Homily for Friday, 10th Week in Ordinary Time

Homily for Friday

10th Week in Ordinary Time

June 12, 2020

1 Kings 19: 9, 11-16

Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Elijah, why are you here?” (1 Kings 19: 9, 13).

(source unknown; found at https://redeeminggod.com/what-elijah-missed/)

The prophet has fled for his life from the vengeance of Jezebel (19:1-3).  Strengthened by divinely provided food in the desert, he has tramped a great distance to Mt. Horeb, i.e., Sinai (19:4-8).  And there he’s challenged by God, twice, including a half verse omitted in our reading this morning:  “Why are you here?”

It seems that the Lord is challenging Elijah to examine his life, his activity, and his motives.  Why is he at Horeb instead of in Samaria or the wadi east of the Jordan or Sidon in Phoenicia?

He answers twice, including in a verse we skipped over, that he’s been zealous for the Lord, so much that the apostate Israelites led by pagan Queen Jezebel, are seeking his life (19:10,14).  Both before and after a profound encounter with the Lord (19:11-13), he’s sure he’s been faithful to the Lord and has been carrying out his prophetic mission.  Then the Lord gives him another mission, a threefold task, to anoint 2 kings and a successor prophet (19:15-16).

On 1st glance, it might seem that the Lord is challenging the way Elijah is “most zealous for the Lord.”  This is the prophet who has called down upon Israel drought and famine (17:1) and who has cut the throats of 450 prophets of Baal (18:16-40)—not exactly “a tiny whispering sound” (19:12).  The Lord is not in the ferocity and violence of earthquake, fire, and wind but in calm and serenity (19:11-12).  Maybe Elijah ought to be examining himself about this.

As we continue to read Elijah’s story, we’ll see that his zeal is hardly tempered, even if he doesn’t slay any more idolatrous prophets.

But the present story can suggest a message for us.  The prophet is asked to examine his behavior and his motives.  You and I need to do that regularly.  What we do, big or small, day in and day out—do we do it with zeal for the Lord and not out of unthinking routine or, worse, some self-seeking?  What form does our zeal take—the violence of an earthquake, of cutting someone apart in our thoughts or, worse, our words or our coldness?  Or does our zeal imitate the Lord’s soft whisper?