DECEMBER 23, 2025: TUESDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT

 December 23, 2025

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent

Lectionary: 199

 

Reading 1

Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24

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.

 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 25:4-5ab, 8-9, 10 and 14

R. (see Luke 21:28) Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way.
R. Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.
All the paths of the LORD are kindness and constancy
toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him,
and his covenant, for their instruction.
R. Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.

 

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O King of all nations and keystone of the Church;
come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel

Luke 1:57-66

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”
But they answered her,
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
“What, then, will this child be?
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122325.cfm

 

 

Note: Depending on the translation of the Bible used, today’s scriptural citations for the last two verses may be in two different chapters. For the New American Bible Revised Edition, they will be 3:23-24, but for the New Revised Standard Version updated edition (NRSVue) Bible quoted in these commentaries, they are 4:5-6.

Commentary on Malachi 3:1-4,23-24 (or Malachi 3:1-4,4:5-6)

The prophecy of Malachi appears as the very last book in the Old Testament and is followed immediately in our Bibles by the Gospel according to Matthew. Nothing is known about this Malachi except that he probably lived in the period 500-450 BC. He speaks frequently of the Covenant and shows great respect for the supplementary priestly teaching of the Torah. His emphases on sin, judgement and repentance in preparation for the Lord’s coming mark him out as a prophet, even though his writing style is different.

The prophet writes:

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me…

The Hebrew for ‘messenger’ is mal’aki, the name given to the author of today’s reading. But the messenger Malachi speaks about is traditionally believed to be Elijah, who would return to pave the way for the coming of the Messiah. Matthew, however, will apply this text (Matt 11:10) to John the Baptist, whose birth and circumcision are described in today’s Gospel.

John, in fact, will bring the Old Testament to a close. He carries on where Malachi, the last of the prophets, left off. He, himself, then bows out as Jesus inaugurates the New Covenant of God with his people—now the people of the whole world. In fact, the Gospel sees John as more an Old Testament figure (“the least in the Kingdom is greater than he”) because he died before the redemptive work of Jesus was completed.

The return of Elijah was an important tradition in Jewish belief, but Jesus will say that Elijah came in the person of John the Baptist:

He is Elijah who is to come… (Matt 11:14)

And, after the Transfiguration (where Elijah was seen speaking with Jesus), Jesus says to his disciples:

Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things [i.e. get everything ready for the coming of the Messiah], but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased…Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist. (Matt 17:11-13; also see Mark 6:14-15)

It will be the role of John as the ‘messenger’ of Malachi’s prophecy to announce the Lord’s coming—in the person of Jesus—and bring about the fulfilment of God’s work in history.

He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents…

In Luke’s Gospel (1:17), this is foretold as being precisely what John the Baptist would do. And Jesus, the “messenger of the Covenant”, in his turn will come as a refiner and purifier to purge his people of their sin and their infidelities. He will do this through his life, suffering, passion, death and resurrection.

At the end of today’s Gospel, on seeing the circumstances surrounding John the Baptist’s birth, the people ask:

What then will this child become? (Luke 1:66)

The answer to this is in the Gospel.

But we should turn this question on ourselves. What was I expected to turn out to be? How have I, in fact, turned out?

Whatever my answer, there is still time to turn myself in the direction I know God is calling me to follow. And part of the answer will be—like John the Baptist—to go ahead of the Lord and help bring him into other people’s lives.

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Commentary on Luke 1:57-66

As we approach the day of Jesus’ birth, the Gospel today speaks of the birth of John the Baptist. It is a day of particular joy for Elizabeth, as the ‘shame’ of her former barrenness is wiped out. She can now stand tall in the presence of her family and neighbours:

Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

In accordance with custom, the boy is to be circumcised on the eighth day and a name given to him. Everyone presumes he will be given the name of his father:

But his mother said, “No, he is to be called John.”

People protested:

None of your relatives has this name.

Zechariah, the father, is consulted. Since his dialogue with the angel, he cannot speak, so he is given a tablet on which to write. Simply he states:

His name is John.

And with that, Zechariah’s tongue was loosed and he could speak and praise God.

This incident became the talk of the whole district, and people began to ask each other:

What then will this child become?

They knew that these unusual happenings all pointed to a special calling for the child. The New American Bible says:

“The circumstances of the birth and circumcision of the child emphasise John’s incorporation into the people of Israel. We will find the same emphasis with Jesus. Luke shows that those who play crucial roles in the inauguration of Christianity to be wholly a part of the people of Israel. At the end of the Acts of the Apostles, he will argue that Christianity is the direct descendant of Pharisaic Judaism. (See also Acts 21:20; 22:3; 23:6-9; 24:14-16; 26:2-8).”

I too can ask the same question about myself: “What then am I called to be?” No matter what age I am, there is still life ahead of me, be it long or short. What is my destiny? What does God want of me? What contributions can I make to other people’s lives? God has expectations of me, based on the gifts he has given to me. Let me reflect on what they might be and how I can make good use of them.

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Tuesday, December 23, 2025

4th Week of Advent

Opening Prayer

Lord, loving and mighty God, you fulfilled your promise to save us when Jesus, your Son, became one of us. We are no longer in the dark, for you let your light shine on us. Bring us your salvation now, set us really free from our sins, let us become fully human with Jesus and go with him in your way of peace and love. Let him be our strength, our constant companion on the road, that through him and growing in his humanity, we may be your beloved sons and daughters. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Gospel Reading - Luke 1: 57-66

The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbors and relations heard that the Lord had lavished on her his faithful love, they shared her joy.

