“This
is enough, O LORD! 1 Kings 19:4
Elijah had had enough.
He was a faithful prophet. He had
done all that the Lord had commanded him to do.
Yet, we find him in today’s first reading wishing for death. How did he get to this point? To answer this question we have to go to the
previous chapter of the First Book of Kings: chapter 18. There we see Elijah doing mighty deeds for
the Lord. There was a battle going on,
so to speak, between Elijah and the prophets of the false gods. All of Israel had been gathered at Mount
Carmel where Elijah confronted Israel who had been unfaithful to God by
worshiping these false gods. So on that mountain Elijah exhorted the people of
Israel to choose whom to worship once and for all, and he challenged the 450
prophets of the false gods. They would both offer sacrifices of a young bull
and both Elijah and the false prophets would call down fire to consume the
sacrifice, “The Lord who answers with fire is God.” The people consented. Now Elijah knew how this would end, he knew
that as soon as he called down fire from God, it would happen, just as sure as
I know that as soon as I call the Holy Spirit down in a few minutes upon the
bread and the wine that they will be transformed into the Body and Blood of
Christ. So Elijah, let the false
prophets make their “prayers” first, in fact, Elijah taunted them “Call
louder…perhaps your god is asleep.”
(Read 1 Kings 18; it’s all there.)
But of course, nothing happens, but as soon as Elijah calls down fire so
that the people may know that the Lord is God, God answers his prayer and the
people turn their backs on the false gods and believe again in the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
So Elijah defeats the false prophets that had invaded his
land, turns the people back to God, and puts and end to a long drought. Yet Queen Jezebel who brought these false
gods to Israel was determined to destroy Elijah which is where we pick up the
first reading today. Elijah had been
heroic, done the Lord’s will, and he was still a wanted man fearing for his
life. He fled through the desert and
after a day’s journey said “enough!” All
of us have been there. All of us have
been at a place in our lives where despite doing God’s work and living good
lives, things still don’t turn out the way we want them. We feel like the deck is stacked against
us. We may not wish for death like
Elijah, but we look up to the heavens and ask God, “why?” It’s a valid question. Why, if we do so much good, do bad things
still happen to us? Elijah is considered
the mightiest of the prophets of Israel.
In fact, he appeared with Moses during the Transfiguration of
Jesus. Yet Elijah was frustrated with
God too. He reached his wits end and
wished for death.
So how did God answer his faithful prophet? God sent an angel to feed Elijah. He sent an angel to strengthen him. Elijah would lie down again after eating, but
the angel came back to make sure that he would be strengthened by this heavenly
food, for Elijah’s journey was not complete.
This is what the Lord offers his faithful servants: sustenance,
strength, food, and oh yea, the gentle nudge of an angel. This leads us to today’s gospel where it’s
not an angel but Jesus Christ himself that feeds us. Tired? Overwhelmed? Anxious? In over your head? Come to the table of life. Come and be fed the bread of life, the flesh
of Christ for the life of the world.
There are so many things that overwhelm us consume us, bring us down,
but this Eucharist reminds us that we never take on our problems alone. Jesus Christ is always with us. So yes, we may feel squeezed by God from time
to time. Elijah felt it. Even Jesus felt
it in Gethsemane. But He is always with
us to feed us and strengthen us and in this Eucharist take it a step further by
giving us nothing less than life eternal.
