for June 9
Tuesday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time

Yesterday, we met Elijah the Tishbite; his story will continue in the first readings through this week and into next. Elijah’s prophetic career had some dramatic moments. His first prophetic act (yesterday’s first reading) was to declare a drought, as punishment for the nation of Israel’s worship of the idol Baal. We will also hear how Elijah challenges Baal’s priests (and the king who protects them!); the Elijah will shame these false prophets by calling down fire from heaven that consumes the sacrifice he has prepared while their sacrifices are ignored. Elijah will then slaughter the prophets by the hundreds, making himself a wanted man. Calling himself zealous (or jealous, depending on the translation) for the Lord; Elijah certainly seems inclined to favor grand gestures on the Lord’s behalf. In the end, Elijah will ascend to heaven in a whirlwind on a chariot of fire.

Today’s reading is different. Elijah might well have wondered why the Lord told him to leave his hiding place by the brook where the Lord had sheltered him. Not only is ‘I have designated a widow to provide for you’ an unusual phrase, it’s an unlikely plan. In the Hebrew scriptures, widows are often spoken of in the same breath as strangers and orphans. They were among the lowest of the low, society’s most precarious members. This widow has only a little bit of food left for herself and her son. Even though she does not share Elijah’s faith, at his request, she shares not of her substance, but of all that stands between their lives and death.

We won’t hear this week or next about Elijah’s next dramatic encounter with this widow (you’ll have to look up I Kings 17:17-24 for that). It’s not until the end of that story that she recognizes that Elijah truly speaks the word of the Lord. So when the widow gives her all to protect and sustain Elijah, she does that for someone she has absolutely nothing in common with. Through her, God provides in unexpected, even unpromising, ways.

Take a look at the world around us today, a place of pandemic, protest, and poverty. Try to look past the grand gestures, the events and people that grab so much of our attention. Who lives on the periphery of this world? Whose lives are most precarious? Could it be that God has designated unlikely, unrelated, and even quite lowly people to provide for us? What might they offer to sustain our faith for today and for days to come?

We will hear of one of the most familiar stories about Elijah in this Friday’s first reading. Again the prophet will be seeking shelter. Again, there will be miraculous meals and death will hover close at hand. There will be high drama: mighty wind and earthquake and fire. But the Lord won’t be in any of these. Once again, we will be invited to accept the unexpected ways of God.
—BJ Brown

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.