Faith

Have you seen that little cloud? Thursday – 10th week in ordinary time 1 Kings 18:41-46

Elijah had just won a victory against Bal and his priests. He deliberately put himself in a disadvantage in this contest, simply to make a point to Ahab and his false priests, that YHWH and no other was the true God. Now that the contest was over and the people of Israel fell on their faces and worshiped YAHWEH Elijah seized the moment to end once and for all the worship of Baal. Elijah kills the prophets of Baal in the wadi Kishon.

Elijah could have said many things to Ahab after the victory on Mt. Carmel. He could have condemned him for the idolatry. He could have done a little dance and said, “Told you so! Told you so!” But there is no record of such activity. Instead gives Ahab a rather curious command while he makes a bold prophecy.

It was the worship of Baal that led to the three year drought. Now that the worship of Baal was defeated the purpose for the drought was fulfilled; it was time for rain. Elijah tells Ahab to go and get something to eat and drink for Elijah says he can hear a mighty rainstorm coming! There are many ways to look at this curious command. Was Ahab hungry from the events of a rather long day? Did he not eat because he was anxious to see who would win the day? But that’s not the only thing that Elijah says for he follows it with what could only be a bold declaration of faith, “ there is a sound of rushing rain”; this when all that covered the earth were powder puff blue skies and there hadn’t been a drop of rain in over three years. It seems like Elijah was going out on a limb. Well, that’s confidence!

Most of us reasonably wait for God’s promises to kick in. We hold that in his time he makes all things beautiful. I guess if we stood in Elijah’s place we would have told Ahab to expect a little sprinkle today or tomorrow and then maybe there’ll be some dew on the ground. Yet, in that one statement Elijah models for us a deep faith in God’s promises.

While Ahab hit the buffet line, Elijah hit his knees. It is true he has made a declaration of faith in God’s promise but he also recognises that God rejoices in receiving our ‘knee-mail’. Elijah ‘bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees.” This was an unusual posture of prayer for Elijah. He wasn’t kneeling, he wasn’t sitting, he wasn’t standing, and he didn’t lay prostrate before the LORD. This shows that the power in prayer resides in faith in the living God.

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Faith

It’s showtime – Wednesday 10th Week in ordinary time – 1 Kings 18:20-39

Have you ever been in a spiritual battle where you thought that you were on the losing side? Well, you’re not alone. The Bible is full of stories of God’s people and their struggle with spiritual battles. Often they thought that God had abandoned them, when in reality he was always with them. One example is the story of Elijah. He often thought that he was alone, especially when he was running away from the evil Queen Jezebel, who wanted to kill him.

Yet Elijah has been called “the iron prophet.” In chapter 17, Elijah (whose name means “Yahweh is God”) appears before Ahab after a three-year absence. King Ahab, son of Omri, ruled the northern kingdom of Israel for 22 years (874 – 853 BCE). Ahab’s marriage to the Phoenician princess Jezebel was the reason why Ahab began to serve and worship Baal, one of the gods worshiped by Jezebel. Promptly after his marriage to Jezebel, Ahab, among other things, built a temple for Baal in Samaria and erected an altar to Baal in the temple.

Elijah announces that Ahab’s worship of Baal has provoked God to cause a drought in the land (1 Kings 17:1). Ironically, when the drought occurs Ahab blames it on Elijah (1 Kings 18:17).The drought occurred as prophesied, lasting three years (18:1). The prophecy was aimed squarely at the heart of Baal worship, given that Baal was supposed to be the storm god of rain, dew, and fertility in Canaan and Phoenicia. The drought was not only a punishment for worshiping Baal, but it also challenged the leadership of Ahab in the eyes of his own people.

In the eyes of God, the king was charged with seeing that the people were faithful to the covenantal law and the prophet was responsible for keeping the king accountable to the law. Now that Ahab had broken the commandment of God, King and prophet were on collision course with Ahab seeking to kill Elijah. The King holds the prophecy of Elijah as being the reason for the land to be stricken by famine.

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Faith

The visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Luke 1:39-56

The Gospel of today is dominated by two women; they own every line and sentence and become for us models of faith. On the surface they seem to be ‘lowly’ and perhaps even women who carry a shame. Mary was with child before she was engaged to Joseph and Elizabeth was barren; a first century Jewish shame that made society look down on you. Yet it is these two women who are blessed because they lived their faith.

Mary, we are told, sets out ‘in haste’ to meet Elizabeth, her cousin. Mary was fully conscious of her new status; she was the mother of God. Yet she does not pull rank but places herself at service. Remember she left in haste, not to declare proudly her new position but to be of service to her cousin, now advanced in age and well advanced in her pregnancy. She goes to ‘greet’ her cousin. Mary celebrates the joy of her relatives; there are no pangs of jealousy just zeal to share in the joy of others.

