Homily: December 23, 2024 Monday of the Fourth Week in Advent (Purification)

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 "He will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver, that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD."

There are usually five steps to refine gold or silver. The very first step is to melt it in a hot furnace, then the molten gold is cast into molds to separate it from base metals and other impurities. It is further refined through electrolysis and other refining processes.

Today’s first reading tells us God will purify His people like refining gold. Isn’t it a lot of hard work for God the refiner and such painful process for us, the refined? Yes, but it is so that we will all shine bright and flawless.

Yesterday, after Sunday Mass, I was standing near the baptismal font, talking to a parishioner who informed me that Afaf Bakal, a Sudanese parishioner, had just passed away. Two years ago, I baptized her at that very same font and administered her Confirmation and First Communion.

I remember her baptism vividly because she was already very weak at the time. I offered to go to her home to baptize her, but she insisted on coming to church despite her frailty. She was so full of joy after her baptism, but that was also the last time she came to church because thereafter, she was often in the hospital.

Afaf came to this country from Sudan, to be free from war and poverty, with hopes of peace and a better life. However, she became ill, suffered and died too soon.

Is this the refining process by which we will be purified?

Jesus too came to this world to bring us peace and a better life, through enduring poverty, suffering and death. His sacrifice on the cross perfected our imperfection, making us shine.

Afaf accepted a God who suffered and died on a cross, she accepted to be refined and purified through the conditions of her life, and so she shines like refined gold in the heavenly kingdom now.

When we adore baby Jesus on Christmas day, let us remember to be grateful for the poverty, suffering and death He embraced and endured to live with us. May we also embrace and endure our life conditions, so that we can one day live with Him. Amen.


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