Homily for December 23, 2025

Homily for December 23, 2025

Mal 3: 1-4, 23-24
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek” (Mal 3: 1).

Joseph & Mary present Jesus in the Temple
(Fra Angelico)

Our Christian Scriptures and tradition associate today’s prophecy from Malachi with John the Baptist, rightly.  Parts of it refer also to our Lord Jesus.

Jesus, of course, is the messenger of the covenant (3:1) who was, and is, desired by God’s people.  He came suddenly to the Temple—quietly as a babe in arms, and in shocking anger as God’s prophet to refine and purify people’s worship (3:3), clearing out the marketplace the Temple had become.  “Who will endure the day of his coming?” (3:2).  Not the Temple leadership.  Jesus’ arrest soon followed.

Jesus did more than purify the sons of Levi (3:3), the Jewish priesthood.  He established a new priesthood to offer “due sacrifice to the Lord” (3:3), the best and most pleasing sacrifice (3:4).  Thru that sacrifice he has purified all God’s children and made them all a new temple to which he comes, in which he dwells:  “You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Cor 3:16).

Thru the flesh of the Virgin Mary, the Lord established his dwelling among us (Collect).  Thru the living flesh of his Eucharist, he remains among us and within us, and he constantly refines and purifies us into “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (Sunday Preface I).

The Last Supper of Christ (Anthuensis Clakissins)

As his priests of the new covenant whose messenger he was, and which he established in his Body and Blood, we offer to God the sacrifice that pleases him (3:4):  God in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ—and ourselves with him.