To prepare for certain hospital procedures, we are required to go through a preparation that involves purging the body. Our insides must first be purified before the physician begins his work.
Purification is part of life. We purify our water before we drink it, we put our food to the fire before we eat it, and we wash our clothes before we wear them.
Extreme measures are taken to purify the various items that are used at Mass—the holy vessels, the linens, the sanctuary. We do all we can to create a clean and sacred space for God to work in.
Today we read a prophecy that talks about an unusual purification event (Malachi 3:1-4) that God was planning.
“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.”
A messenger was to be sent by God to prepare the temple for his visitation. This messenger would renew the covenant between God and Israel. What would his coming look like?
“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…”
We don’t like these images of a refiner’s fire and fuller’s lye. Fire and lye burn. Yet they do not destroy. They attack only the impurities of ore or cloth so that the true worth of these materials might be better seen. What good is untreated cloth or ore? The messenger of the Lord would begin by purifying those priests who were assigned to lead the worship in the temple. To perform holy rituals, they first had to be made holy themselves.
“…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.”
God was preparing the way for a special sacrifice holy and pleasing to him. And what priest would be selected to offer this pleasing sacrifice? There is only one priest that is worthy—Jesus, God’s Son.
And though Jesus did not need to be purified, God required that he go through the testing as well (Hebrews 2:14-18).
“…therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way…to expiate the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”
Jesus, himself, was not only the messenger with the refiner’s fire, he was also the first to endure this fire. He went through the testing to be a source of encouragement to us when we go through purifying experiences.
God continues to send his messenger to purify the Church. We know that the testing by fire is part of the experience of all those called to be disciples of Jesus Christ—no exceptions. Jesus did not shed his blood on the cross for us so that we might be mediocre followers. When he gives us the Holy Spirit, a fire is planted inside us that goes to work making us holy temples worthy to come into his presence.
When we face various trials in life, we remember that these are part of God’s recipe for making us holy. They are meant to strengthen us and prepare us to be offering worthy of God.
