Feast of St. Prophet Elijah

The Church - holy mountain which strengthen our lives

In the sermon delivered at the end of the Divine Liturgy celebrated on the feast of St. Prophet Elijah in the Diocesan Cathedral of Saint-Hubert, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian spoke about the model and importance of the prophet’s life for us today:

“St. Elijah is one of the most well-known and beloved prophets of the Old Testament, who distinguishes himself by his particular asceticism. He was a just man and obedient to God. His mission was to bring back to the true faith the people of Israel, who were worshiping idols.

Scripture shows us that the reason for sin, ignorance, and idolatry is the turning away from God. Adam is moving away from fulfilling God's command, and the consequence of this is his growing unfamiliarity with God's word and the creation of which he was part. The promise of a Redeemer brings comfort to man because man himself could no longer repair the harm done.

The entire message of God in the Old Testament through the words and deeds of the patriarchs, judges, righteous kings, and prophets is a return to the worship of the true God of Israel and the renunciation of idols that represented false knowledge and falsehood. The motive of repentance crosses the Old Testament Scriptures urging man to be cleansed from sin and to live in holiness.

Many times, when we talk about idols we imagine that they only existed in the past. But we ourselves have the idols of our times - the various models of economic, philosophical, ideological, or countless doctrines that have nothing to do with the structure and authentic understanding of the world and society in which we live and which in their self-proclaimed absoluteness become rather obstacles than it helps to channel the life of our society to a more humane, just and spiritual dimension. These systems are the idols of our times. They are trying to dethrone God from His place as the Creator of the world and the giver of life and the Redeemer of man.

The Holy Prophet Elijah becomes the herald of God's will in His people. One of the signs of people’s sin that God will give is the drought. We can ask ourselves: why does man need signs? Are they necessary? We often find that in moments of so-called peace and well-being, man forgets God and his condition and his deep sense of being a creature of God with the requirements that this entails. It seems that the trial often reminds man his limits and condition. The trial sends him back to a deeper scrutiny, a more thorough investigation, and a correction of what is upset. It means first correcting an erroneous understanding and the evil deeds and resetting the relationships with God and the fellow men the two essential coordinates of human life.

The three-and-a-half-year drought announced by the Prophet Elijah is the sign that God is giving to the people by showing their departure from the true faith. But the fulfillment of God's word, the proclamation of the truth, the living of a righteous life of holiness is not always an easy path, without difficulties, without enmity and without dangers for the one who follows it. This is also the case of St. Elijah, whose life is threatened by Jezebel, the pagan wife of King Ahab, who had brought with her the idolatrous cult of Baal and Asherah. At the moment Elijah gives sign from heaven through fire about the true God and the priests of Baal and Asherah are killed the life of Prophet Elijah is threatened. At the thought of being left alone as a righteous worshiper amid the Jewish people, he takes refuge in the wilderness full of sadness. Elijah is thus a paradigm of the righteous man who lives in the right faith but also has moments of weakness. Encouraged and fed by the angel, Elijah goes to Mount Sinai to meet God where Moses had seen God and received the commandments. Elijah is strengthened in the hope and faith of ancient Israel. Reinforced in faith and hope and having been revealed that there are still seven thousand men who have not defiled themselves by idol worship, the prophet Elijah returns to choose his successor Elisha.

Before the experience of Mount Sinai, God hides from him the existence of the seven thousand righteous men, showing by this that even if one is righteous before God, he does not have full knowledge of all that is known by God. The knowledge of the just and holy man has the natural limits of human nature and of God's economy.

Just as Elijah needed strengthening in the mountain of God's commandments, that is, Sinai, so we need to go to our Sinai so that through the words and revelations we receive, we can strengthen ourselves on the road to the Kingdom of God. For us this mountain is the Church. In the Church descends the fire of the Holy Spirit from heaven, which transforms the bread and wine brought by faithful to the altars in the Eucharist. The food, that is, the bread and meat, which the crows bring to Prophet Elijah, signifies the Holy Eucharist - the bread changed into the Body of the Lord given to us for salvation. From an earthly, material bread, it becomes a heavenly one since it opens the doors of the Kingdom of God.

At the end of his life, Elijah is lifted into the heaven by a chariot of fire without going through death similarly to Enoch. It is the sign by which the ascension of Christ from earth to heaven is announced to us, and also the fact that our life lived in holiness will be elevated to heaven and will be clothed in eternity. The fire of the grace of the Divine Eucharist will take us to heaven in the intimacy and closeness of God.

The life of the prophet Elijah is thus a spiritual paradigm for us, an anticipation of the deeds and life of the Savior Christ.”

The hierarch of Canada concluded his sermon by urging the faithful to think about the life of Prophet Elijah and to practically follow his model of holiness:

“This is the example of Holy Prophet Elijah, who can inspire us in our faith in the society in which we live. You cannot be strong in faith if you are not persevering in obedience to God. Without humility, without patience, without a proper heart, no one can hear the word of God, which is essential to our lives. God appeared and spoke to Elijah in the gentle breeze, not in the storm, earthquake, or fire. In humility God makes us partakers of His eternal rest in this world through the Church.

Let us always read the lives of the saints, because they help us to understand concretely what it means to lead our lives in holiness.”