Note: At the bottom of this post are the First Reading and Gospel for the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time.

FIRST READING AND GOSPEL – NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

The First Reading is the story of the Old Testament prophet Elijah waiting for God to pass by and finding, first, a strong wind, then, an earthquake, then, fire, but no God until he encounters God in a tiny whisper. And the Gospel is the story from Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus walking on the stormy sea to “catch up with” His disciples’ boat. Now, in Matthew’s Gospel that story is placed just after Jesus fed the 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes and, between these two stories, there are two lines which we often skip over. Interestingly, the authors of the Lectionary also skipped over some text of the first reading. Let’s look at these two reading focusing on what paying attention to these “skipped over” verses might tell us.

ELIJAH’S EMOTIONAL FRAME OF MIND WHEN HE ENTERED THE CAVE

In the verses that precede those in our First Reading, Elijah feared for his life and prayed for death: “Enough, LORD! Take my life.” (1 Kings 19:3-4) The story continues, ” . . . Elijah walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb. There he came to a cave, where he took shelter. But the word of the LORD came to him: Why are you here, Elijah? He answered: ‘I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant. They have destroyed your altars and murdered your prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and they seek to take my life.’ Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; . . . ” (1 Kings 19:8-11) (See the First Reading below.)

Knowing Elijah’s situation sheds light on the meaning of this and last week’s Gospels.

JESUS FEEDS THE CROWD AND WALKS ON WATER

Last week’s Gospel story, Matthew 14:13-21, was that of His feeding a crowd of 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fishes. I am sure that you remember the story, but do you remember how the story began? “. . . Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.” (Matthew 14:13)
That story of the loaves and fishes is followed by the story of the disciples in a boat in the midst of a storm (Matthew 14:22-33), a story that begins with:
“Then Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone.” (Matthew 14:22-23)

THE MESSAGE FOR US

What we “hear” is so predicated on what we have trained ourselves to hear!

And that means that we may be missing the message altogether or getting only a tiny piece of the message. How do the above-mentioned readings demonstrate this?

I think most of us see the First Reading’s message as one of Elijah expecting to find God in the extraordinary events rather than in those commonplace “whispered” occurrences that we consider to be insignificant but which truly are the whisperings of God.

But then, in reading the Gospels of last and this week, what we take as the focus are the extraordinary feeding of 5,000 and walking on water and miss the verses which tell of the more commonplace actions of Jesus withdrawing Himself to a secluded place. Why do we tend to miss this and why did Jesus dismiss the disciples and go off by himself?

“Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.” Matthew 14:13
“Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.” Matthew 14:22-23

Jesus read the Scriptures. He knew this story about God asking Elijah, “Why are you here, Elijah?” The human Jesus had to figure out the answer to that question about the reason for His whole life, about that very moment in His life, about the extraordinary events (like feeding 5,000 and walking on water) and the commonplace “whispered” everyday occurrences. Yes, as the God-man, the Father and the Spirit were with Him; and He withdrew from people to be alone – but not ever alone. We need to do that, too.

Do we give ourselves time to experience the ever-present God in this intimate “alone-ness”? Did we do it pre-covid-19? Do we do it now? Will we do it after this?

Our lives do matter. They mattered to Jesus and, way before Jesus and Elijah, they mattered to our Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Sister Loretta

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First Reading and Gospel – Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Reading 1 1 KGS 19:9A, 11-13A
At the mountain of God, Horeb,
Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.
Then the LORD said to him,
“Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD;
the LORD will be passing by.”
A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains
and crushing rocks before the LORD—
but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake—
but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake there was fire—
but the LORD was not in the fire.
After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.
When he heard this,
Elijah hid his face in his cloak
and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Gospel MT 14:22-33
After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat
and precede him to the other side,
while he dismissed the crowds.
After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
When it was evening he was there alone.
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.
“It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.
At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Peter said to him in reply,
“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.”
Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.
But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter,
and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
After they got into the boat, the wind died down.
Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying,
“Truly, you are the Son of God.”