Thirteenth Sunday Reflections

June 27, 2004

"Then Elisha left and followed Elijah as his attendant (1 Kings 19:19-21). "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:51-62).
• Elisha, receives a call to follow the great prophet Elijah. He leaves off work in his field, slaughters his twelve oxen (a possession representing considerable wealth), gives them as food for his servants and becomes Elijah's disciple. Jesus' alludes to this in his comment to his disciples, after they lamely ask him if they should "call down fire from heaven to consume them". Like Elijah with Elisha, Jesus shows no patience with their ignorance or hesitation. The faithful disciple, like Jesus, does not even have a hole to crawl into, and is left exposed to the uncertainties of the world. In both cases the point is clear: discipleship and entrance into the kingdom of God requires radical renunciation. Like Elisha, we are not even given a moment to say our goodbyes, get our affairs in order, or pause to complete unfinished tasks.
• Recently a close friend of mine and I shared in leading a retreat on the theme of diminishment as a condition of entering the kingdom of God. We both realized how feeling, or actually being, homeless is a kind of diminishment. We also acknowledged that anything we might lose in the process we stand to gain back a hundred fold, as Jesus promised in another place in the Gospel. Most of us, again like Elisha, and Jesus' disciples, do not usually intentionally choose detach ourselves from all that we know, cherish and enjoy in order to follow the promptings of the Spirit, and to serve others. Such a choice runs entirely counter to everything the culture of the world supports and rewards.
"... so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery...live by the spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh" (Gal 5:1, 13-18)
• St. Paul refers in this passage to the struggle between "flesh" and "spirit". This has often been taken as a reference to some conflict between body and soul. Another interpretation of "flesh" is that is a spirit of self-centeredness, a misguided sense of personal independence, or alienation from the divine center of our personal being, and our corporate lives. "Live by the spirit..." What a concept, again counter to what we experience all around us. The "yoke of slavery" which Elisha left behind to follow God's prophet is another way to understand St. Paul's reference to the desire of the flesh and the promptings of the spirit.
• What if we were to renounce, as Jesus clearly taught, "raining down fire from heaven" as our response to opposition and rejection? How would our lives look, our opinions change, our communities transform if we were able to leave our convenient, treasured, homes and follow these inner promptings without looking back.