As soon as you hear Elijah’s name in that first reading you get an idea of what the story is going to be about. You see, his name, in Hebrew El-i-yahu, means Yahweh is God. His very identity is anchored to what is of ultimate value or importance to him. Yahweh is God and in many ways this is one of the key spiritual questions we face: Who or what is our god? Who or what is it that we ultimately value, that is our final concern, our preoccupation? What at the end of the day matters most to us? When we answer that question we basically know who we are, what our name is.
Think about that, how would others describe us based on what is important to us? If family matters most to us, then we are known as a family man. If we are known as someone for whom pleasure, fun, matters most, then we are a good time Charlie. Whatever matters most to us, if it is our god, that is how we are known, that is how we are named. Is business the most important thing in our life? Then we are called a company man. Is winning what we are all about? Then we are a fierce competitor. The point is, we and the world know what kind of person we are from what we worship, what is of highest value to us.
Elijah is a Yahweh man. He is ultimately and finally about God. Once we know that we can understand everything he says and does. We know why he challenged King Ahab - because Ahab had turned to false gods, denied Yahweh. Why he challenged and defeated the 400 false prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Because his allegiance was to the one true God.
So our first reading finds Elijah hiding in a cave on Mt. Horeb because Queen Jezebel has sent the army to find and kill him. He is told that God will be passing by and what follows is an impressive display of power. A great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces. Then an earthquake and after the earthquake, fire. These stand for all the powers of this world, all the “things” that beguile us - money, fame, political power, on and on. All those “things” that can figuratively “rend the mountains and crush the rocks, destroying everything in their path.” But scripture tells us that the Lord was not in the earthquake, the wind or the fire. Yahweh is not identified with any of the powers of this world. Rather we are told there was a tiny whispering sound. And when Elijah, the man of the Lord heard this he knew that was God. He is not preoccupied with the powers of the world, no matter how impressive they are.
That is always our challenge, to not be distracted by the WOW sounds of the world but to be able to recognize the true God. And to do that we have to listen, listen for the tiny, whispering sound. A sound heard in the cry of the poor, the sobs of the widow, the moans of the dying, the tears of the immigrants separated from family, the silent dejection of the homeless. God is present in all those tiny, whispering sounds. If we only listen.
Just as we can be defined, named by what we value most, we can also be defined by our fears. We find out a lot about a person when we discover what they are afraid of. It tells us about their motivation, their thinking and their behavior. Find out what it is that is frightening a person and we’ll find out how they operate, what drives them. So another question for us is what are we most afraid of? If we can answer that honestly, we will have done a lot of important spiritual work. Maybe we are afraid of loosing our health, family, wealth, our good name, our position in society, our life. Those are all very real and we all have those fears. But what happens sometimes is we become defined by our worldly fears, just as our worldly aspirations can define us. In the Gospel Christ comes to Peter in the midst of a storm. Christ can overcome any storm, any fear, our fears. But we have to keep our eyes focused on Christ, not on our fears. Then we can walk on the waters of disappointment, fear, worry. And we have to keep our ears tuned to Christ’s tiny, quiet voice, not the shouts of the world. Then we will hear and see Christ in those around us.
And then and only then will we know who we are called to be.
Think about that, how would others describe us based on what is important to us? If family matters most to us, then we are known as a family man. If we are known as someone for whom pleasure, fun, matters most, then we are a good time Charlie. Whatever matters most to us, if it is our god, that is how we are known, that is how we are named. Is business the most important thing in our life? Then we are called a company man. Is winning what we are all about? Then we are a fierce competitor. The point is, we and the world know what kind of person we are from what we worship, what is of highest value to us.
Elijah is a Yahweh man. He is ultimately and finally about God. Once we know that we can understand everything he says and does. We know why he challenged King Ahab - because Ahab had turned to false gods, denied Yahweh. Why he challenged and defeated the 400 false prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Because his allegiance was to the one true God.
So our first reading finds Elijah hiding in a cave on Mt. Horeb because Queen Jezebel has sent the army to find and kill him. He is told that God will be passing by and what follows is an impressive display of power. A great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces. Then an earthquake and after the earthquake, fire. These stand for all the powers of this world, all the “things” that beguile us - money, fame, political power, on and on. All those “things” that can figuratively “rend the mountains and crush the rocks, destroying everything in their path.” But scripture tells us that the Lord was not in the earthquake, the wind or the fire. Yahweh is not identified with any of the powers of this world. Rather we are told there was a tiny whispering sound. And when Elijah, the man of the Lord heard this he knew that was God. He is not preoccupied with the powers of the world, no matter how impressive they are.
That is always our challenge, to not be distracted by the WOW sounds of the world but to be able to recognize the true God. And to do that we have to listen, listen for the tiny, whispering sound. A sound heard in the cry of the poor, the sobs of the widow, the moans of the dying, the tears of the immigrants separated from family, the silent dejection of the homeless. God is present in all those tiny, whispering sounds. If we only listen.
Just as we can be defined, named by what we value most, we can also be defined by our fears. We find out a lot about a person when we discover what they are afraid of. It tells us about their motivation, their thinking and their behavior. Find out what it is that is frightening a person and we’ll find out how they operate, what drives them. So another question for us is what are we most afraid of? If we can answer that honestly, we will have done a lot of important spiritual work. Maybe we are afraid of loosing our health, family, wealth, our good name, our position in society, our life. Those are all very real and we all have those fears. But what happens sometimes is we become defined by our worldly fears, just as our worldly aspirations can define us. In the Gospel Christ comes to Peter in the midst of a storm. Christ can overcome any storm, any fear, our fears. But we have to keep our eyes focused on Christ, not on our fears. Then we can walk on the waters of disappointment, fear, worry. And we have to keep our ears tuned to Christ’s tiny, quiet voice, not the shouts of the world. Then we will hear and see Christ in those around us.
And then and only then will we know who we are called to be.