The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 13, 2023

1 Kings 19, 9; 11–13

At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter. Then the Lord said to him, “Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will be passing by.”  A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord— but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake — but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire— but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.

“At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.”  

The events in the First Reading for today’s Mass take place after Elijah the Prophet had shown the Canaanite god Baal, worshipped by the king of Israel at that time and his foreign wife Jezebel to be a fraud.  Subsequently, Elijah had put a great number of Baal’s priests to death.  Jezebel was infuriated, at least in part by the humiliation she suffered when her god was  discredited, and sent assassins after Elijah.  He fled for his life to the southern boundary of Judah and hid in the cave where we find him at the beginning of this Reading.

“Then the Lord said to him.”  This is a poor attempt by the editor of the Lectionary to contract several verses of text.  It would be better to say, “The word of the Lord went out to him.”  This avoids the confusion brought on by saying, “The Lord said to him: ‘Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord’ ” (1 Kings 19, 11).  In fact, it seems that an angel had spoken to the Prophet as he had done earlier in the story.  

“Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will be passing by.”   This verse evokes the picture of Almighty God reclining upon a cloud which sails past the mountain in which Elijah has hidden himself.  But the angel tells the Prophet to come out of his cave into the open air where he will hear God’s voice.  Of course, God could just as easily have spoken to Elijah in the cave but he wanted Elijah to receive him not in a posture of hiding but as one who is stalwart in doing the divine will.  

“A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord — but the Lord was not in the wind.”  This brings to mind the very vivid description of God descending to the earth as found in Psalm 18, 8-12: “The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because he was angry with them.  There went up a smoke in his wrath: and a fire flamed from his face: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds. And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.”  A powerful storm accompanied by earthquakes, but the Lord did not appear in this way.  “After the earthquake there was fire— but the Lord was not in the fire.”  This was no small, localized fire: “A fire shall go before him, and shall burn his enemies round about. His lightnings have shone forth to the world: the earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax, at the presence of the Lord: at the presence of the Lord of all the earth” (Psalm 97, 3-5).  “After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.”  Here God speaks in the depths of the heart.  We can also understand this as explaining that the advent of the Son of God upon the earth would not be accompanied with sounds of fury and destruction but in a gentle, humble way: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold your King will come to you, the just and Savior: he is poor, and riding upon an ass” (Zechariah 9, 9).  That is, in a stable, not in a palace.

This reading helps us to discern God’s will in our lives.  We want him to speak to us out loud and give us explicit instructions, but if he were to do that we would only shape them to suit ourselves, justifying this by saying that we heard wrong.  But when the Lord wants us to know or do something, he puts an itch in our hearts to notice the problem and to figure out a solution.  The itch drives us on until we have carried out his will.  The itch is a small thing but it affects us in a place only God could go and does not let up until we have done the work he has given us.  This way we cannot deny that it is him speaking nor can we misinterpret what he tells us.  The itch drives us on to do what he wants and the way he wants it.  This is true, for instance, in the case of discerning religious vocations.  

In the First Reading, this itch brings out Elijah out of the cave when the other phenomena do not.  The same will happen with us when we spend time before the Blessed Sacrament in quiet prayer.