19th Sunday in Ordinary Time TV Mass

My friends, where do we look for the Lord? In the famous account from the first book of Kings, Elijah is called to make a pilgrimage to the Mountain of God, Horeb, there to meet the living God.

It all sounds quite biblical doesn’t it! Like Moses climbing Mt. Sinai to receive the commandments or Abraham going up Mt. Moria to sacrifice Issac. I think often the historical setting of the scriptures can make them sound as if it happen a long time ago in a far away land, that has no bearing on our lives today. In truth the heart of Man is the same today as back then and so the basic experience is anything but foreign to us. If we take a closer look, we begin to see this and we find that Elijah’s experience is not unlike our own.

Elijah’s jorney begins with dejection and depression. Despite the fact that he had worked great miracles his message had been rejected, his life threatened, and so he escaped into the wilderness. Falling down beneath a tree to wait and pray for death.

While Elijah was a great prophet we too are called to preach the word of God, daily by the way we live our lives and so many of us, strenghtened by the sacraments, make a heroic effort to live a good life avoiding sin and every temptation and teaching the faith to our children and friends by the testimony of our lives. Despite all our efforts, however, so often our lives fall apart. Despite our best efforts to do good, we are plagued by so many evils, so many disappointments.

Elijah’s experience of despair at the result of his life’s work can often be our own—and like Elijah when it seems that our life is a failure we can grow depressed and even begin to pray for death. In such situations it can often seem like the Lord has abandoned us, and we can despair of ever finding him. However it is in situations of despair and seeming failure like these that the Lord is most near us.

Out of despair, the Lord calls Elijah to take up and eat, to prepare himself for a great journey.

The Lord calls Elijah to Horeb, so that Elijah can be renewed. Wo that his life, which seemed a failure and at an end could be reinvigorated and given new direction.

In the Gospel’s we see this same message repeated. The disciples, out in a boat, get stuck in a storm. To them it seemed as if God had forgotten them, as if their lives were about to be wasted. Again, into this moment of despair, the Lord enters walking on water he calms the sea and gives a new direction to the lives of the apostles, which seemed to be at an end.

Our God is an awesome God whose wisdom is beyond anything we can imagine. As St. Paul says, even the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of the wise. Out of what to us seems like the biggest failures and the greatest of evils our God can make all things work for good. And so while many look for God in success and honors, in mighty acts of power, the witness of the scriptures, and especially of the Cross is clear. We Catholic Christians know that in reality, our God who is always present is most at work when things seem a failure, when we suffer under the weight of the Cross. It is in situations such as these that we should look for the Lord, and it is situations such as these that we are most likely to find him—not in earthquakes or bolts of lighting but in the defending silence that comes from his peace.

As we approach God’s throne today, pray that people might be attentive to God especially in the trials and tribulations of life and that they might experience the silent whisper that bears witness to the presence of God in our Lives.