Sacrifice Is A Form Of Worship

𝐃𝐄𝐂. 𝟏𝟑, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓. 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐘, 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲𝐫

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈: 𝐒𝐢𝐫 𝟒𝟖:𝟏-𝟒, 𝟗-𝟏𝟏

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟖𝟎:𝟐-𝟑, 𝟏𝟓-𝟏𝟔, 𝟏𝟖-𝟏𝟗 “𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝, 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮; 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝟏𝟕:𝟗-𝟏𝟑

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: "𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬." (𝐯.𝟏𝟏)

         If there is one thing that you would really love in the way Our Lord goes about in establishing his kingdom here on earth was the orderliness in the way he has programmed his mission from the time of his coming to the day of redemption on the cross.

         In each of these stages designed to save the world from its sin and perversity, God gives signs to show to the people what he was going to do. Even the coming of the John the Baptist was foretold in Malachi 3 when the Lord said: “𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞” (𝐌𝐚𝐥 𝟑:𝟏).

         The Jews knew that a Messiah would come because the great prophet Isaiah also prophesied his coming (Isa 7) and that Elijah would appear to announce the coming of the Savior. This was probably one of the few surprises that the Jews were faced with because instead of Elijah, it was John the Baptist who appeared preaching a baptism of repentance and renewal.

         As the Jews waited for the coming of the Messiah, they believed in their hearts that Elijah would return to restore everything before the Savior comes to make a world fit for the coming of the king. The idea of Elijah restoring the disordered environment was engraved in their hearts and minds.

         And the coming of John the Baptist was something they did not expect. What the Jews did not know then was that John the Baptist took the form of Elijah to restore all things in preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ through his call for the people to repentance.

         In effect, the coming of John the Baptist was a fulfillment of the prophesy except that he came on behalf of Elijah but which the Jews failed to grasp. And John pursued his role as a forerunner of the Messiah and this role finds a parallelism in the culture and tradition of the Jews when they celebrate a wedding feast.

         In those days, the day and the time when the bridegroom will arrive to exercise his right as husband to the bride was unknown and this was the reason why the ten virgins with their lamps had to wait for the bridegroom to arrive.

         It was also the tradition that the coming of the bridegroom was preceded by a messenger, or you may call him a barker because the role of the messenger is to announce the arrival of the groom to all the people living on the streets where the bridegroom would pass.

         This was the role played by John the Baptist because he came into the world to announce the coming of Jesus Christ, not pointing to himself but instead prepares the way for the coming of the Messiah. As the Jews were again thinking in terms of the Messianic conquest, they waited for Elijah who’s coming was expected to bring order.

         What they didn’t recognize was that the baptism of repentance and renewal that John preached was meant to put order into the lives of the Jews by restoring the strained relationship between God and the people.

         As with John the Baptist, we who have been chosen to take over where the Apostles left off must prepare the way for the coming of the Lord again by turning away from sin and everything that separate us from the love of God.

         Having done that, we as faithful servants must in all humility announce his coming and point to Jesus Christ as the King who is going to take possession of his Throne of Grace – our hearts that have been rid of sin and the indifference to which we have wallowed in.

         We need to die to ourselves, take up our cross and follow him which means that we need to dispossess ourselves of our sinful tendencies and our attachment to the world before we can take our place in his Kingdom which has no end.

         Such is necessary because before we could preach Christ, we must know who and what Christ was and to know Our Lord in a personal way we need to embrace not only his message of salvation, his call for us to humble ourselves like a little child, but also to be obedient and subservient to his will.

         Repentance and transformation are the two pillars of evangelization and renewal, and we need to go through this purification process before we can go out and make disciples of all nations. We need to be baptized and be born anew because being born to a new life is anchored on our dying to our old nature.

         Our task then is to announce the coming of Our Lord and point to him as the source of everything that we are and will ever be. Just like Elijah in the first reading who was compared to a fire whose words burned, and his lifestyle seared the people at that time, we too are to go and evangelize with fire in our hearts and tongues because as followers of Christ, our obligation is to imitate the loving fire of Elijah and John the Baptist.

         In so doing, we must expect that we will be persecuted for our beliefs. There will be times when we will have to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. But it is during these times when God’s image will be imprinted in our nature and the best thing to do when we find ourselves experiencing pain and suffering is to offer these to the Lord because suffering is also a form of worship to God.

           Since we have become partakers of the divine nature by virtue of our baptism, it is only but natural that we should also become partakers of the humiliation and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ.

         There will be times, however, when we will receive praises and salutation along the way. What we should not forget is the source of our gifts and what should be engraved in our hearts and minds is that we are not the Christ whose sandals we are unworthy of untying. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘋𝘦𝘤. 13, 2025)