Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 361

Elijah appealed to all the people and said,
"How long will you straddle the issue?
If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him."
The people, however, did not answer him.

The Hebrew prophets from Moses through Zechariah insisted that God's people must worship Him alone. We find in the Prophet Isaiah, 

I am the LORD, there is no other,

there is no God besides me.

It is I who arm you, though you do not know me, so that all may know, from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, there is no other.

That jealous demand comes against us as intensely as it did against the Jews, and finds us harrassed by the invitations, temptations, and empty entertainment of the same world. As T.S. Eliot wrote in his poem Burnt Norton, we are distracted by distractions from distractions: 

                                    Only a flicker

Over the strained time-ridden faces

Distracted from distraction by distraction

Filled with fancies and empty of meaning

Tumid apathy with no concentration

Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind

That blows before and after time,

Wind in and out of unwholesome lungs

Time before and time after. 

The godless insist that this continual upheaval with neither direction, purpose, or meaning is the way things are; and we should not expect otherwise. The only purpose, for those who might want one, is survival; which falls more often to the fortunate than to the clever. No one can boast of their accomplishments for they prove nothing except the vanity and futility of effort. Death, which is very democratic, takes everyone and levels everyone. 

God's people find their purpose in God's calling us out of that maelstrom of emptiness, as He did when "the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters." 

We have sometimes found that dark, formless, shapeless abyss in our own lives but in those moments we also heard the Word of God saying...

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name: you are mine.

When you pass through waters, I will be with you;

through rivers, you shall not be swept away.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned,

nor will flames consume you." Is 43:1-2

One by one, every one of us is doomed to return to that emptiness as our bodies fail and we fail to breathe. And so we prepare for that day by learning to hear and recognize the commanding voice of Jesus over the storm. He will certainly call us, for he came not to condemn but to redeem. But will we recognize the voice? And will we be so delighted by its familiar affection that we pull out of the lethargy of death. 

Some might reply, "Hey, Lord. I appreciate your stopping by, but I'm fine here, in the quiet emptiness. This is all I ever wanted, without the bother of other people. But give my regards to the saints!"

I hope that I'll have the good sense to rise up and say, "Here I am Lord; I'm coming out!" Ready to embrace whatever adventure awaits in eternity.