Thursday in the Second week of Advent, December 14, 2023

Matthew 11:11-15

Jesus said to the crowds: “Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force. All the Prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

The Lord Jesus, in speaking to the crowds about the meaning of John the Baptist, declares that “among those born of women there has been none greater” than he.  He is saying that up to the time when John was born, no one had been born “greater” than he — with the exception of course of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  And this was because he had been cleansed from original sin while in the womb of his mother Elizabeth.  “Greater” here means to be filled with sanctifying grace, making a person capable of going to heaven.  The Jews to whom he was speaking would not have grasped this.  For them, Jesus was commending John as the great forerunner who would announce the Christ.  John had received the divine appointment to act as the herald of the Messiah and so represented him as though he himself were the Messiah.  But Jesus, born some months after John the Baptist, would be the greatest of all, and the crowds would have understood him to be saying this.

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.”  That is, the Kingdom of Heaven “groans and travails in pain, even till now . . . waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8, 22-23).  St. Paul likens the condition of the Church both in heaven and on earth awaiting the redemption of all her members to a woman about to give birth.  This was certainly the case of the Church in the days of our Lord.  And also, all through history, people strove to enter eternal life through their own efforts but they could not do so because to do so requires rebirth in grace.  The Lord uses hyperbole in saying that the violent “take it by force” for they only strive to do so through long prayers and rituals such as are contained in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

“All the Prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John.”  The Lord here announces that the time of the Old Covenant has come to an end, broken time and again by the Israelites.  The time of the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah has arrived: “Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31, 31).  This Covenant would be sealed not with the blood of animals but with the Blood of the Son of God.  The first covenant promised land and security for the nation in exchange, as it were, for obedience to God’s commandments.  The New Covenant promises eternal happiness to those who are made members of the Body of Christ, sprinkled by his Blood in the waters of Baptism, and live out their lives in faith,  

“And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come.”  The last of the Prophets, Malachi, had proclaimed that Elijah, carried off to heaven by a fiery chariot, would return in the latter days to announce the coming of the Kingdom.  Jesus says that Elijah has indeed returned through the completion of Elijah’s mission of preaching repentance through the work of John the Baptist.

“Whoever has ears ought to hear.”  The Lord adds special emphasis to what he has said and urges the people to think hard about it.  We, for our part, ought to strive violently with ourselves, overcoming anything within us that would hamper us from attaining the Kingdom of Heaven.