As Advent continues, several days of remembrance are celebrated.
On December 14th St. John of the Cross is remembered. He was a Carmelite friar and Christian mystic in Spain (AD 1591). (Carmelite refers to Mt. Carmel in Israel where Elijah built the twelve stone altar to prove God Almighty as God against the priest of Baal). He is most noted for his Dark Night of the Soul. He worked with St. Teresa of Avila to establish monasteries in Spain until 1577.
December 16th--The prophet Haggai is remembered. Haggai had a vision. When the Israelites returned to the land of Israel after their captivity in Babylon, Haggai was their prophet. He noticed something was missing...the Temple of the Lord. He urged all of Israel to rebuild the temple. This temple would usher in the arrival of the Messiah.
December 17th--two are commemorated: The prophet Daniel and Lazarus.
Daniel, interpreter of dreams, man of God. He survived the lion's den. His friends were put into a blazing furnace to die, but God saved them, which converted King Nebuchadnezzar to this God of Israel. Because of Daniel's faithfulness and gifts from God, he rose to prominence in the Babylonian kingdom. But Daniel's heart remained in sorrow yearning for Jerusalem. God gave him a vision of all the kingdoms of the world falling, but the kingdom of God ushered in and established forever.
Lazarus the one raised from the dead, Jesus' friend whom he wept over. The Roman church celebrates/remembers him on the 17th. Remember the resurrection of all. The king arrives in humility in the Christmas season, he was raised from the dead, and will come in glory as King forever culminating the Kingdom of God in heaven and on earth--there will be no difference. Lazarus is a reminder of these promises--the act, reality of the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day.
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