{"id":8850,"date":"2014-12-15T13:27:52","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T12:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=8850"},"modified":"2014-12-15T16:47:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T15:47:43","slug":"john-elias-in-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2014\/12\/john-elias-in-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"John: Elias in Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Yesterday at Matins:<\/em><\/p>\n

III NOCTURN<\/p>\n

The Lesson from the Holy Gospel according to John<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was the testimony which John bore, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem, to ask him, Who art thou?\u00a0 He admitted the truth, without concealment, admitted that he was not the Christ.\u00a0 And so on, and that which follows.<\/p>\n

From a Homily by St Gregory the Great, Pope & Doctor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dearly beloved brethren, the first thing which strikes us in today’s Gospel is the lowly-mindedness of John.\u00a0 He was so great that it was thought he might be the Christ; yet he soberly chose rather to seem only what he really was, than to let the belief of men invest him with a dignity which did not belong to him; for he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, \u201cI am not the Christ\u201d, at the same time he would not deny what he was in reality; and thus his very truth-speaking made him a member of him whose title he would not by falsehood take.\u00a0 In that he arrogated not to himself the name of Christ, he became a member of Christ<\/strong>.\u00a0 While he humbly strove to confess his own weakness, he earned by his simplicity a part in the grandeur of his Master.<\/p>\n

In considering this subject we find an apparent contradiction between one of John’s statements, and the saying of our Redeemer recorded in another part of the Gospel.\u00a0 When his disciples asked our Lord regarding the coming of Elias, he answered: \u201cElias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.\u00a0 And if ye will receive it, this (that is, John) is Elias.\u201d\u00a0 But when John was asked if he was Elias, he answered, \u201cI am not.\u201d How is it then, dearly beloved brethren, that we find the Truth itself asserting what the prophet of the Truth denied?\u00a0 It must evidently be that our Lord meant one thing and John another, when the Lord said, \u201cThis is\u201d, and John, \u201cI am not\u201d.\u00a0 For how can he be the prophet of truth, if he speaks not according to the word of him who is the Eternal Truth?<\/p>\n

Let us then more minutely examine these words, and we shall find that there is no real contradiction.\u00a0 When the Angel announced to Zacharias the coming birth of John he said: \u201cHe shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias.\u201d\u00a0 As the old Elias will come again before the Second Advent of the Lord, so did John, as the new Elias, go before the First Advent, in the spirit and power of Elias.\u00a0 As the old Elias will be the Forerunner of the Judge, so the new Elias was the Forerunner of the Saviour.\u00a0 John then was Elias in spirit, but not in person; and our Lord asserts of the spirit what John denies of the person<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday at Matins: III NOCTURN The Lesson from the Holy Gospel according to John This was the testimony which John bore, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem, to ask him, Who art thou?\u00a0 He admitted the truth, without concealment, admitted that he was not the Christ.\u00a0 And so on, and that which <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent-liturgy","category-florilegium-patristicum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-2iK","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8855,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8850\/revisions\/8855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}