Elijah Today
Advent Recollection – FIS Cebu Cluster, 13 Dec 2025, DBFC Chapel, Lawaan
I am glad to be here with you today together with the community of DBTC where I am currently making my canonical visitation. It really feels good for us to gather as a cluster in order to celebrate this joyful and hope-filled season. Our Advent Recollection today intensifies our spiritual preparation for Christmas. Thanks to the reflections shared earlier by Fr Mario. May this concluding Mass lead us to go deeper into the mystery of Christ’s incarnation. And may it empower us to be like John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ, in preparing the way of the Lord during the Christmas Novena.
The timing of our gathering today is just right. For, we are now at the final month of the Jubilee Year and we also are at the threshold of the second part of our advent preparation. Although we are still in the advent mode of waiting, we can already rejoice and start celebrating the awesome mystery of the Incarnation. For, this is precisely what the Third Sunday of Advent is calling us to do: “Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico, gaudete!” (Rejoice in the Lord always; I say it again, rejoice! Phil4:4) These are the words we shall hear tomorrow.
This advent rejoicing, however, cannot yet be exuberant. Following the appeal of his Excellency, Archbishop Abet Uy, D.D., our Christmas party today will be toned down, that is, simple and frugal. Yes, even the gospel today tells us we cannot yet rejoice to the full. “Elijah must come first” (see Mt 17: 9a, 10-13). But who is Elijah? Why was he so important in the history of Salvation? The book of Sirach gives us the answer. He is the great prophet who prefigured the Messiah in the Old Testament.
The opening words of the first reading (Sir 48:1-4, 9-11) strikes us to the core: “…like a fire, there appeared the prophet Elijah whose words were like a flaming furnace.” In other words, he spoke with power. His speech made an impact.
The passage from Sirach proved this: “By the Lord’s words, Elijah shut off the heavens and three times brought down fire.” And it went on to explain. When Elijah prophesied on the land of Israel that “there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years”, a terrible drought indeed came, and it lasted for three and a half years.
In another episode, when Elijah prayed to God on Mt Carmel, fire from heaven consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and even the water in the trench. Thus did he prove to the people that Yahweh was the true God, the one and only powerful God in Israel.
Take note that at that time, Elijah was the only surviving prophet of the Lord who remained faithful and stood firm against all the false prophets of Baal. And yet he singlehandedly triumphed over them all on Mt Carmel, thus winning back the hearts of the people for the Lord.
Today we, Salesians in FIS, may be dwindling in number. But the truth is we are still 79 strong; a big community of consecrated men standing up against the false prophets of this secularized digital world. If each one of us would strive to speak to the young people like Elijah with “words like a flaming furnace” we will be able to demolish the evil spirits that tempt and afflict their souls today. And we will be able to shut up the modern false prophets responsible for spreading fake news in social media to snatch souls away from the Lord.
If each one of us is able to speak to our confreres words of kindness, comfort and healing, words of affirmation and encouragement, then, all of us will be empowered in our ministry both individually and as communities. We will surely be able to bring back the young to the Lord, and inspire them to follow our footsteps.
Let us reflect: whenever we speak with confreres, with lay mission partners, or with the young, do we exude passion for God and for souls? When was the last time that we released toxicity, saying words that hurt and make the heart bleed but do not purify; words that demolish rather than build up the spirit?
The good news is that this recollection – and perhaps every recollection – offers a good chance and a wonderful opportunity for our hearts to be purified and rekindled by the flame of love that comes from the very heart of Christ.
As we welcome the third week of advent joyful expectation, may we truly focus on the giftedness of everyone in our community and our province. Aside from that let us truly make every effort to put aside or give up whatever could “militate against community life.” Let us overcome or give up anything in us that seems to hinder our confreres from seeing Christ in us.
As we celebrate this Holy Mass in honor of St Lucy, whose memorial we celebrate today and whose intercession is often invoked for illnesses of the eyes, let us ask her, to intercede for us, and obtain for us a clearer vision of Christ in one another. It is only with that vision can we consistently build up our communities centered and anchored in HIM who is our HOPE.
I really hope and pray that this coming Christmas may be for each one of us and our communities truly meaningful, grace-filled and overflowing with joy.
Elijah must indeed come first. He came back in the person of John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ. He can come back again today in us who are tasked to prepare the way of the Lord. GiGsss!
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