Now it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. “No,” she said, “he is to be called John.” They said to her, “But no one in your family has that name,” and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned, and he spoke and praised God.

All their neighbors were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. “What will this child turn out to be?” they wondered. And indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

Reflection

In chapters 1 and 2 of his Gospel, Luke describes the announcement of the birth of two little ones, John and Jesus, who will occupy a very important place in the realization of God’s project. What God begins in the Old Testament, begins to be realized through them. This is why, in these two chapters, Luke presents or recalls many facts and persons of the Old Testament and even succeeds in imitating the style of the Old Testament. And all this in order to suggest that with the birth of these two little boys, history completes a turn of 180 degrees and the time of the fulfilment of the promises of God begins through John and Jesus, and with the collaboration of their parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah and Mary and Joseph.

There is a certain parallelism between the announcement and the birth of both children:

•           The announcement of the birth of John (Lk 1: 5-25) and of Jesus (Lk 1,: 2638)

•           The two mothers who are pregnant meet and experience the presence of God (Lk 1: 27-56)

•           The birth of John (Lk 1: 57-58) and of Jesus (Lk 2: 1-20)

•           The circumcision in the community of John (Lk 1: 59-66) and of Jesus (Lk 2: 21-28)

•           The canticle of Zechariah (Lk 1: 67-79) and the canticle of Simeon with the prophecy of Anna (Lk 2: 29-32)

•           The hidden life of John (Lk 1: 80) and of Jesus (Lk 2: 39-52)

•           Luke 1: 57-58: Birth of John the Baptist. “The time came for Elizabeth to have her child and she gave birth to a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had lavished on her his faithful love, they shared her joy.” Like so many women of the Old Testament Elizabeth was sterile: Just like God had pity on Sarah (Gn 16: 1; 17: 17; 18: 12), on Rachel (Gn 29: 31) and on Anna (1 Sm 1: 2, 6, 11) transforming the sterility into fecundity, in the same way he had pity on Elizabeth and she conceived a son. Elizabeth hid herself during five months. When after, the five months, people could see in her body God’s goodness toward Elizabeth, all rejoiced with her. This community environment, in which all got involved in the life of others, both in joy as in sorrow, is the environment in which John and Jesus are born, grew and received their formation. Such an environment marks the personality of a person for the whole life; and it is precisely this community environment that we lack most today.

•           Luke 1: 59: To give the name on the eighth day. “On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they wanted to call him Zechariah as his father.” The involvement of the community in the life of the family of Zechariah, Elizabeth and John is such that the relatives and neighbors even want to interfere in the choice of the name of the child. They want to give the child the name of his father: Zechariah!” Zechariah means: God has remembered. Perhaps they wanted to express their gratitude to God for having remembered Elizabeth and Zechariah and for having given them a son in their old age.

•           Luke 1: 60-63: His name is John! Elizabeth intervenes and she does not permit the relatives to take care of the question of the name. Recalling the announcement of the name made by the angel to Zechariah (Lk 1: 13), Elizabeth says: "No! He will be called John.” In a very small place such as Ain Karem, in Judah, the social control is very strong. And when a person gets out of the normal usage of the place, she is criticized. Elizabeth does not follow the usage of the place and chooses a name outside the normal models. This is why the relatives and neighbors complain saying: “No one in your family has that name!” The relatives do not easily give in and make signs to the father to know from him what name he wants for his son. Zechariah asks for a writing tablet and writes: "His name is John.” All remained astonished because they must have perceived something of the mystery of God which surrounds the birth of the little child.

•           And this perception which people have of the mystery of God present in the common facts of life, Luke wants to communicate it to us, his readers. In his way of describing the events, Luke is not like a photographer who only registers what the eyes can see. He is like a person who uses the X-ray which registers what the human eye cannot see. Luke reads the facts with the X-rays of faith which reveals what the human eye cannot perceive.

•           Luke 1: 64-66: The news of the child is diffused. “All their neighbors were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judah. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts: What will this child turn out to be? They wondered. And indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.” The way in which Luke describes the facts recalls the circumstances of the birth of the persons who in the Old Testament had an important role in the realization of God’s project and whose childhood seemed already to be marked by the privileged destiny which they would have: Moses (Ex 2: 1-10), Samson (Jg 13: 1-4 and 13: 24-25), Samuel (1 Sm 1: 13-28 and 2: 11).

•           In the writings of Luke, we find many references to the Old Testament. In fact, the first two chapters of his Gospel are not stories in the sense which we, today, give to the story. They are rather, a mirror to help the readers to discover that John and Jesus came to fulfil the prophecies of the Old Testament. Luke wants to show that God, through the two children, came to respond to the most profound aspirations of the human heart. On the one side, Luke shows that the New Testament realizes what the Old Testament prefigured. On the other, it shows that the New one exceeds the Old one and does not correspond in everything to what the people of the Old Testament imagined and expected. In the attitude of Elizabeth and Zechariah, of Mary and Joseph, Luke represents a model of how to convert oneself to believe in the New one which is being reached.

Personal Questions

•           What has struck you most in the way in which Luke describes the facts of life?

•           How do I read the facts of my life? Like a photo or like an X-Ray?

Concluding Prayer

Kindness unfailing and constancy mark all Yahweh's paths, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

Only those who fear Yahweh have his secret and his covenant, for their understanding. (Sal 25: 10: 14)

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