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“Offering of Elijah”
by Marc Chagall,1931-39 |
Readings for Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: 1 Kings 18:20-39
Ahab sent to all the children of Israel
and had the prophets assemble on Mount Carmel.
Elijah appealed to all the people and said,
“How long will you straddle the issue?
If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.”
The people, however, did not answer him.
So Elijah said to the people,
“I am the only surviving prophet of the LORD,
and there are four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.
Give us two young bulls.
Let them choose one, cut it into pieces, and place it on the wood,
but start no fire.
I shall prepare the other and place it on the wood,
but shall start no fire.
You shall call on your gods, and I will call on the LORD.
The God who answers with fire is God.”
All the people answered, “Agreed!”
Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal,
“Choose one young bull and prepare it first,
for there are more of you.
Call upon your gods, but do not start the fire.”
Taking the young bull that was turned over to them, they prepared it
and called on Baal from morning to noon, saying,
“Answer us, Baal!”
But there was no sound, and no one answering.
And they hopped around the altar they had prepared.
When it was noon, Elijah taunted them:
“Call louder, for he is a god and may be meditating,
or may have retired, or may be on a journey.
Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”
They called out louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears,
as was their custom, until blood gushed over them.
Noon passed and they remained in a prophetic state
until the time for offering sacrifice.
But there was not a sound;
no one answered, and no one was listening.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.”
When the people had done so, he repaired the altar of the LORD
that had been destroyed.
He took twelve stones, for the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob,
to whom the LORD had said, “Your name shall be Israel.”
He built an altar in honor of the LORD with the stones,
and made a trench around the altar
large enough for two measures of grain.
When he had arranged the wood,
he cut up the young bull and laid it on the wood.
“Fill four jars with water,” he said,
“and pour it over the burnt offering and over the wood.”
“Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.
“Do it a third time,” he said,
and they did it a third time.
The water flowed around the altar,
and the trench was filled with the water.
At the time for offering sacrifice,
the prophet Elijah came forward and said,
“LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
let it be known this day that you are God in Israel
and that I am your servant
and have done all these things by your command.
Answer me, LORD!
Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God
and that you have brought them back to their senses.”
The LORD’s fire came down
and consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust,
and it lapped up the water in the trench.
Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said,
“The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”
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Commentary on 1 Kgs 18:20-39
This story from the “Elijah Cycle” of 1 Kings describes Elijah returning to Israel to confront the people who had fallen into Baal worship. He proposes a challenge between the false god and the Lord. The actions of the priests of Baal, the dancing, shouting, and cutting themselves as part of their prayer ritual are validated by other ancient Near-Eastern texts as being part of Baal worship.
There is some symbolic language used in describing the preparation of the altar by Elijah. Specifically, the use of the number three as the altar is drenched in water indicating it was completely drenched. The result of the test was predictable. God answers Elijah and the people come back to authentic worship of God.
CCC: 1 Kgs 18:20-39 2583; 1 Kgs 18:26-29 2766; 1 Kgs 18:38-39 696; 1 Kgs 18:39 2582
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16:1b-2ab, 4, 5ab and 8, 11
R. (1b) Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
They multiply their sorrows
who court other gods.
Blood libations to them I will not pour out,
nor will I take their names upon my lips.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
O LORD, my allotted portion and cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
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Commentary on Ps 16:1b-2ab, 4, 5ab and 8, 11
Psalm 16 is an individual hymn of praise. The psalmist prays that God will shield the faithful from harm and expresses confidence in the Lord’s salvation, closing the passage with praise for God’s loving mercy. "It is apparent that in the earliest Christian community, the psalm was given a messianic interpretation with respect to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Both Peter, in his sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2:25–28), and Paul, in the synagogue at Antioch (Acts 13:35), reflect this interpretation of the psalm in their preaching." [4]
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Gospel: Matthew 5:17-19
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.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
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Commentary on Mt 5:17-19
Those who believed that Jesus came to destroy the Jewish faith and laws are refuted in this passage from St. Matthew’s Gospel. The Lord tells them that he did not come to destroy the law, even though he disagreed with the way some of those laws were being implemented. Rather he came to fulfill it, essentially giving the law a reinterpretation through his own divine revelation.
In this early encounter between Jesus’ mission and the Law of Moses, we are told that Jesus came to “fulfill” the law, to bring it to perfection as the Messiah. He supports the rabbinical teaching of the time, which separates the 613 individual precepts of the law found in the Pentateuch into “great and small,” based upon their seriousness, when he refers to breaking the least of the commandments. It is important to understand the Hebrew view of the law: "The law was thought to be the summary of all wisdom-human and divine, the revelation of God himself, a complete and a secure guide of conduct and endowed with a sacramental assurance of good relations with God." [5]
The passage is concluded in almost Mosaic style by saying that those who follow the law will be great in heaven. This draws a distinction between those who would break the law being least in heaven in the previous sentence.
CCC: Mt 5:17-19 577, 592, 1967; Mt 5:17 2053
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Reflection:
When we think about the role of Elijah, described in part in the reading from the First Book of Kings, we must see his actions as being prophetic of his counterpart in the time of Jesus, St. John the Baptist. Elijah calls the people to turn away from worshiping false gods and to return to the Lord. St. John comes, as the new Elijah, also calling the people to turn away from sin and return to the Lord.
The Lord tells us, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, that he has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. In this way, St. John calls the people to accept the fulfilled the promise of the Lord in Christ. Jesus does indeed bring to completion the work started at the very beginning of creation. Throughout the Old Testament there have been stories and signs that look forward to a time of salvation, when all of the sins of the people will be washed away. King David, the psalmist, sings laments constantly, recalling God’s might, the wonders and signs he has performed, and begging for his continued help in times of need. In Christ this wish is granted. In Christ the promise is fulfilled. In him, God’s salvation is spread over all peoples of all nations.
Yet, just as the ancient Jews who had fallen into worship of Baal, people of our day cannot choose life in Christ. They cannot accept that the promise was fulfilled. They worship instead a golden calf of their worldly success. They build altars many stories high to greed and hedonism.
The Lord calls to us, through Sacred Scripture, to continue to challenge these misguided principles and to put forward, through our words and actions, the Good News of the promise fulfilled. We pray today for the courage and strength to do so.
Pax
[1] The picture is “Offering of Elijah” by Marc Chagall,1931-39.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible except for the Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1–50, 2nd ed., Word Biblical Commentary vol. 19 (Nashville, TN: Nelson Reference & Electronic, 2004), 158.
[5] Jerome Biblical Commentary (Prentice Hall, Inc., © 1968), 43:34, p. 70.
