Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

photo from Whispering Springs Nat'l Park

north of Las Cruces, looking south to Mexico

 Lectionary: 367

Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of your spirit.”
“You have asked something that is not easy,” Elijah replied.
“Still, if you see me taken up from you,
your wish will be granted; otherwise not.”

A young man and an older man walk together. The younger is eager; the elder is tired and broken. They share a mission but the elder must retire and the younger must take up the mission. It cannot fail. 

He asks and receives a double measure of the elder's spirit. Spirit can be a hard thing to manage, and harder to generate. A coach, seeing that his team is losing because they're playing listlessly, must immediately intuit the problem, address it effectively, and change their attitudes. 

He has to use his position of authority to overcome the losing spirit that has overcome them. He might be aggressive, imposing, or threatening; he must get through their resistance and occupy a sacred space within their hearts, or minds, or whatever you call it, so that each one will let go of their attitude and accept his. 

But if some lack the willingness to obey; if they have neither fear of nor respect for the coach; if they will not set aside their feelings and opinions: they lose. 

I watched a basketball team lose because they believed they had suffered a single bad call from the referee. I had accompanied them only as a pastor; they had no coach and their captain was as angry about the call as the rest of his buddies. During the half I could not persuade them to forget about the one call, and get back into the game. They lost not because of one bad call in the first half of the game, but because they believed they'd been treated unjustly. If they were right -- and who can judge that when there is only one referee and no recorded video? -- they were "dead right." But mostly they were dead.

On the other hand, a scoreboard loss can be a win. I remember a Startrek episode in which our stellar boys and girls were pitted in a baseball game against a team of androids. As expected, they lost 1000-0, but they did manage to get one player on base! They were overjoyed, while the androids hung their metal heads in shame. Our crew might not have won the game but they savored their victory nonetheless. 

Elijah readily ceded his authority and his spirit to Elisha; he gave them with the mantle that fell to the ground. When the old prophet disappeared, Elisha readily wrapped it around his own shoulders, and was immediately recognized by his fellow prophets. 

The Church, like Elijah, suffers innumerable setbacks and many discouraging disappointments. She always has her back to the wall, but she is never defeated. The Spirit of God can raise disciples to the Lord from these very stones. I have met so many zealous, well-informed converts to Catholicism I sometimes wonder if they may be the majority of practicing Catholics. They seem to appear in every gathering although we never ask for a show of hands. 

Yesterday I read an article in a self-described Catholic magazine which seems to have gone to the dark side of several controversies. They have bought into Marxist ideology which views humanity through a lens of oppressed and oppressors; and their oppressors are -- you guessed it! -- the leaders of the Catholic Church. A title declares, in effect, "As the Church has always said...." when it never said anything of the sort. They bandy neologisms as if everyone knows, or should know what they're talking about; and dare anyone to challenge their righteousness. They certainly have spirit, but it's not the Spirit of God. It's very distressing. 

I read it yesterday but I woke up this morning ready to worship the Lord of Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and Jesus. The Lord does not forsake his people despite the huzzahing of his foes.