Wednesday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time (Year II)
2 Kings 2:1,6-14 | Psalm 30:20,21,24 | Matthew 6:1-6,16-18
When they had crossed [the Jordan], Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Make your request. What can I do for you before I am taken from you?’ Elisha answered, ‘Let me inherit a double share of your spirit’. (2 Kings 2:9)
That was quite a bold request on Elisha’s part, to be twice the prophet Elijah was. Yet God granted his request to serve Him even more faithfully than his master, and Elisha eventually outdid Elijah 28 to 14.
But if you polled the Christians around you, you’d probably find that everyone remembers Elijah, but “Elisha? Oh, you must mean Elijah!” Oh, how Elisha must be rolling his eyes up in heaven now!
Not.
I believe Elisha would probably just shrug, go “so what?”, and go about his heavenly business, as would all the great prophets. Jesus explained why in today’s Gospel – the true Christian attitude is service in secrecy: not calling attention to oneself, just Getting Things Done and on to the next task.
Jesus also reminds us of the three Great Tasks in Christian life: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We generally only hear about them during the Lenten season, but of course we’re called to do them regularly as part of everyday life.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
I suddenly thought to look up the etymology of “alms”, which sounds so archaic. You might already have guessed its origins…in “mercy”:
The word, in the modern English language, comes from the Old English ælmesse, ælmes, from Late Latin eleemosyna, from Greek ἐλεημοσύνη eleēmosynē “pity, alms”, from ἐλεήμων eleēmōn “merciful”, from ἔλεος eleos “pity”. (Wikipedia:Alms)
I think the Wikipedia article is worth reading, especially in this Jubilee Year of Mercy, for inspiration and encouragement:
For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me. (Matthew 25:35-36)
Amen.