Purifying ourselves before Christmas

23 December

Luke 1:57-66

The Christmas story moves on with Elizabeth naming her child "John".  Zechariah was able to speak again.

The Book of Malachi is one of the last books that give reference to the immediate coming of the Messiah. One very noticeable theme it gives is on the area of purification: "For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made." He shall restore Israel to its former glory.
Two days to go and we shall celebrate Christmas.  But the Lord wants us to purify all our intentions to its pristine form, like John the Baptism and how he lived in righteousness.  Let us enter into our purification process:

First, the Lord wants pure offerings - "He will purify the sons of Levi ..." If in the case of the priests of the Lord, they are demanded purity in their offerings starting from their inmost thoughts and hearts, let us purify our real intentions for celebrating Christmas.  A half-hearted, materialistic Christmas will not serve us any good; let us not abuse this blessed season; it belongs entirely to God.

Second, remember that this is a communal offering - "The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by the Lord..."  The purified, individual offerings extend to the community, or in our case, the whole Church.  Let us start purifying our intentions as we serve the Church.  Our faith cannot be practiced only individually and personally.  We all belong to the family of God.  The way we practice our faith will affect our children and our children's children.

Third, our pure offerings will restore us to our proper relationship with God "as in the days of old"; perhaps even before the time of Moses when the golden calf was regarded as god.

Let us purify our intentions once more as Christmas approaches.