Turn Our Hearts

Thus says the Lord GOD: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? 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, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD. Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in the days of old, as in years gone by.

Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with doom.

Quite foreboding is our first reading from Malachi (3:1-4, 23-24) as the prophet tells us of the Lord GOD’s warning to all of us.  We seek Jesus who comes in a few days as a child in a manger.  But it’s Jesus as an adult who is GOD’s messenger trying to “turn our hearts;” otherwise, we are “doomed.”   That’s the warning.

How many of us can stand when he appears and not just at Christmas?  In particular, we fathers  must turn our hearts to our children, and that means more than gift-giving, unless those gifts are our hearts filled with love and compassion.   That will please the LORD.

Deacon David Pierce