Holy Spirit of Jesus, help me show up in the silence to meet with you…

 
1 Kings 19:9-16

                                                          
In his desolation, isolation and fear for his life, Elijah retreated to a cave at the foot of holy Mount Horeb, anticipating that the God whom he worshipped would appear to him there. The wind storm, an earthquake, and a wildfire that swept by the mouth of the cave reflected the storms raging within Elijah, as battered and lonely prophet of the Lord God. “Are you there, God??,” Elijah queried. Although pagan beliefs often identified wind, earth, and fire as divinities in themselves, Elijah realized that none of these natural phenomena were gods in themselves.  After they had passed by, these heralds of God’s presence, but not his presence in and of themselves, Elijah was left with a deafening silence, that same kind of silence I find when traumas and troubles have come and done their worst and then moved out. Had Elijah given in to acedia and depression, and had stayed in the cave, neither this story, nor, arguably, any of the Bible, would be extant today. But when Elijah heard the silence, he wrapped his face in his mantle -representing his fetal (or cocooning) state - and stood at the entrance of the cave.  It was when he simply ‘showed up’ - as disconsolate, vulnerable and alone as he was, that God came to him, and met with him, and set his prophet on a course of action that set in motion the coming of the Son of God who was the Son of Man, to ransom and redeem all of humanity.  When the deafening silence of Creation engulfs my heart, mind, soul and strength, will I stay in my cave to lick my wounds and call God a liar, or will I, like Elijah, wrap my face in my mantle and stand at the mouth of my ‘cave’ to meet with God and find my way forward?  Holy Spirit of Jesus, help me show up the silence to meet with you.
 
“How long will you go limping with two different opinions?  If the lord is God, follow him…  (1 Kings 18:21)  
 
Are we going to use human prudence or the prudence of God?
Catherine Doherty. Living the Gospel Without Compromise. P.22
 
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Soli ad gloriam Dei