08 June. Wednesday, Week 10.

1st Reading: 1 Kings 18:20-39

Elijah’s faith in the true God is confirmed by fire from heaven

So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel. Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people did not answer him a word.

Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty. Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.” All the people answered, “Well spoken!” Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.”

So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made. At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”; with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed. Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time. Again he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time, so that the water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water.

At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.” Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there.

Gospel: Matthew 5:17-19

Jesus has not come to abolish but to fulfill the Jewish tradition

Jesus said to his disciples,”Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Ferocity versus reconciliation

As Ecclesiastes wrote, “There is a time for everything.. A time to tear, and a time to sow.. A time of war, and a time of peace.” Scripture lays various possibilities before us, each equally inspired by God: to reconcile and harmonize, or to make a clean break with an intolerable situation. To decide which course to follow at any stage in our lives, we must rely on prayer, on the guidance of the Holy Spirit who has called us to some responsibility whether as parent or teacher, as priest or doctor, as friend or confidant, as counselor or advisor.

Clearly, the ferocious stand of the prophet Elijah against the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel was a drastic last resort, when he had four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal seized, dragged down to brook Kishon, and killed (1 Kings 18:40). Jesus warns his disciples against any such violence against their enemies. We leave the final judgement to God alone, and our challenge is to call others to conversion and reconciliation.

While there is something heroic in Elijah’s standing out so fiercely against the apostasy of his time, we cannot approve of his methods. There is no way to reconcile his ferocity with Our Lord’s teaching about love of enemies, and seeking a peaceful solution to disputed issues. Perhaps Elijah himself later came to realise that there must have been a better way to deal with the Baal-worship crisis, when, wandering in the wilderness, he found God in the small, still voice that spoke to his heart.

Respectful of tradition

In our gospel for today, Jesus the Jew is respectful of his own Jewish tradition, “don’t imagine that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets.” However, he also declares that he has come to complete the Law and the Prophets, to bring their true intention to fulfilment. Jesus valued the good in his religious tradition, but was also open to the ways that God was working to enrich that tradition. We too are called to value the good in our own religious tradition, to critique the shadow side to that tradition and to be open and receptive to the ways that the Lord is constantly renewing and enriching that tradition. God is like the potter who takes what is there and reshapes it so that it serves his purposes more fully. God is always ahead of us in that sense; our task is to keep up with what God is trying to do. [MH]