King Ahab

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Wednesday, 10 June 2020 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Kings 18 : 20-39

So Ahab sent for all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. Then Elijah addressed the people and asked, “How long will you follow two ways at the same time? If YHVH is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God then follow him.” The people remained silent.

So Elijah continued, “I am the only prophet of YHVH left here to face Baal’s four hundred and fifty prophets. Get us two bulls. Let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood; and I will do the same with the other bull. But we will not set it on fire. Then you shall call on the name of your gods while I shall call on the Name of YHVH. The God Who answers with fire is the true one.” Then the people answered, “That is right.”

Then Elijah told the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many. Then call on the name of your god lest you are left without fire!” So they took the bull and prepared it, and they called on the name of Baal, “Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice; and no one answered them while they went on, dancing on one foot around the altar they had built.

By noontime, Elijah began to mock them, “Shout out louder. Baal is a busy god; or he may have gone out, or perhaps he has gone on a trip, or he is sleeping and must be wakened.” So they shouted louder gashing their skin with knives, as they are used to doing, until they bled. It was already past noon and they were still raving on, until the time of the evening offering. But still there was no voice. No one answered or gave a sign of life.

Then Elijah said to the people, “Draw closer to me,” and the people drew closer to him. He then repaired the altar of YHVH which had been thrown down. He took twelve stones corresponding to the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob whom YHVH had addressed saying, “Israel shall be your name.” With these stones, he built an altar to the Name of YHVH; and dug a trench around it that would contain about thirty litres.

He then arranged the firewood, cut the bull in pieces and laid them on the wood. Then, he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the firewood.” He said, “Do it again;” and they did it again; “one more time,” and they did it a third time. The water ran around the altar and filled the trench.

When the time of the evening offering came, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O YHVH, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that You are God in Israel; and that I am Your servant, doing all these things at Your command. Answer me, o YHVH, answer me so that this people may know that You, o YHVH, are God; and that You are turning back their hearts to You.”

Then the fire of YHVH fell and consumed the burnt offering, together with the wood, the stones also, and the dust; the water also dried up in the trench. All the people witnessed this. Then they fell on their faces and said, “YHVH is God! YHVH is God!”

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Tuesday, 10 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Kings 17 : 7-16

After a while, the brook dried up because no rain had fallen in the land. Then YHVH spoke to Elijah, “Go to Zarephath of the Sidonites and stay there. I have given word to a widow there to give you food.”

So Elijah went to Zarephath. On reaching the gate of the town, he saw a widow gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink.”

As she was going to bring it, he called after her and said, “Bring me also a piece of bread.” But she answered, “As YHVH your God lives, I have no bread left but only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am just now gathering some sticks so that I may go in and prepare something for myself and my son to eat – and die.”

Elijah then said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me; then make some for yourself and your son. For this is the word of YHVH, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of meal shall not be emptied nor shall the jug of oil fail, until the day when YHVH sends rain to the earth.”

So she went and did as Elijah told her; and she had food for herself, Elijah and her son from that day on. The jar of flour was not emptied nor did the jug of oil fail, in accordance with what YHVH had said through Elijah.

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Monday, 9 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Kings 17 : 1-6

Now Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As YHVH, the God of Israel whom I serve lives, neither dew shall drop nor rain fall except at my command.”

Then the word of YHVH came to Elijah, “Leave this place and go eastward. Hide yourself by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook and, for your food, I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

So Elijah obeyed the word of YHVH and went to live by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan. There the ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.

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Monday, 4 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir, Prince of Poland and Lithuania (Scripture Reflection)

God shows us today that His love and His care is universal and extends not to just a single person or a single people. He healed Naaman from his leprosy through Elisha the prophet, and He also succour the widow of Zarephath in Sidon through the prophet Elijah, who helped her after her miserable life due to her husband’s passing. It is through their faith in God’s deliverance and power that, even though with some reservations and doubts they had, but ultimately their obedience to God’s will through the prophets that caused the outpouring of divine love to them, who were not of Israel, God’s chosen people.

Many of us today think that we are special, and that we have special talents that others do not, and many of us with these advantages think that we should be honoured and praised because of such abilities that we have. Many of us also look down on those who apparently have no such abilities and talents like what we have, and shun them, and even sometimes bully and persecute them to an extent. But today, God teaches you that even the great are not perfect, and more often than not, it is the meek and humble that will receive God’s love and blessing, and will be found righteous than the powerful.

It is not that God despises those who have power, those who have talents, abilities, and fortunes. It is rather that He despises those who misuse those power, and those who thought highly of themselves and oppress the less fortunate because they have these. Like the people of Israel, the chosen people of God, who often thought highly of themselves because they were chosen by God, but they were then at the time of the prophets drunk with power, possession, and worldly temptations, leaving God behind, and worshiped the false gods of their Canaanite neighbours.

A humble offer from Naaman to seek the prophet of Israel, the King of Israel had spurned. He even tore his robes and accused the Syrians of attempting to spy in the disguise of search for the prophet. Such is the haughtiness and pride of the king of Israel and Israel at that time, that even those who came in humility and gifts they had rejected, although they came truly to glorify the God of Israel, our God.

In their humility and obedience, Naaman and the widow obeyed the will of God through the prophets. Despite some grumbling in the beginning, Naaman washed himself seven times in the Jordan and was healed; then the widow fed Elijah the prophet with the bread made from the flour she was to use to prepare the last meal for herself and her son. Through these acts of faith they are blessed and experienced the love of God.

