+ Today we have two interesting readings for our consideration: the
first reading is about how Elijah, a prophet of God – one who is chosen to be a
mouthpiece of God, and a worker of works that could back up what was said: much
like Jesus himself. Today we see Elijah have contest of sorts with the priest
of the pagan god Baal. It was about lighting a fire to sacrifice bulls to their
god. They prepared the sacrifice, but Elijah told them not to light the fire
but to call on their god to light it. They did it! No fire. No sacrifice.
Then Elijah prepared a similar
sacrificial site: except that he dug a trench around the place of sacrifice.
Then he told the servants to fill large jars of water and to pour it all over the
component parts of the sacrifice: drench everything – they did so – and the
remaining water filled the trench that surrounded the site. Then Elijah prayed
to the One God asking him to display his glory, his power and, oddly enough his
love, by setting the scene alight – then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed
the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. And when all the
people saw this they fell on their faces. “The Lord is God, they cried, the
Lord is God!
An important, but not often
mentioned lesson in this story is that – while at the time, pagan gods were
many – and holocausts abounded – because the religious instinct in mankind was
always present – so man could find his place in the universe – and a myriad of
pagan prescriptions and rules were obeyed to assuage the gods they did not
understand, yet, Elijah taught them now that belief in the One God – can fill up
all they were desiring – and put it on a new footing – that the One God could
do amazing, even contra-indicated things – and remove all their ignorant fears
and cause them to wonder in awe at who He IS, but also, to tell them that it is
LOVE that is behind all these things and that in time One would come who would
explain and be everything. And that would be Jesus!
In the gospel passage Jesus
recaps the message of the first reading: I have not come to abolish the Law – all
the prescriptions and commandments that my Father gave Moses to give to you – I
have come to fulfill them and model them in a simple and forthright manner:
LOVE – love one another as I love you – with abandon, with compassion, with
joy, with creativity, with forgiveness, with giving to God what is God’s and to
civil leaders what is theirs by divine right, with being willing to lay down
your life for anyone at all who needs us to. This is raining down fire into a
watered holocaust, this is making the impossible happen, this is being engulfed
in the burning cool heat of the Divine Heart of God Himself, who simply LOVES,
simply CARES, simply will NEVER LET US DOWN.
We need to be doused with Grace
everyday – as we find ourselves in a convergence of circumstances any one of
which could bring us to our knees – just look at what is going on in the world,
in our country, in our families, and the way to be doused is to first go into
ourselves in moments of deep wordless, conceptless, imageless “prayer” – and then
to be fired up with the Holy Spirit’s Strength, Determination and Truth, and go
out of ourselves to help as many as we can – this one day – this one hour – his
one moment!
Save us, O Lord, you alone are
God! You alone are our refuge!
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