I was blessed to visit the Holy Land
for two weeks last summer and one of our stops was Mount Carmel, the mountain
of decision. At the top of the mountain, I pondered what it must have been like
for Elijah as he faced off against the priests of Baal. He was the very last
prophet of God left alive in Israel, in a high-noon style showdown against 450 shrieking
pagan worshippers of a false god. When all was said and done, everything about the
false god had professed was shown to be worthless folly; fleeting and fake. The
people of God watched Elijah stand firm in the truth of God and prevail. Elijah
laid before them a decision to make – follow the empty show the evil one has to
offer or return to the covenant and follow God. In quite a dramatic fashion,
the people chose wisely.
Today we are faced with our own Mount Carmels,
our places of decision when choosing how to respond to the unrest, violence,
and injustice we have been witnessing unfold in our streets and on TV. As the
violence dies down, it has been replaced by virtue signaling, false platitudes,
politics as usual, and disingenuous calls for irrational actions that have
nothing to do with what sparked all this. It seems like the country has gone
bonkers. The news media and social media seem to only want to whip society
into a frenzy like those priests of Baal. What are we to do?
Jesus reminds us in the Gospel today that what
has been commanded by God will not pass away. In him we are to place our trust
and build our faith. In the midst of all the chatter, the noise, the vitriol,
and the nonsense, seek the voice of God in the stillness and the silence as Elijah
did. What is of God endures. What is not of God will crumble and fall away. May
our response to what is happening be grounded in what is true and good and
beautiful. May we choose wisely.
St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, Pray for Us!
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