Homily for Wednesday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle II
Theme: Be spiritually sensitive and alert; let your heart take courage in the Lord.
By: Rev. Fr. Callistus Emenyonu, cmf
Homily for Wednesday June 17 2020
READINGS: 2 Kings 2: 1. 6-14, Ps. 31, Matthew 6: 1-6. 16-18
Sensitivity and alertness are very good virtues one should pray for because they show the high level of maturity and the good stuff one is made of. When someone lacks both or any of them, he has serious loop-hole and problem. Lack of it leads to loss of many goodies and blessings that lie around not visibly seen but hidden. Insensitivity makes one careless while lack of alertness puts someone into danger and problem. When Elijah was worried that he was left alone as the prophet of Yahweh, he lost sensitivity to God’s plan and was filled with complaint but was lucky to be alert to happenings around him, that was why he was able to see the Lord in the quiet breeze and heard the voice of the Lord. He was told by God to anoint some people kings and Elisha as Prophet who will take after him. Elisha was so alert spiritually and sensitive as well. He knew what he really needs in order to face the challenges that await him; he knew where to get it. He asked his master Elijah to give him a double portion of his gifts. He wanted to be more powerful or at least like his Master Elijah.
Beloved it is good to be focused in life and to know what one really needs to succeed in life. If someone is confused, he looks for things that are not necessary and that might make him derail or destroy him. Elisha knew what he wanted because he understood his mission and vocation. It is a challenge for us to bend down and ask God for discernment and spirit of knowledge and understanding of what God actually wants from us in life. It is also very important to know what you need to help you achieve your God-given vocation and safely do your mission on earth. He did not want to ask for money and wealth or the powers and influence of the king. He knew he has spiritual assignment and knows that only spiritual gifts are necessary to accomplish that task. He knew as well where he can get it from.
Beloved one thing is to know what you need and another is to know where to go for it and how to get it. He employed humility and bent low to his master. Many people get working and acting once they see they have been given some authority, power or mandate to do something; many lack the good spirit of apprenticeship and would not bend down to learn from the experienced but quickly want to shine than the master. We must learn to craw before we stand to walk, we must leap before we jump. Elisha humbled himself and knew that he needs something from the master and was obedient and serviceable as well as helpful to the master. When the master told him the condition on which he can get his request given him, he employed wisdom and became spiritually alert and sensitive. He refused to be distracted but remained focused. Any attempt to shift his attention, he refused to fall to it. He doggedly followed his master until he got what he wanted. We surely will get what we want if we truly work for it.
Beloved, he was not pretentious or trying to make people see him practising piety but truly lived his life with conviction. He was naturally and normally working towards realizing his life ambition. Jesus warns us to avoid making people see us as powerful and important as possible. Elijah himself was not parading his good deeds but silently working and God made him very successful. The God who sees all that is done in secret rewarded him. When after receiving the double portion of Elijah’s gifts Elisha believed what he received and with faith he called on God when obstacles came his way. He did not start acting like a powerful man but called on the God of his master. Today a lot of people personalize God and call him: God of Fr this, God of Prophet that and that is after their own name. Elisha would have called him his own God by saying where is the God of Elisha?
Beloved, let us be courageous in the Lord and take heart in following God and looking for what we need from God even when it looks difficult and hard. We have to follow relentlessly like Elisha and believe that we shall have it. May the Lord keep his goodness for us who love and fear him; may he hide us and keep us secure from human scheming and guide us as his faithful; may the virtue of humility guide us always in this life, Amen.
Rev. Fr. Callistus Emenyonu, cmf