Let Us Embrace Reverence and Prudence: A Reflection by Priest Alexander Nazin

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Today is the feast of the Malachi, the “Seal of the Prophets”Malachi was the last of the Old Testament Prophets, which is why the holy fathers call him the “Seal of the prophets”. After him, until John the Forerunner whom he prophesized, for a whole 400 years there were no great prophets in the world.

“>Prophet Malachi, and what do we know about him? He’s the last prophet with a book in the Old Testament. He was the last of the prophets both in time and the writing of his book. He lived in the time of King Ezra and took part in the Jews’ exodus from Babylonian captivity.

His book contains a prophetic part that talks about how the Savior will soon come and we’ll be able to pray to God anywhere at any time, not only to offer sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple. And the second part of his prophetic book, Behold, I will send My messenger, speaks about and foretells the Forerunner. The day of his death is unknown, as with all the prophets. I think it’s precisely thanks to the second prophecy, thanks to what Malachi said about the Forerunner that his feast is appointed for today.

Nothing else is known about him. What kind of man was he? What did he think? How did he speak? What did he suffer? Whom did he love? How long did he live? Nothing… How did he live overall? Like all those who were around him. But it shouldn’t be like that. It’s not for nothing that the holy Church tells us to remember him, to remember his day.

Let’s think about and let’s remember what this prophet means to us. A representative of a foreign nation, nothing in common with us. All those chastisements he writes, we just read in books. Okay, yes, he upbraids the Jews, but we’re not Jews—we live in New Testament times. Their sins don’t apply to us, we don’t offer sacrifices. He was a prophet. We know that the Lord sends these prophets to kings and princes. There are different prophets—there are those of royal descent, like Isaiah, and there are ordinary shepherds, like the Prophet HoseaThe Holy Prophet Hosea the first of the minor prophets, belonged to the tribe of Issachar.

“>Prophet Hosea, completely unadorned and uneducated. And they go to kings, to the powerful of this world, and speak right to their faces, fearing nothing, while they are feared. The kings feared them, hid from them, and sent them far away; they didn’t want to hear it. There was practically nothing they could do with them, save Isaiah, who was executed, and Jeremiah, whom the people stoned. But they were afraid and trembled.

But why? What is this prophetic ministry? St. John Chrysostom gives an example: Despite the fact that the Lord told the unrighteous King Ahab: “You will defeat the army. Execute them, do not let them live; they’re wicked and they will repeatedly attack and destroy your people, so execute them,” the king was as if he didn’t hear it, and he spared the captive Syrian king and put him on his chariot and honored him and released him with a reward. And then, Holy Scripture says, a certain man came and said to another man, “In the name of the Lord, smite me.” This doesn’t mean to just give a slap, but to strike hard. In other words, “Really hurt me.” This man was at a loss: “Why should I hit you? Why should I hurt you? No, I’m not going to do that.” And the prophet said to him: “Since you didn’t listen to the will of God, a lion will come and tear you to pieces.” Then the prophet went up to another man and said: “According to the word of the Lord, strike me.” So he struck him and maimed him so badly that he couldn’t even look at him. Half the prophet’s face had to be bandaged.

St. John Chrysostom asks: “What’s this about? How is this possible? The one who caused harm is praised, while the one who wanted to do good is punished and killed—what is this?” It’s what you and I, living in the world, very often forget—the simple truth that every prophet who lived before the coming of the Savior knew and remembered. They knew the same thing: truth, evil, lies, and goodness. They knew one thing about truth and evil, and lies and good–that these are all conventions. Good is only what the Lord has said, evil is everything that goes against God’s will. And they knew this and lived by this, and that’s why everyone feared them, even kings. They were fearful before this Divine truth, before these hearts, before these individuals who no longer lived for themselves.

So, what do we know about any of these prophets? What do we know about the Forerunner? The greatest prophet… What do we know about him? Practically nothing. They all dissolved, they all stopped being themselves in order to be the voice of God, to be agents of God’s will here.

This beaten, maimed prophet—why did he need this? It turns out that King Ahab’s conscience rebuked him and he ordered that none of the prophets be allowed to see him. But the Lord arranged it so that the guards didn’t recognize the mangled prophet with a bandaged face, and he went to the king and said what he had to say: “Because you spared the man of destruction, your soul will be instead of his soul, and your people instead of his people.” The Lord will find a means and a way by which the will of God for every man will be revealed to him.

Now, to be brief. Is today’s prophet really so foreign and incomprehensible to us? He’s a Minor Prophet. There are four major prophetic books of the Old Testament and twelve minor ones. He’s one of the Minor Prophets, and even the last. What’s in there for us? Well, we say, it’s for the Jews—let them read it. What’s it to us? But let’s not be lazy, let’s open it, and I think the first line will make us think: The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi (Mal. 1:1). If it’s the word of the Lord, it can’t be temporary, it can’t be local, for a certain nation or certain area. As the word of the Lord, by this fact alone, it’s important for everyone living in all times and beyond.

And how does this word begin? “I have loved My people,” says the Lord. “I have loved My people, but they say to Me, ‘How have You loved us?’” (Mal. 1:2). My God, isn’t this us? Isn’t this about us? When even a small misfortune happens in life—or even not so small, if it’s grief, if it’s illness—isn’t our first thought always: “Why me? Of all people…” It’s because the Lord loved you. And if a servant honors his master, if a son honors his father, as the prophet Malachi writes further, then “How can you call Me Father and not respect Me, call Me Lord and not revere Me?” How can this be? How do we live like this? How can we say Our Father… The Lord spoke to everyone through Malachi, and He spoke to the priests about those Gifts that the priest brings unworthily: And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? (Mal. 1:8) “I’m offering a sacrifice,” the priest answers.Okay, but your sacrifice isn’t pleasing. Look at yourself. As you are, so is your sacrifice.

I think we all need to make a very little effort, spend a little of our time to read it—and it’s very short, it’s only four pages. This is the Minor Prophet Malachi. This is what has come down to us from him. This is what remains from him in the memory of the history of this land. We won’t learn anything else about him anywhere else, but we need to listen. It’s not for nothing that today, on the day of his commemoration, the Lord tells us to read this. This concerns all of us. Don’t be lazy, because if you don’t want to do it, if you turn away, someone will have to be struck down, to be injured in order to come to us. Perhaps not in the literal sense—perhaps this person will be terminally ill, perhaps it will be an invalid, or perhaps it will be someone with a wounded soul, I don’t know. Someone will suffer so that we might feel compassion, so that we might want to hear God’s will for ourselves. Let’s not let anyone suffer, let’s not cause anyone harm, let us be reverent and prudent. Let us turn ourselves to the One Whom we call our Father and Lord.