Breaking the Word

10^th Week in Ord. Time, Monday – 10^th June 2024 – 1 Kgs 17,1-6; Mt 5,1-12

Drought and Blessings

The first reading presents the figure of the prophet Elijah, who ministered in the northern kingdom of Israel. He was sent by the Lord to fight against Baal worship promoted by King Ahab and calling the people back to the Lord. Although the Canaanite god, Baal, was seen as a god of fertility and lord of the rain clouds on which that fertility depended, he was powerless against Yahweh’s decision to bring and withhold all rains. This will be dramatically emphasized and proved in the scene which brings the drought to an end. After this, symbolically Elijah is told to go away from God’s land and hide on the east side of the Jordan. By this gesture God indicates that he is withdrawing from his people, leaving them isolated from his Word and from his blessings.  The absence of the prophet only confirms God’s separation from his people. The Lord’s faithful servant, Elijah, was miraculously sustained on the other side of the Jordan, while Israel in the promised land was going hungry – another clear message to Israel of its vain reliance on Baal. Both these gestures, drought for the land and separation of the prophet, highlight that it was not God who had gone back on his covenant promises to his people. Rather, it was his people who had violated the covenant by turning their back on him and cultivating the idols of Baal.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saturday – 8^th June 2024 – 2 Tim 4,1-8; Lk 2,41-51

Responsible Search

Yesterday we celebrated Jesus’s Sacred Heart, the eloquent and powerful revelation of how thoroughly and passionately God loves us. Today we celebrate Mary’s Immaculate Heart, the inspiring model of how we can respond as humans to God’s love. Mary’s experiences with Christ were not always easy to endure or understand. The story of the finding of Jesus in the Temple offers us a glimpse of Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Losing him in the Temple, she was filled with “great anxiety.” When she realized Jesus was missing, she didn’t blame Joseph, get angry with him, or give him her peace of mind. She didn’t yell at Jesus when she found him. Rather than accuse Jesus, she first made known her anxiety by expressing her relentless search and her disappointment with a question. For Mary, Jesus was the centre of her life and she would not rest until she found him. Her desperate search discloses a great deal about who we are and of our priority in life. She became an instrument through which God was able to reveal his son into the world, especially as an exemplary doer of Father’s will. If we are responsible like Mary, we too can become instruments in the hands of God and reveal Jesus to the world.