Fr Paul reads today from the Gospel of Matthew (17: 10-13), in which Jesus says to his disciples ‘Elijah has come already, and they did not recognize him but treated him as they pleased’.

Fr Paul says this Gospel reading is a continuation from the last couple of days when we hear really beautiful praise of John the Baptist.  Today’s raises the question of the coming of Elijah and Fr Paul draws our attention to the very last line from the Old Testament, which says, ‘Look I shall send you the prophet Elijah before the great and awesome day of the Lord’ so we know someone will come announcing the day of the Lord. In today’s Gospel, Jesus identifies John as this Elijah.  This bridges then the Old Testament and the New and, Fr Paul notes, it bridges many of the prophecies in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in the New Testament.

Fr Paul suggests it may be worth a look at that last paragraph in the Old Testament to see that the bridge exists as we celebrate it in today’s Gospel.