Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Perhaps, then, we can take this saying of the Lord Jesus and apply it to today’s dramatic first reading, where we see a dramatic contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal—or, better put, between the Lord and non-gods.
Humanity, like the house of Israel in the first reading, has a tendency to “straddle the issue” between worship of the one true God and pursuit of our own lords or Baals (the Hebrew word ba‘al means “owner” or “lord”), whether these be wealth, security, fame, or anything else. The Lord Jesus, however, provokes a decision on our part, calling us to conversion and to worship the Father “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23) through a holy way of life. And to prove his divinity and the emptiness of all other so-called gods, Jesus offers not merely a young bull, but his very self as a holocaust to God.
Today, then, let us examine ourselves to see in what ways we go after the empty “baals” and asking the Spirit for the gift of conversion and for the grace to offer ourselves as a loving holocaust along with Jesus, so that others, too, might recognize in Him the Lord who is God.