Continuing our Advent look at Messianic prophecies, a series which we began in Advent 2011 and continued in 2102, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, the earlier posts of the series may be read here, here, here ,here, here, here, here, here , here , here, here, here, here , here, here, here , here, here, here, here, here, here , here, here, here, here , here, here , here, , here , here , here , here , here, here , here, here here , here and here, we come to Malachi: 4: 1-6:
[1] For behold the day shall come kindled as a furnace: and all the proud, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall set them on fire, saith the Lord of hosts, it shall not leave them root, nor branch. [2] But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd. [3] And you shall tread down the wicked when they shall be ashes under the sole of your feet in the day that I do this, saith the Lord of hosts. [4] Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, the precepts, and judgments. [5] Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
[6] And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers: lest I come, and strike the earth with a curse.
The Church Fathers interpreted this as a prediction of the End Times with Christ as the Sun (Son) of Justice judging all of mankind. Saint Augustine said of the prediction of Elijah the Prophet coming again before Judgment Day:
“After admonishing them to give heed to the law of Moses, as he foresaw that for a long time to come they would not understand it spiritually and rightly, he went on to say, “And, behold, I will send to you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and signal day of the Lord come: and he shall turn the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his next of kin, lest I come and utterly smite the earth.” It is a familiar theme in the conversation and heart of the faithful, that in the last days before the judgment the Jews shall believe in the true Christ, that is, our Christ, by means of this great and admirable prophet Elijah who shall expound the law to them. For not without reason do we hope that before the coming of our Judge and Saviour Elijah shall come, because we have good reason to believe that he is now alive; for, as Scripture most distinctly informs us, he was taken up from this life in a chariot of fire. When, therefore, he is come, he shall give a spiritual explanation of the law which the Jews at present understand carnally, and shall thus “turn the heart of the father to the son,” that is, the heart of fathers to their children; for the Septuagint translators have frequently put the singular for the plural number. And the meaning is, that the sons, that is, the Jews, shall understand the law as the fathers, that is, the prophets, and among them Moses himself, understood it”.
From this I gather that the Lord’s coming is not near at hand as the Jews show no sign of conversion to Catholicism. But what I see now is very hard times ahead, a penitential period leading up to the conversion of the Jews and the coming of the Anti-Christ, etc. Our time is the time of the Great Chastisement. Let us prepare accordingly.