John I beheaded. Who then is this

27 SEPTEMBER (Lk 9,7-9)

Elijah was abducted by God in a chariot of fire. It is because of this abduction that many thought to his return with his body of flesh onto our earth.

When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, he and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. “Stay here, please,” Elijah said to Elisha. “The Lord has sent me on to Bethel.” “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live,” Elisha replied, “I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel, where the guild prophets went out to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master from over you today?” “Yes, I know it,” he replied. “Keep still.” Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, please, Elisha, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho.” “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live,” Elisha replied, “I will not leave you.” They went on to Jericho, where the guild prophets approached Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master from over you today?” “Yes, I know it,” he replied. “Keep still.” Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here; the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan.” “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live,” Elisha replied, “I will not leave you.” And so the two went on together. Fifty of the guild prophets followed, and when the two stopped at the Jordan, stood facing them at a distance. Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up and struck the water, which divided, and both crossed over on dry ground. When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask for whatever I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of your spirit.” “You have asked something that is not easy,” he replied. “Still, if you see me taken up from you, your wish will be granted; otherwise not.” As they walked on conversing, a flaming chariot and flaming horses came between them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. When Elisha saw it happen he cried out, “My father! my father! Israel’s chariots and drivers!” But when he could no longer see him, Elisha gripped his own garment and tore it in two. Then he picked up Elijah’s mantle which had fallen from him, and went back and stood at the bank of the Jordan. (2Kings 2,1-13).

Who had foretold the coming of Elijah to our earth was Malachi.

Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I enjoined him on Horeb, The statutes and ordinances for all Israel. Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, Before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day, To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the land with doom (Mal 3,19-24).

Here it is instead the prophecy of Moses on the prophet that should have come.

“A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen. This is exactly what you requested of the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let us not again hear the voice of the Lord, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘This was well said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him(Dt 18,15-22).

Herod is confused, lost because of conflicting voice on Jesus. When the mystery is not announced in truth, the confusion always attacks the heart and conquers it. Today, the whole world has gone astray because of the confusion that is on the lips of the Christian. He does not know who Jesus Christ is. He who makes a profession of rightful faith, sound doctrine, most pure orthodoxy; he who every Sunday says his belief during the celebration of Holy Mass, ignores the truth of his Christ. He does not know what his truth is, in what his mystery differs from every other mystery.

Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying, “John has been raised from the dead”; others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”; still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.” But Herod said, “John I beheaded. Who then is this about whom I hear such things?” And he kept trying to see him.

No one comes to the truth by himself. We all need the help of those who possess a strong, robust, true, and authentic faith, without any gap. Every Christian since from his faith and his truth depend the truth and the faith of the whole world on Lord Jesus; is obliged to let himself be formed, educated, catechized on the sound doctrine of Jesus the Lord. It is a serious sin of omission to walk with an uncertain, doubtful, confused, botched, cheated faith, without any sure principle of truth, and without any real knowledge of the mystery. Today, the scandal of the Christian is the superficiality of the faith and the truth in which he lives. There is a super galactic, super giant religious machinery, that lives in a body of Lilliputian faith.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints help us grow in the faith.