Matchmaker

A Reflection on the 1st Reading for Sunday, July 2nd, 2023:
The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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2 Kings
4.8-12a, 14-16

One day Elisha was passing through Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to have a meal. So whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for a meal. She said to her husband, “Look, I am sure that this man who regularly passes our way is a holy man of God. Let us make a small roof chamber with walls, and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”

One day when Elisha came there, he went up to the chamber and lay down there. He said to his servant Gehazi, “What then may be done for the woman?” Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” Elisha said, “Call her.” When the servant had called her, she stood at the door. Elisha said, “At this season, in due time, you shall embrace a son.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

God is a fabulous matchmaker. And I wouldn’t narrow the meaning of matchmaker to a romantic sense. Take, for instance, the match God makes in the First Reading for this coming Sunday. Elisha is travelling in Shunem when he encounters a deeply hospitable woman who invites him to her house for a meal. In time, they come to know each other such that the woman is inspired, again in generosity, to provide accommodation for Elisha whenever his work calls him to Shunem. And she doesn’t simply offer him a bed in her house. She builds him a bunkie (which goes to show that bunkies have been around for a very long time). What a service this woman has done for Elisha, who now has his own room, equipped for his needs, where he can come and go as he pleases without disturbing the household. What respect and love this woman demonstrates!

Elisha, for his part, is inspired to respond. And so, through the power of God, gives her a child. Now, to be honest, my first thought was: what if she didn’t want a child? Maybe she would have preferred a cow, or a KitchenAid mixer. Then, I realized that it was not Elisha who had decided on the gift to give this woman; Elisha was inspired by God, who knows this woman’s heart, as God knows the heart of each one of us.

In bringing these two people together, God has enriched their lives in untold ways. Elisha can more easily go about the work of God in and around Shunem, teaching others and changing their lives for the better. And the woman now has a child to bring her joy, to care for, and to care for her in her old age.

Oh, that we all would be as willing as this woman to respond to divine inspiration, to act on the spurts of generosity that well up inside us, that we would seize our courage to look upon others as sisters and brothers in Christ — friends, rather than strangers in town.

God offers us these wonderful matches, opportunities to enrich the lives of others and allow others to enrich our lives. Let us trust in him and follow where his matchmaking leads us.



Donna Davis

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