Who then is this about whom I hear such things?

26 SEPTEMBER (Lk 9,7-9)

The confusion on the future and present life is so much. Many are the minds that let themselves be led astray by strange ideas on the life of men on our earth. Let us say from the outset that the life a man is one and only one. You only live once and in one body. There is no transmigration of souls from one body to another. There is no metamorphosis, there is no resurgence to the infinite, there is not even any return to life of famous characters from the past. There has been some resurrection, but in the very instant of death, so that man returned to live only for the natural duration of his time. Then, there is eternity.

In the Old Testament we know only three resurrections and all dating from the time of Elijah and Elisha. But you know very well the resurrection on the last day. This is acquired and sure doctrine, because it is a true revelation. Then we will be transformed into spirit.

When the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, “Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?” Answering in the language of his forefathers, he said, “Never!” So he too in turn suffered the same tortures as the first. At the point of death he said: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.” After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.” Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man’s courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing. After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When he was near death, he said, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.” Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord. Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage, she exhorted each of them in the language of their forefathers with these words: “I do not know how you came into existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you the breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed. Therefore, since it is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man’s beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law” (Cf. 2Mac 7,7-23).

For Elijah instead there was a very obscure word of God. It spoke of his coming, before the day of the Lord. It is a prophecy of 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 (Mal 3,22-24).

We know that the interpretation of these words have been offered by the Archangel Gabriel to Zacharias, at the very time of the announcement of the birth of John.

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of (the) Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord” (Lk 1,13-17).

In ignorance everything becomes a confusion. It is a sin to keep the people in ignorance.

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.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints free us from all ignorance.