in the day of the
Lord, a day like a burning oven that destroys chaff and purifies gold. The heat
will also bring swift justice to the poor and oppressed; it will be like the
sun: warm, bright, life-giving, healing, and purifying.
Do
Malachi’s words carry meaning today? If
poverty and social oppression, public corruption, and unfaithful family
situations still abound, yes, Malachi speaks to us today. The unfaithful, the corrupt, and the
oppressors he warns: Clean up you act!
Cherish your family. Work
honestly and hard. Pay a fair wage. Help your brother: liberate him from discrimination,
unemployment, decaying cities, a polluted environment, and abortion.
The
poor and the oppressed, Malachi encourages.
He advises them that the Lord does
care, and he will save them. He doesn’t
tell them to stand around waiting for the Lord. If I may allude to the other 2 readings of
this afternoon, from St. Paul and St. Luke, God’s poor and oppressed are to
work, to make hard choices, to be patient amid confusion (for there are no
instant answers, no simple solutions), and to give testimony to their faith in
the lord even tho they are oppressed on account of his name.
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| Paschal candle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, NYC |
So,
the other side’s winning, and something’s rotten in the state of Denmark. Yet I trust in God’s glory winning out, for
the “other side” is sin, and the rot is the corruption of death. But we have a risen Savior who has conquered
both sin and death. He is symbolized by
the paschal candle always in our sanctuary.[1] He is our Sun of righteousness, and he heals
us.
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