463rd Meditation
“In Your goodness, You sent the prophets to bring them back to the right path, but how often did Your people not listen to their words, but persecuted and killed those whom You sent!” (Praise of the Blessed Trinity).
Our Father did everything to lead His people on the path of salvation. But again and again, the history of Israel shows how they strayed. It was difficult for them to be different from the surrounding nations.
But God had chosen Israel to be the people who belonged to Him alone and who, by their very existence, bore witness to the Lord of heaven and earth and to the wisdom of His laws and commandments.
Our Father had responded to their desire by giving them kings to rule the people. But with the exception of a few, the kings did not live as it pleased God, nor did they lead the people to do good.
Then the goodness of our Father sought a way to bring the people back to the right path. So He sent the prophets. They came to admonish the people, to remind them of what the Lord had done for them, and to show them what He had called them to be.
But the lot of the prophets was hard. Those who were true prophets-those who proclaimed the Word of the Lord-often encountered stubborn hearts and false prophets who proclaimed only what the king and the people wanted to hear. They experienced hostility and rejection, even persecution to the point of death.
Before His Passion, our Lord Jesus Christ spoke these words about the stubbornness of Israel: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you!” (Mt 23:37).
What else could our Father do in the face of this great obstinacy? How could He win their hearts and make them understand how much He loved them?
He did not give up! His love is inexhaustible!