Malachi is a post-exile prophet. He lived about in the fifth century BC. Malachi announced to the Jews the coming of the “messenger of YHWH” and the imminence of judgment. Malachi is not a proper name but it means exactly “messenger of YHWH”. Through his messenger, it is God himself who enters the temple. According to Ezekiel, He had gone away from it when Jerusalem was about to be destroyed (cf. Ez 10:18-22; 11:22-25) and had returned there after the exile. He had abandoned the temple because of the sins of the priests and Levites, who gained only material advantages from the exercise of worship, without taking into account the real needs of the relationship with God and, consequently, had neglected the true needs of the people entrusted to them. However, the people did not stop looking for God and calling Him.

Certainly the imminent coming will not bear joy but suffering: “… who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap”. But this trial, however painful, has a medicinal purpose.

The Levites, ministers of the temple will be purified and refined as is done with gold and silver. This painful purification will have the purpose of making them fit to offer YHWH a “right offering”, that is, to carry out their mission in harmony with what is established by law, not only in relations with YHWH but also towards the people.

The Gospel also speaks about a priest. Zechariah and Elizabeth were the elite of the religious expression of the temple. Zechariah was a priest and Elizabeth even belonged to the descendants of Aaron. Where could God find more suitable soil to plant the seed of the Word? But we know the story: Zechariah, at the moment of maximum closeness to the Most High, during the offering of incense, received a message but doubted. Religion and worship do not always open to faith. In the case of Zechariah they even become an obstacle: religion needs stability, fixed points, precise, immutable rules while faith favors fantasy, opens up new, alternative paths. God tried to open a dialogue with those who should have the advantage, to understand things first, to move first. And instead Zechariah remains deaf to the Word and therefore also mute. And the angel moves from Jerusalem to Nazareth: there perhaps someone like the girl of Nazareth and the carpenter Joseph will welcome the Word. The merits and titles of Zechariah were not enough, the simplicity of the fiancés of Nazareth was.

Today’s Gospel is very interesting. A deaf and dumb Zacharias is asked through signs the name of his son: “His name is John!” At that moment his ears and his mouth were opened, his tongue loosed. What happened? It is essential to remember what John means in the Hebrew language. Jehochanan means “God has made mercy”. Zechariah, recovered the use of the word when he welcomed the gift of mercy manifested to him and his wife with the conception and birth of John.

Every time we open a small opening in the wall of our certainties, the Spirit slips inside and creates new men and women. Every time we open ourselves to the gift of mercy, God makes us capable of speaking in a new way and we are no longer worried about saving at all costs the models of a tradition unable to open itself to the newness of the One who comes. Zechariah finally surrendered to God’s proposal and now he can speak and can speak in a new way. He has abandoned a sterile tradition, unable to say and give God to humanity, he is filled with the Holy Spirit, he has become a father and a prophet who proclaims God’s mercy.

Let us therefore also look to ourselves, to our communities. Many times we are too tied to the old traditions, now they no longer tell us anything and yet we do not want to change them. “We have always done it this way” is a dangerous sentence, a highway toward an intellectual and pastoral rigidity, as said pope Francis. Rigidity is one of the traits of death. Think about how much resistance pope Francis encounters when he proposes a new way of living the faith, a new way of participating in the life of the Church. “Tradition is not the cult of ashes, it is the transmission of fire”, the great musician Gustav Mahler said. Pope Francis has quoted this phrase many times also to consecrated life. Are we just worshippers of ashes? Or can we still say a lot and something new? Christmas is near: let us open ourselves to the One who comes! Certainly something will happen!