“Worship of an idol, instead of opening the human heart to Otherness, to a liberating relationship that permits the person to emerge from the narrow space of his own selfishness to enter the dimensions of love and of reciprocal giving, shuts the person into the exclusive and desperate circle of self-seeking. And the deception is such that in worshipping an idol people find themselves forced to extreme actions, in the vain attempt to subject it to their own will. For this reason the prophets of Baal went so far as to hurt themselves, to wound their bodies, in a dramatically ironic action: in order to get an answer, a sign of life out of their god, they covered themselves with blood, symbolically covering themselves with death.” (Pope Benedict XVI from General Audience, 15 June 2011)

As we continue to talk about the importance of prayer through the eyes of Pope Benedict XVI, he presents to us the Prophet Elijah and his confrontation with the prophets of Baal and what this confrontation teaches us about faith and the blessing of religious practices as a necessary part of the ongoing conversation of the individual and of society at large. The Prophet Elijah in a prayer of supplication seeks a union with God that will help him lead others into the blessing of a relationship with Divine love.
As we continue to struggle to comprehend the continued aftermath of the tragedies of violence and how we are to respond in prayerful action, our invitation to seek God’s peace and justice is the antidote to the quick fixes which very seldom lead to the full unity of the Body of Christ.
“In spite of claiming to follow the Lord, an invisible and mysterious God, the people were also seeking security in a comprehensible and predictable god from whom they believed they could obtain fruitfulness and prosperity in exchange for sacrifices. Israel was capitulating to the seduction of idolatry, the continuous temptation of believers, deluding itself that it could “serve two masters” (cf. Mt 6:24; Lk 16:13) and facilitate the impracticable routes of faith in the Almighty even by putting its faith in a powerless god, fashioned by men.” (Benedict XVI) Like the people of Israel we, as followers of Jesus Christ, can be seduced into desiring a God who acts according to our whims and is easily controlled by the bribes of promised actions if only the right results come from the giant vending machine we have deposited our coin of prayer into. This quickly falls apart because God in our desire to make him in our image quickly becomes dispensable as we move to the next “god” who will satisfy our next desire.
In this we know the ‘gods’ we begin to create are unable to unify because each of us will have a different ideal of who our god should be and we must then destroy all other gods which means we must destroy those who hold up their gods that contradict our personal god. It is the evil of separation and isolation from community that we see too often in our modern society.
Pope Benedict reminds us of the need for the ideal and absolute that is outside our small and limited social constructs that constrict the true freedoms of actions and love. “The believer must respond to the Absolute of God with an absolute, total love that binds his whole life, his strength, his heart. And it was for the very heart of his people that the prophet, with his prayers, was imploring conversion: “that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back” (1 Kings 18:37). Elijah, with his intercession, asked of God what God himself wanted to do, to show himself in all his mercy, faithful to his reality as the Lord of life who forgives, converts and transforms.” (Benedict XVI)
Becoming a true “intercessor” as I wrote about last week, is to enter into a deep, full and prayer-filled relationship with God. It is not a sleepy inactive relationship but rather one of vibrant and full actions…but actions with the purpose of love and unity in God. Pope Benedict reiterates the three basic goods of prayer and why it becomes not just necessary but vital to our relationships with God and all people we meet. It is to seek the one true God to know and to worship him, to discover the conversion of heart that brings us into true and fruitful relationship with God and others and finally to see in the embrace of the cross of Jesus Christ is to embrace the peace and to embrace all in this gift of healing, reconciliation and mercy.
Let us continue to pray for healing, peace and reconciliation as we go forth and do the work in the image and love of Jesus Christ.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Israel could no longer have doubts; divine mercy came to meet its weakness, its doubts, its lack of faith. Now Baal, a vain idol, was vanquished, and the people which had seemed to be lost, rediscovered the path of truth and rediscovered itself. (Pope Benedict XVI)