Naaman who was the commander of the Aramean King’s armies, lowered himself before God and his prophet and his obedience, while the king of Israel haughtily and proudly think of himself and his power, and in the time of King Ahab of Israel, during which period Elijah lived, not only the king was proud, but he even brought the people of the northern kingdom to sin against God ever more by sacrificing to foreign gods and killing God’s prophets.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Casimir, who was the crown prince of the united Kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania in the late 15th century. He never succeeded the throne to which he was the crown prince of, because he died early in life, but in his relatively short life, he had achieved much, and was noted for his great piety and love for God, and was committed to chastity in life and always was humble, especially noted was his great humility before God, and also before those who are his subjects.

He was like the modern day Naaman, but even more so because the piousness he had in his life, that made him today a patron saint of the youth. He is not of the first chosen people of God, but yet God had made him righteous, and now a saint, he intercedes for us in heaven, all because of his love, his faith, and his obedience to God.

Let us pray therefore brothers and sisters, that in our lives, and indeed in our daily lives, we can always dull the edge of our pride and our vanity, and sharpen the edge of our humility, and increase our dedication and love for God and our fellow men, our neighbours, and even those who did bad things to us, and those who hates us. Humble ourselves before God, asking for His mercy, and allowing Him to work His wonders through us, that all those whom we meet in our lives, will be able to experience God, His love, His kindness, and His grace, through us and our actions.

St. Casimir, pray for us all, pray for our youth that they will grow ever stronger in faith and love to God just as you once did. All the Holy Saints and prophets of God, Elijah and Elisha, pray for us. Amen.

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Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Season, Fasting and Abstinence

Today is Ash Wednesday, the very first day and the beginning of Lent. What is Lent? and why is it 40 days long? Lent is the season, the time when we prepare ourselves, and make ourselves truly worthy to celebrate and commemorate the most important event in our year, that is the Holy Week, when we will remember Christ’s Passion and death, His great Sacrifice for our sake on the cross, and ultimately through His resurrection, we have hope of eternal life.

In order to be able to properly and fully celebrate the important Holy Week, this is why we prepare ourselves, in this 40 days of Lenten season. Why 40? Because 40 has long been associated in the Bible as the symbol of suffering, of waiting, and of purification, to prepare someone or a group of people for the ultimate end, happiness as given by God.

The people of Israel after being freed from slavery in Egypt, had to wonder for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land, after they rejected the Lord and His assurance, fearing instead the Canaanites whose presence terrified the Israelites and made them to complain that they would have had better life back where they were in slavery. The 40 years of journey through the desert is to root out all the dissidents, all of them who died, except the two, including Joshua, who surveyed the Promised Land and stayed faithful to God’s promise.

Elijah travelled for 40 days to the mountain of the Lord after being chased and persecuted by King Ahab of Israel. There Elijah met the Lord, who gave him renewed strength and courage to return and face King Ahab, and bring forth the Lord back to the people of Israel, delivering them from the worship of pagan gods.

Then ultimately, Christ Himself, fasted for 40 days and nights in the desert, and was tempted thrice by the devil. This happened after His baptism by John the Baptist and before He began His ministry in this world. He resisted all temptations of the devil and rebuked him for his insolence against the Lord. This 40 days is therefore representative of the same kind of time of preparation and of purification before something great and holy is begun.

Therefore, we too, are called in, these 40 days, to also prepare ourselves, spiritually in particular, for the celebration of our Lord’s Passion and death. To facilitate this, the Church has instituted Ash Wednesday as the beginning of the Lenten season, where ashes are imposed on the forehead of the faithful, and also the rules on fasting and abstinence.

Why ash? Ash is the symbolism of nothingness, and a reminder of dust where we came from. God created Adam, the first man out of earth and dust, and as Adam, and indeed other human dies, their bodies turn back into dust, into nothingness, though the soul remains. This is to remind us that our earthly life is just temporary, and that we should not do what is futile in this world, that is to seek worldly power and wealth, and dedicate our entire life for these, as in the end, we are nothing before God. This ash symbolises the great humility that we took upon, before the throne of God, asking for His great mercy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_and_abstinence_in_the_Roman_Catholic_Church

Fasting refers to the practice of eating only a single full meal in the day, and with up to two ‘snacks’ or also commonly known as ‘collations’, which purpose is for physical discipline, to help us to prepare ourselves spiritually through the rejection of worldly temptations in the form of food and good things, that we can truly focus ourselves fully on the Lord. In the past, we used to fast much more often than now, as in the present, we are actually only required to fast on Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday itself.

Meanwhile, abstinence refer to the practice of, traditionally, shunning meat from all meals of the day, which is similar in intent to fasting, except that one does not need to limit the meal to just one meal and maximum of two snacks, but simply abstain from eating meat for that day. Traditionally too, this is done every Friday during Lent. However, in fact, we can also abstain from other things, even non-food items. We can abstain from things that occupy us the most, and even those we are addicted to. These practices, if we do them correctly and meaningfully, will only make us more prepared and ready for the commemoration of our Lord’s great Sacrifice and Resurrection, which is 40 days from now.

May God bless us all during this Lenten season, and I wish you all, happy Lent and have a great and fruitful season of recollection and repentance this Lent!