The messengers of God the Father "the prophet Elijah"

INTRODUCTION - - Elijah is not a prophet writer, he has not left us any book written by his own hand; yet his words, recorded by others, seem written with iron, with fire and with blood, so great is the impulse of God's love that is manifested in him and through him.

He felt devoured by the love of God and his people: he often repeated: "I am in the service of God" and "I am burned with jealousy for the Lord, because the children of Israel have deserted ..." Through Elijah, God calls to fidelity and love. And sometimes the Prophet performs ruthless acts, such as when he slaughtered, near the Cison stream, the four hundred and fifty false prophets who misled the people with the perverse cults of nature and Baal. In him the love of God is revealed as it is by its nature: stronger than death, exclusive, absolute and therefore rightly jealous, for the glory of God and the good of man.

BIBLICAL MEDITATION - Later the prophet Elijah arose, like fire, his word burned like flame. With the word of the Lord he closed the sky and three times caused fire to descend. O Elijah how glorious you are for the wonders! Who can say they look like you? You snatched a man from death. Kings fell into ruin. You were lifted up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot drawn by fiery horses. You were designated to retry your time, to allay anger before divine judgment, to lead the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and to restore the tribes of Jacob. Blessed are those who - will be able to see you and those who have fallen asleep in love ... (Eccl. 48, 1-11)

CONCLUSION - God loves us to the point of jealousy. In the human heart, jealousy is too often a meanness caused by insecurity, malicious suspicion and exasperated selfishness. In the heart of God is the summit of his goodness for his creatures: without his love we could neither be happy nor full of those goods, spiritual and material, which we so long for, but which we illusively seek far from God. he did not love us to the point of jealousy, he would abandon us when we turn away from him, and we would fall so easily into the void: of fatuous feelings, of dream goods, of a whole existence made with efforts but with inconsistent dust. Good for us that God runs after us, like a mother, even when we run away from him.

But let's not abuse it, because it's a sin against the Holy Spirit.

COMMUNITY PRAYER

INVITATION - Let us turn our prayers with confidence to God, our Father, who in every age has sent his prophets to call men to conversion and love. Let us pray together and say: By the Heart of Christ your Son, hear us, O Lord.

INTENTIONS - So that generous prophets may arise even today in the Church and in the world who know how to call to conversion and love and arouse active Christian hope, we pray: That the Church may be freed from false prophets, which with apparent zeal and doctrines of pride disturb the people of God and scandalize the world, let us pray: That each of us may be docile to the voice of that interior prophet who is given to us in our conscience, let us pray: That respect and obedience for the "prophets may grow in the Church and in the world. ordinary "constituted in authority by God in the Holy Hierarchy, in the Society and in the Family, let us pray. (Other personal intentions)

CONCLUSION PRAYER - Lord, our God, while we ask your forgiveness for having so often closed our ears and hearts to your voice that manifested itself in our conscience or through your "prophets", we ask you to form a new, more docile heart , more humble, more ready and generous, like the Heart of Jesus, your Son. Amen.