This weekends first reading from Kings is one of my favorites. It was a huge part of my discernment process as it is for many young men and women thinking of religious life. Elijah is waiting to hear the voice of the Lord. He listens through earthquakes, fire and mighty wind only to hear nothing. It is only is the soft gentle breeze that God reveals himself.
This great story reminds us to listen. We all know that we often place obstacles in our lives that keep us from truly hearing God. Sometimes those obstacles come unwanted, other times we put them there ourselves as something we place as a higher priority. We have to turn the volume down on those various voices, if we truly want to know what God wants of us. I mentioned last week that a little self reflection is good for us. We can't do that well, if we keep giving ourselves over to the external distractions of our lives.
As beautiful as this message is-the need to hear God in the stillness of our hearts, I think there is something much deeper going on here. It is helpful to back up the lens when we read Scripture to better understand a reading in context. This is a great example. Why was Elijah in the cave to begin with? You might remember another passage about him that occurs just before this. He challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest to see whose God was the real God. It was a sacrificial offering contest. Which ever God answered the prayer of the their prophet(s) would be the one true God. Clearly Elijah won this contest as God consumed his sacrifice with great fiery splendor. What we don't hear is what happened next, when Elijah then killed the 450 prophets sparking the rage of King Ahab and Jezebel. Jezebel sought his life and we find Elijah here in the cave on the run.
He is overcome with anxiety, fear and doubt as hides in the cave, worried for his life. It is then that he is told to listen to the voice of the Lord. Earthquakes, fires and mighty winds are great spectacles, but God is not in them. We want to be careful that we don't look too literally at these images. Spiritually speaking they communicate something we don't want to miss. They represent the anxiety, fear and doubt that he suffers from. He needs to overcome them to finally hear God. He needs to surrender those obstacles, giving them back to the Lord so he can be filled with the conviction he will need to finish his journey.
We hear a similar story in the Gospel as well. The disciples are overcome with fear themselves as they are being tossed about. Even as Jesus walks to them, they don't recognize him, so distressed they are. Peter's great challenge was a failure too. He was focusing on his predicament and not on the Lord in his midst. As a result, he fell.
If these two stories teach us anything, it is to have faith. To listen intently to the soft whisper in our own hearts of a God who loves us and protects us. We all have anxieties, fears and doubts. Illness, financial problems, relationship issues will always be a part of our lives. We can't allow ourselves to be overcome by them, but instead learn to abandon ourselves into the arms of Christ. When we have the courage to let go and give them back to him, he will fill us with the grace and strength we need to finish our journeys too.