The scriptures record very little of Elizabeth. However, she too like Mary is a great woman of faith. Unlike her husband Zechariah, who heard the message of the angel and doubted, Elizabeth had no doubts. Unlike Mary who was a young woman, Elizabeth was well advanced in age. The Gospel tells us that on hearing the greeting of Mary the babe in Elizabeth’s womb leapt. It is later in verse 44 that Elizabeth confesses that this was not just an ordinary baby kick but that this leaping was joyful.

Interestingly, up to this moment Elizabeth has no clue why Mary has come to visit her. Then in verse 41b we are told that she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now the wisdom of God is revealed to her. She now proclaims what no one else knew and what not even Mary has revealed to her. The power of the Holy Spirit is revealed all through the infancy narratives. Mary conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth to reveal what no one knows and Simeon is directed by the Holy spirit to seek Jesus in the temple. Which prompts me to ask, are we in tune with the Holy Spirit?

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Faith

‘Assumptions’ on the Ascension – Understanding the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord – Acts 1:1-11/ Luke 24:46-53

When Catholics think of the Ascension of our Lord, they often mix it up with the Assumption of Mary. But that explanation is for another day because this brief reflection wishes to focus on three other ‘assumptions’ linked to the ascension. Let us examine these ‘misunderstandings’.

1. The Assumption is not a parting but a handing over. The fact that Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father seems to be a good bye moment in the minds of many. It’s as if Jesus has done what he came do and now he has gone back to the high heavens and all will be well with the world. The Ascension is not a good bye moment but an opportunity to say hello.

Christ handed over his Church to the apostles and to us so that we may take the good news to the ends of the earth. Each time we begin a faith conversation it’s a continuation of the ripple effect that Christ so wished it to be; to take the message from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. Each time we say a ‘faith filled hello’ and begin a faith conversation or share our testimony (as the early Church did) we start a ‘new’ Jerusalem in that place and at that moment and the message is then taken further to a ‘new’ Judea, a ‘new’ Samaria, till it reaches the ends of the earth.

2. The Assumption is not a conclusion but a culmination. Yes, the curtain has fallen but that’s just because it’s the end of the first scene; it’s the end of part one. The culmination of part one leads to a pause; a pause for us to gaze briefly at the past but to look with eagerness to the future. Christ promised his disciples an exciting part two of the faith narrative with the coming of the Holy Spirit. This is no time to shut your book, it’s time to turn the page for a new chapter of our spiritual life begins with the Ascension.

3. The Ascension is not a geographical movement but a moment of ‘exaltation’. The question that we mistakenly think we should ask is, ‘where he is?’ when what we should be asking is ‘who he is?’ Where he is or where exactly has Christ gone indicates that he has left earth and now moved to heaven when in reality the Ascension of our Lord points to His exhalation. He is at his rightful place, as the Messiah seated at the right hand of the father.

Fr Warner D’Souza

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Doing more with less – Tuesday, 10th Week in Ordinary time – I Kings 17:7-16

Chapter 16 of 1 Kings give us an insight to the background of the three narratives found in Chapter 17. The three narratives of chapter 17 are written to prove the prophet Elijah’s worth as both a prophet and the one who will challenge King Ahab’s reign. The prophet Elijah became the dominant spiritual force in Israel during the dark days of King Ahab’s apostasy. King Ahab married the Sidonian princess, Jezebel more to make a political alliance. But with this marriage, Ahab embraced the Canaanite fertility god Baal and worshiped him. Chapter 16:30 tells us that Ahab, “did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him” for he erected an altar of Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria.

Chapter 17 can thus be seen as a fitting answer to both the King and his new found god. In the days when Ahab’s government officially supported the worship of Baal and other gods, the prophets name itself stood as a bold statement against the rule of Ahab, for Elijah means, “Yahweh is my God”. While the Canaanite god was considered to be a powerful fertility God, the writer of the book of Kings wants to demonstrate through chapter 17 that Yahweh alone is the guarantor of fertility; he alone gives life. In this context, Elijah representing the Lord, predicts a three-year drought on the land over which Ahab rules. This was a dramatic demonstration against the pagan god Baal, who was thought to be the sky god, the god of the weather. Elijah showed that through his prayers to the God of Israel, Yahweh was mightier than Baal.

When the water runs dry and food is no longer available, Elijah is sent to a Zarapath, a Sidonian town. Sidon was the land of Jezebel and it is here that he is asked not only to live in the land but to be provided for by a widow. When the widow’s son dies of illness, it is Elijah who raises him to life. In all the three narratives it is Yahweh who has the power to take or give life prompting a Sidonian woman to acknowledge the God of Elijah and not their own god, Baal.

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