Even great saints and prophets are not immune to great discouragement and the temptation to give up and despair. Elijah seems to have come close! Prior to this encounter with the Lord he had sat under a broom tree and prayed for death because, as he expressed it, I am no better than my ancestors. God’s initial greeting sounds less than sympathetic: Elijah, why are you here. His explanation fails to yield any sympathy or commiseration either, as he is rather bluntly instructed to take the road back to the desert near Damascus; to anoint Hazael as king of Aram, Jehu, king of Israel, and Elisha, as his successor. Elijah’s impressive prophetic mission (replete with miracles like causing drought and then rain, or calling down fire from heaven) seems, in the end, to have been a failure. His resulting deep melancholy suggest that perhaps pride was not yet fully extinguished in his heart, and hence the apparently unsympathetic reception he receives from the Lord. As if underscoring this point, it is not in the heavy wind, earthquake, or fire, that God reveals himself, but in the tiny whispering sound. As Christians we almost hear God saying to Elijah: it is when you are weak and helpless that you are truly strong, for power is made perfect in weakness. Elijah’s final triumphal ascension into heaven upon a fiery chariot confirms that he had learned this crucial lesson—can we?
Ronald Dombroski says
Dear Fr. Joseph,
Thank you for the reminder that when we are weak and helpless, then we are strong. That God’s power is made perfect in weakness.
Something I need to be reminded of every day!
George Paul Alexa says
I need to hear this often.
” As Christians, we almost hear God saying to Elijah: it is when you are weak and helpless that you are truly strong, for power is made perfect in weakness.”