In the face of the pressures of society Elijah called the leadership and the people of Israel to make a choice between God and Evil. While many people were expressing a belief in God and following the letter of the law of God, mostly they were keeping a foot in both camps. Elijah challenged the people to follow God alone.
The burden of proof of God’s power seemed to fall to Elijah so he agreed to let those who followed the pagan ‘god’ Baal to set a fire with an animal offering ready for sacrifice, but not to light the fire. Then these people prayed (and danced and sang and jumped) in pleading to Baal that he (direct form his ‘heaven’) would send flame to light the fire. So they prayed as hard as they could. Nothing happened. They gave up.
Now it was Elijha’s turn.
Elijah had a fire with animal offering prepared. To add even more drama he got his people to flood the wood and sacrifice with water. Then he gently called on God who sent flame. The power of God was seen by all.
Today we face the same temptation; to think that the things that are important in life, are the one essential thing. It is true that family and friends, work and security are important. But the way to achieve what we desire is to seek God above all else…and all these other things will be provided for us.
It is significant too that Elijah's prayer was effortless compared to the energy expended by the pagans. Elijah seemed to know this already - that prayer is a surging of the heart rather than an attempt to twist the divine arm through any means possible. More on this in the next blog "contemplation".
Our prayer in this place, and a little later when we celebrated Mass at Stella Maris Carmelite monastery at the other end of the summit of Mt Carmel (about 25 minutes away at the city of Haifa), was for the Carmelite sisters of Christchurch. Especially that those women God is calling to share their life will hear this call, and recognise that their life's happiness and purpose is found in responding generously with a whole-hearted "yes" to God.
As with priesthood, it is sometimes difficult for an individual to not only 'hear' such a call to contemplative life, it can be difficult for the individual to believe that they really are being called by God to this life. If you know of someone whom God may be calling to share the life of the Carmelite sisters, do not be afraid to ask them to consider this. God might be wanting to use you to sow this seed.
If you want to know more about the life of the sisters in Christchurch, and around the world, have a look at their website: http://www.karmel.at/christchurch.nz/
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