Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
While sitting with the 8th Graders in our summer religious education program today, we had a discussion about the ways each of us lives our call to faith. The answers were wonderful and mostly straight forward including, obey my parents, be kind to my brother, go to church and praying at meals. One young lady stated that we ought to practice random acts of kindness. Her answer struck me as needing further discussion. So I pushed her to say what she meant by that, she responding with “You know doing kind things for people without expecting anything in return.” I asked her if the people needed to know about who carried out the acts of kindness and she said she liked it better “when it was a secret.”
In the gospel today, Jesus encouraged the disciples to perform our righteous deeds in secret. When you give alms…when you pray…when you fast…do it in secret; “And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Mt 6:4 & 6b) In considering our own motivations for action, are the righteous deeds we perform done to win favor or to gain reimbursement? Are the acts of kindness we perform done out of a spirit of obligation or opportunity? Duty is a good starting place for our good deeds, yet isn’t the point of these good deeds that just flow from who we are like breathing or riding a bike. The very action of consistently utilizing spiritual disciplines can take us to new levels of discipleship.
While none of us may be an “Elisha,” we can learn from this disciple’s desire to be the spiritual heir of Elijah, for that too is our call. Elisha’s final request of Elijah was to receive “a double portion of your spirit.” (2 Kgs 2:9b) Jewish tradition allotted a double portion of the inheritance to the oldest son. Clearly Elisha anticipates being Elijah’s spiritual heir and his transition from apprentice to prophet. The reading closes with an image of Elisha wearing Elijah’s cloak crossing the Jordan on dry land, an image that evokes both Elijah and Moses. Indeed the mantle had been passed.
The mantle of the prophet has been passed throughout history to this day. Apostolic Succession is one way we can understand our continuity from the past, yet the connection is not just found in the hierarchy. By virtue of our baptism, we too are spiritual heirs of Elijah, who like Elisha, are being called to step up into a prophetic ministry. The challenge before us is to discern how the Holy Spirit is calling us to exercise our role in this prophetic spiritual succession or may be just be a radical disciple.
It seems to me that girl in my religion class had figured it out! Hopefully we too have done or can do the same.
-Michael Montgomery