Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 116
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah went a day's journey into the desert,
until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.
He prayed for death saying:
"This is enough, O LORD!
Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,
but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.
Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake
and a jug of water.
After he ate and drank, he lay down again,
but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,
touched him, and ordered,
"(Arise) get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"
He got up, ate, and drank;
then strengthened by that food,
he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.
until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.
He prayed for death saying:
"This is enough, O LORD!
Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,
but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.
Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake
and a jug of water.
After he ate and drank, he lay down again,
but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,
touched him, and ordered,
"(Arise) get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"
He got up, ate, and drank;
then strengthened by that food,
he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Today's reading points back to the
Israelites 40 years of wandering in the desert.
God gave them the quail and manna
from heaven to eat to nourish them on their journey.
On one occasion Moses saw God's back
as he passed by a cave (Ex 33:18-23).
It is that same cave that Elijah is
fleeing to for his own encounter with the Almighty.
Elijah is fleeing from Jezebel who
would have him killed. He is exhausted and rests under a tree praying for death
to take him. Elijah is given sustenance by an angel of the Lord. He is touched
and told twice by the angel to get up and eat. On closer examination, this
points to Christ.
Twice in Christ's ministry do we
have him undergoing a trial by himself and being ministered to by angels. In
both the temptation in the desert scene in Matthew's Gospel (Mt. 4:1-11); and
in the agony in the garden scene in Luke’s Gospel (Lk. 22:39-46) angels come to
serve him and strengthen him (Lk. 22:39-46). Elijah is seeking to escape from
Jezebel through asking for death. In the agony in the garden, Jesus seeks
escape from the upcoming passion and death on a cross by asking "if
possible" for the "cup to pass from" him. He concludes his
prayer with, "Father, not my will, but your will be
done."
Elijah lay down and fell asleep
under a tree. Jesus lay down his life and "fell asleep" on a tree.
The Angel bids Elijah to get up and
eat or the journey will be too long. Another way this passage is translated is
the single word "Arise". Christ arose from the dead after sleeping on
the tree. His bread was the will of his Father (Jn. 4:34), his drink is the
consolation he finds in all the souls who open to him and quench his
"thirst". He is now strengthened for his journey back to the Father
where he sits in glory at the Father's right hand.
Jesus himself is the bread of angels offered to us to
strengthen us as we arise and go to our Father's house.
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