Called and Nourished

​A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, August 11th, 2024:
​Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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1 Kings
19.4-8

​Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”

Then Elijah lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an Angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again.

The Angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mountain of God.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

When I read this reading, I realized I didn’t know the context in which Elijah was ready to pack up his tent and go home to the Lord. What experiences had levelled such despair onto a prophet of God? In going back a chapter in Kings, I learned that Elijah had been advocating against worship of the false god Baal, and that the Lord God had been performing wonders and miracles, including resurrection. At the opening of chapter 19, we see Jezebel, the princess who had replaced worship of the Lord God with the false god Baal, send a message threatening to end Elijah’s life. He is the last remaining prophet, the rest already having been killed for speaking the truth.

So here we find Elijah. He has shared the message of God and God has worked incredible wonders. And yet, the message is still rejected. The truth is dismissed. Despite all his zeal for the Lord, Elijah’s despair is taking over. How do they not understand? How do they not see?

I understand that feeling deep down in my bones. The desire to quit. The desire to sit under a tree and cry my heart out to God when the mission He gave me isn’t having the results I wanted. Why did He bother to send me when He must have known that even moving a mountain wouldn’t convince others of His truth?

Just like He does with Elijah, God doesn’t give me the easy out and just let me quit the appointed work. He reminds me to rest up and nourish myself before getting back to work. What we learn in the following chapters is that God also isn’t sending Elijah back out alone. God tells Elijah to anoint new kings and to make Elisha his successor. We also see other prophets, named and unnamed, speaking the truth, even at great risk and high cost.

Elijah’s despair, in all its humanity, is a powerful reminder that God doesn’t dismiss our fears and our pain. God hears us. He comforts us and nourishes us. He sends collaborators and helpers for the work. When He has a mission for us, He also doesn’t just let us off the hook. He called us for a reason. Our place in the mission is chosen and intentional. He can absolutely do it without us, but He calls us into the work for our own good as much as for the good of others.

So we keep at the work, even when we’re tired, even when it feels hopeless, even when we are threatened. God will feed us what we need before sending us back out. He will be with us in our work and in our rest. He will guide us along right paths and work wonders before us. And even if the whole world isn’t changed, we will be changed by the work.




Stéphanie Potter​

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