Our celebration today is that of the founding of the Carmelite Order on Mount Carmel, located near Haifa, Israel in the year 1200. This is the very mountain on which Elijah celebrated the faith of the people of Israel against the assertions of the pagan gods. 450 pagan prophets could not get their gods to spontaneously ignite a holocaust sacrifice, while Elijah, a single prophet of the Lord, built an altar of stone, surrounded it with wood, built a trench around it and drenched the whole thing with water three times until the water filled the trenches. He then prayed to the One and True God to answer his prayer and light the fire so that his glory may be shown among these faithless people. Fire from heaven immediately came down from heaven and consumed the entire sacrifice: stones, wood, dust and even the water! The pagans then had a change of heart and they proclaimed the Lord as the one and true God.
And so it was on this mountain that an Order was founded and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Theirs was to be a life of solitude and community with a structure of individual cells surrounding an oratory. Their "formula of life" commended daily Eucharist, continual prayer (especially the psalms) with silence otherwise, manual labor and other traditional forms of monastic asceticism. Some of the greatest mystics and saints of the Church have been Carmelites including St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.
The gospel passage today reminds us that the true members of the family of God – including those in religious life – are those who call God their Father – and who seek to do nothing but his will. They are real children of God and authentic brothers and sisters of Jesus. May we be numbered among them this day – and may we invite others to join our family of faith!
The first reading instructs us as to how the religious and how all of us are meant to become connected to the will of God: SILENCE: it begins with silence of the mind and heart, an opening of the inner ear, so that the will of God might stir forth from where it likes to dwell in fullness and richness – in the silent recesses of our beings – in the silent recesses of our minds – in the silent recesses of our hearts! BE STILL AND KNOW GOD – and his will for you!
Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it!
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