It's hard to believe it, at first sight, but the readings today are all about "discouragement." Life is full of disappointments and trials that knock us all off our center, now and then. Sometimes, it seems simply too heavy to go on. And when that happens, it's easy to give up or get cynical. Elijah wants to "give up": that will be his way of dealing with God when he is at the end of his rope. And the people in the Gospel reading get cynical...when Jesus of Nazareth wants them to move to a deeper level of spirituality, when he wants this crowd to look more deeply into the biblical text of the book of Exodus and more deeply into their own lives, they resist: WHO'S HE? WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? WE WATCHED HIM GROW UP! WE KNOW HIS MOTHER AND ALL HIS CRAZY RELATIVES! NONE OF THEM CAN THINK THEIR WAY OUT OF NAZARETH, WHY SHOULD WE LISTEN TO HIM? Cynicism and despair: two hooks that can reach out and grab us when we aren't paying attention.
Lets look at this issue through the eyes of the characters in the stories: Elijah was quite a character! He stomped around Israel about 800 BCE, condemning idolatry, and publically attacking King Ahab & his wife Queen Jezebel the royalty of the day, for their role in leading people into idolatry....and what had he gotten for his trouble? Jezebel had put a price on his head, and he was running for his life, hiding in the desert, and making his way to Mt. Sinai, where Moses had met God, for he wanted justice for himself. He had given his life for what he thought was "the right thing," and he was being persecuted for it. He wanted to speak with God!!! But, on the way, he gives up. What's the use? He says to himself that God can hear him from the plains of Israel as well as at Sinai, so he's heard, and doesn't care! Why not just die?
Often life's most bitter discouragement comes because we want "a good reward" for what we do. Now, on the surface, this is reasonable...but, life doesn't deal with reasonable people! If life consisted of reasonable people, there wouldn't be any wars, and we would have found a way to end world hunger, AND we wouldn't have the viciousness we have in politics, today, as I speak! So, often, the good we do will be taken and twisted and turned against us...and those who easily give into evil, and whose "good deeds" were a fluke to begin with, perhaps only done with the hope of getting acclaim, will immediately plot revenge and do lots of evil to get even; those who, like Elijah, today, despair, will give up. But, those who have more self-possession will do more good anyway...for it will be their nature to do good. Do you see the point?
The people in the crowd who have come out to hear Jesus, are people who are a viciously persecuted minority in the Roman Empire. They are wonderful people, but they are hurting. And they just want the Rabbi to talk to tell them it's OK to use their numbers to attack back...ultimately that's what this "crowd" is about...it's Passover: a season of LIBERATION, and this crowd is saying to themselves, "in Moses' day, God freed us," and our day, "God will free us only if we use His strength to free ourselves!" But at this nod to "war as an answer" Jesus says, "Look at the Text more deeply. Freedom isn't just about chains of oppressors, it's about the chains that you yourselves have put on your minds...thinking that only ONE thing will free you. Be taught by God....come to me....I will "feed" you with the message of peace. BUT, good people that they are, they just don't want to TAKE ANYMORE, and rather than "go spiritually deep" into the Text of Exodus with Jesus, they cast aspersions on his character: "Who does he think he is? We know him and all his relatives! None of them will set the world on fire!"
Cynicism doesn't address issues. It clouds the waters, so that the real issues remain hidden. We use it on ourselves when we are confused, and it's easier to go the "cynicism" route than it is to think things through without emotion and prejudicial language. You see it in politics all the time: instead of looking at issues in depth, together, we call each other socialists, communists, Nazis, racists, exploiters....and no growth is necessary, then, for no new awareness will come in the midst of the chaos.
So, today we are presented with portraits of OURSELVES in Elijah and the crowd. There isn't a one of us who hasn't been in the shoes of all these people.........and we may be in those shoes right now! St. Paul calls both despair and cynicism 'grieving the Spirit of God!" And he tells us to put all bitterness, fury, anger and malice behind us.
Now, I ask you: Where do we get the strength to do that? Where do we attain the spiritual depth not only to put the bitterness, fury, anger and malice out of our lives, but continue doing good, even when it's twisted by people and used against us? Where do we get the spiritual strength to do the "next right thing," simply because it's the "right thing, and the good thing to do?" The Gospel tells us we get it in the Eucharist. Christ says, as the Son of God, "I am the living Bread come down from Heaven! And whoever eats this bread will live forever..."
There, eternal life is opposed to the actions of death.........the actions of death are giving up, like Elijah under his broom tree, and waiting for death; or cynicism, like the crowds, to "kill" the reputation if not the person of those they don't agree with. It's the Eucharist–Christ coming to us–that softens us, and humbles us, and mellows us, and forms us–rather CRUCIFORMS us–into blessings of goodness for our world.
Come to the Table of the Prince of Peace, today, and feed on Him in your heart with faith and thanksgiving. It will preserve you among the LIVING, both now and forever. And may God bless you all. +
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