December 13, 2021 Reflection – Elijah will indeed come…

Elijah will indeed come and restore all things, but I tell you that Elijah has already come.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

One of the objections to Medjugorje is that Our Lady speaks a lot here. They say some rude things, they say she is chatty, she gives messages every day.  And in the Gospels the Virgin of Nazareth hardly says anything.  So, they say there is a big mismatch between the Virgin of Nazareth in the Scriptures and the Queen of Heaven, here, the Queen of Peace.

But I think that already in the objection, the answer is there.  The Virgin of Nazareth – the Queen of Heaven…She has finished life’s struggles.  She reigns in glory.  If she wants to speak, who am I to tell her to keep quiet?  If I am too stubborn to listen to her, who am I to tell her to stop repeating herself?  Stop coming to me and trying to gain my conversion.  Who am I to say this to my Mother and my Queen?

To me it speaks of a strange kind of arrogance. To say that we know better than the Mother of God, and the Queen of Heaven.  I don’t know better than the Mother of God, so I am happy enough to accept my limitations and listen to her messages.  And I am glad because I remember one of the messages that Our Lady gave here.  She said, “Be proud of all my words.”  And also, “The day will come when you will long for my messages, but you will not have them.”

So let’s enjoy and be thankful to God because He has sent us His Mother.

I speak of this because Christ’s coming is always preceded by Elijah.  Christ’s first coming is preceded by the Elijah who is John the Baptist.  And that Elijah shares in the same fate as the Messiah.  “So will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” And “They did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.”

And there is an intermediate coming of Christ, which is Christ coming to us now in all the moments of conversion in our lives, and through the Sacraments, and through the Scriptures, through other people.  All these things are so many Elijahs to us.

And then there is the final coming of Christ.  Christ comes in glory as judge.  And there He is preceded by another Elijah.  And this is His own Mother.  She is the Elijah of this time. She comes to prepare for Christ’s Kingdom to be fulfilled.

Cardinal Ratzinger, before he was Pope Benedict, said that all the multiplicity of Marian Apparitions in the world today, were a sign of the times that we live in.  So, we have to pay attention to our Blessed Mother.  And to what she is pointing us to, to Jesus Himself.

Then our concerns must not be for this world only.  But above all for Christ’s Kingdom.  With Christ as the center of our lives.

Now I am going to say something completely uncontroversial.  And this you already know because this is the Catholic faith.  It is a strange thing to be so concerned with this world only.  So, when you have Bishops and priests saying to you that you can not claim that you have an exemption through your conscience from receiving medicines that you don’t want to take or avoid experimental medicines that you don’t want to take.  It is very odd that they say you can’t use your conscience.

Remember Humanae Vitae when the Pope said contraception was bad?  Many Bishops said, “Oh no, you can rely on your conscience, and you can use these things.”  So, with your conscience you can use condoms, but you can’t use your conscience to refuse medicines.  That is very odd.  Very strange.

It is also very odd when we don’t say to public figures, please repent.  Repent of your big sins, your bad example.  Especially about a great sin like promoting abortion.  And we don’t say to them, repent and then you can have communion.  And that’s ok.  But then we say to other people, you have all these restrictions – you can only have 50 people at Mass, and you have to be dressed up like a ninja or something before you can approach the sacraments and you must follow these strange rules that we impose on you.

When you fear physical things but we don’t fear the most deadly disease of mortal sin, it says something is wrong.  Something is wrong in our hearts.  In the hearts of our leaders as well.  Especially if they are the ones setting this kind of example.

All of us need this conversion, so on this Saturday, the day that is especially devoted to Our Lady, let us pray firmly and insistently for a real conversion.  That we may listen to our Elijah.  The Elijah of these times.  Our Blessed Mother. To be converted to Christ. And not to be afraid for this life only.  As Scripture says, if our concern is only for this life, we are of all men the most to be pitied.  In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen

Here is the link to Fr. Leon’s homily on Mary TV:

https://marytv.tv/english-homily-in-medjugorje-2/?smid=ioNiaPsHqd6&slid=IRBKmbjFsDA

I thank Fr. Leon for these words. I have long wanted to comment on Our Lady as the Elijah for our times, but didn’t know how to back it up. Well Fr. Leon did a fine job! The Father has sent Our Lady to us in these days because I believe we are in the final battle before Christ returns. Our Lady is the logical one to be sent to prepare us. May we listen to her every word, for they are meant to prepare us. Thanks be to God.

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
(c)Mary TV 2021