Leave a Little

Leaving behind this world for the next

12/11/2021

Mt 17:9a, 10-13 As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

I have a curious custom whenever I sit down to eat a meal, and some people have started to notice it. I never completely finish my dessert. And by the way, I love dessert, so leaving a little is not easy for me to do! Sometimes people ask me why I do that, and I explain, “I am leaving a little for Elijah.” That answer, of course, only prompts more questions, like, “Why leave a little for Elijah?” Then I say: “I was hoping you would ask!” Leaving a little dessert is really “bait on the hook” to catch people’s attention and start a spiritual conversation.

My custom of leaving a little dessert for Elijah harkens back to the Jewish tradition of pouring a “fifth cup of wine” at the Seder meal of the Passover for Elijah. Pious Jews believed that Elijah, the great Old Testament prophet, would miraculously return at the Passover supper to announce the coming of the future Messiah. The Jews wanted Elijah to know they were ready and waiting for his return so they had the fifth cup full and left it untouched.

The Seder supper also sparked the question of curious children, like, “Why does this night differ from all others nights?”  Just like leaving a little “morsel of marshmallow pie” prompted a question to deepen faith, so leaving the fifth cup for Elijah caused questions to arise that deepened faith. In other words, whenever we “leave a little” of this world behind, our faith helps us to focus on the next world.

In the gospel today, the disciples also ask Jesus a question about Elijah. They inquire: “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” The disciples were referring, of course, to the Seder Meal’s tradition of leaving the fifth cup of wine for Elijah, the precursor to the coming of Christ. Jesus answers that Elijah has already come, and he came in the person of St. John the Baptist. In other words, Elijah’s job was completed by John, who had announced the coming of Jesus, the future Messiah.

And just like the untouched fifth cup of Elijah meant leaving something behind when the Messiah comes, so the disciples would have to leave behind the Jewish world to embrace the Christian faith. The Old Testament ends with Elijah, embodied in the person of St. John the Baptist, and the old must be left behind to enter the New Testament of Jesus Christ. We leave behind a little in this world in order to gain a lot in the next world.

But someone might also ask me: “Fr. John, why do you leave a little morsel of marshmallow pie for Elijah if he has already come in John and announced the coming of Christ 2000 years ago? Fr. John, did you miss the boat of Christianity and are still stuck on the shore of the Old Testament waiting for the Messiah? I don’t think so, and here are two reasons why. First, leaving a little for Elijah is a great way to prepare for Christmas, and the birthday of our Savior.

Every Advent we reenact those dramatic days leading up to the coming of Christ born in Bethlehem, and no one can help us better prepare than Elijah and John the Baptist: two men on the same mission. Every Advent and Christmas, therefore, we should leave behind a little of this world, by helping the poor, sacrificing our own selfish desires, spending more time in prayer, at Mass, at Adoration, fingering the Rosary.

The second reason to leave a little behind is because Jesus will also come again at the end of time “to judge the living and the dead” as we profess in the Creed. And guess who will show up right before Jesus returns not as a Baby in Bethlehem, but as a King on the clouds? That’s right: my buddy Elijah. It says in Rv 11:6 about a witness who has “the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying.”

That is what Elijah did in 1 Kgs 17. So, too, Elijah, along with Moses the other "witness," will return to announce the end of the world and the judgment of the nations. And a great way to prepare for that terrible day would be to leave a little behind for Elijah. That is, to show we are not too attached to this world and are ready to be more attached to the next world.

That is why I leave a little behind for Elijah, to prepare for Christmas and to prepare for the coming of Christ at the close of the age. Now, let me leave you with a little quote from C. S. Lewis’s book “The Great Divorce,” where he wrote something strikingly similar. He said: “You cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys, on one journey, even your right hand and your right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind.” Quite frankly, I would rather leave a little dessert.

Praised be Jesus Christ!