The Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 9, 2020

1 Kings 19:2–13 

And Jezabel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying: “Such and such things may the gods do to me, and add still more, if by this hour tomorrow I make not your life as the life of one of them.”  Then Elijah was afraid, and rising up, he went wherever he had a mind: and he came to Beersheba of Judah and left his servant there, and he went forward, one day’s journey into the desert. And when he was there, and sat under a juniper tree, he requested for his soul that he might die, and said: “It is enough for me, Lord; take away my soul: for I am no better than my fathers.”  And he cast himself down, and slept in the shadow of the juniper tree: and behold an angel of the Lord touched him, and said to him: “Arise and eat.”  He looked, and behold there was at his head a hearth cake, and a vessel of water: and he ate and drank, and he fell asleep again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said to him: “Arise, eat: for you have yet a great way to go.”  And he arose, and ate and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, unto the mount of God, Horeb.  And when he was come there, he abode in a cave. and behold the word of the Lord came unto him, and he said to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  And he answered: “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant: they have thrown down your altars, they have slain your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.”  And he said to him: Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.”  And behold, the Lord passed, and a great and strong wind before the Lord, overthrowing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces: but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake: but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire: but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a whistling of a gentle air. And when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth, stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold a voice spoke unto him.

The first reading for this Sunday, from 1 Kings, is a tiny excerpt from a long narrative, and cannot be properly understood in the few words of which it consists, so I have added several of the verses before and after it so that we might examine it better.  First of all, the narrative here takes place directly after the great contest in which the Prophet Elijah showed the god Baal to be a fraud and then killed Baal’s prophets. Jezabel, the pagan woman who became the queen of the northern kingdom of Israel, was enraged when he heard the news of this and planned to kill him.  The threat she sent the Prophet had real teeth to it as murder was second nature to her.   Exhausted, without friends, and fearful, Elijah fled for the southern kingdom of Judah.  Although safer there, he stayed away from the cities and dwelt in the wilderness.  Finally, sitting under a juniper tree, he prayed for death: “It is enough for me, Lord; take away my soul: for I am no better than my fathers.”  That is, I have done everything you commanded me to do, O Lord, and I have accomplished nothing.  King Ahab and his wife Jezabel had encouraged the worship of pagan gods, and the sanctuaries of the true God had been suppressed or destroyed altogether.  Anyone who resisted the worship of these gods was killed.  Elijah had worked tirelessly to bring Israel back to the worship of God despite the jeopardy this put him in, and had even made a public demonstration of the uselessness of Baal and the power of the one, true God, but then had been forced to flee.

Elijah stands as the exemplar of those followers of Christ who have lived according to his law, practiced virtue, prayed regularly, exposed themselves to ridicule in practicing the Faith, perhaps lost money, property, jobs, and friends as a result, and look at their lives and see that they have nothing to show for it all.  Their children may even have grown up and rejected the Church and they themselves sit exhausted, alone, and ill.  Elijah also stands as an exemplar of priests and men and women religious, and of all consecrated persons, who have given up everything for God and his service, and then feel empty and abandoned by him.  Men and women who previously had excellent prospects in the world and plenty of freedom to pursue them, who had good jobs, careers, educations, and are relegated to miserable places where they live out invisible, unappreciated lives, perhaps in the midst of faithless fellow priests and religious, and betrayed by their bishops.

“And behold an angel of the Lord touched him, and said to him: ‘Arise and eat.’ ”  God sends help to the Christian who perseveres in the midst of these convictions of failure.  Here, he sends an angel.  In other places, an inspiration or a miracle.  Elijah perseveres.  He prays for death but he does not take his own life.  He remains open to God’s will even in the terrible circumstances in which he is placed because of his faith. God sends all the signs and helps we need, but if we wrap ourselves so tightly in the cloak of our misery that we cannot feel the angel’s touch through it, then that is not the failure of God to help us.  “And he ate and drank” that which the Lord provided him, at the angel’s command.  Elijah continues to do the will of God even when it seems pointless to do so.  “Arise, eat: for you have yet a great way to go.”  Strengthened by the meal and more sleep, he is prepared to hear from the angel that he has “yet a great way to go.”  And despite his condition and his emotions, he does as God wills.

The angel does not tell him his destination.  He walks a long distance to “Mount Horeb”, which is thought to be Mount Sinai where Moses fasted and received the Ten Commandments from God.  The Lord speaks to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  The Lord wants Elijah to admit what has drawn him to this particular place: his zeal for God’s law, his desire for God’s presence.   Elijah does not really answer the question God poses, but simply tells God what he has already told his angel: “I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.”  Perhaps Elijah does not know how to articulate his longing to feel God’s closeness, his presence.  God, in his mercy, gives this to his servant.  Telling him to go outside the cave in which he is hiding, God “passed” him, preceded by a powerful wind, an earthquake, and fire.  We might see in this a sign of the Holy Trinity.  The wind signifies the Father: “The voice of the Lord makes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forests bare; and in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’ ” (Psalm 29, 9).  The earthquake signifies the Son “The earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matthew 27, 51-52).  The fire signifies the Holy Spirit: “There appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them” (Acts 2, 3).  At any rate, Elijah recognizes the Lord in “a whistling of a gentle air.”  The Lord refreshes him not with frightening forces of nature but with this tender breeze, and Elijah knows the Lord in it and delights in the experience of his presence. 

The experience is for a purpose beyond his own restoration, and the Prophet is prepared for it: “He covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth, stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold a voice spoke unto him.”  This is the mantle bequeathed to him by his master Elisha as he was carried up into heaven, and with which Elijah struck the Jordan, dividing it in two so that he might cross (cf. 2 Kings 2, 14).  He covers his face as a sign of respect for God, whom no man living may see, and comes forth to hear what the Lord will command him.

Beleaguered Christians, persecuted, rejected, tired, discouraged, must persevere in their faith, to believe and to do good even when all seems lost.  These are the ones who will be rewarded in heaven.  2 Timothy 4:7–8: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”