From: 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a
Elijah’s encounter with God
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Commentary:
19:9-13. “Taking the desert road that leads to the place where the living and true
God reveals himself to this people, Elijah, like Moses before him, hides ‘in a cleft
of the rock’ until the mysterious presence of God has passed by (cf. 1 Kings 19:
1-14; cf. Ex 33:19-23). But only on the mountain of the Transfiguration will Mo-
ses and Elijah behold the unveiled face of him whom they sought; ‘the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God [shines] in the face of Christ’, crucified and risen
(cf. 2 Cor 4:6)†(”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 2583). There is a sharp con-
trast between the spectacular forces of nature, in which God is not present, and
the small still voice of a gentle breeze in which Elijah recognizes God to be pre-
sent (vv. 11-13). “In this way,†writes St Irenaeus, “the prophet, who was greatly
downcast by the transgression of the people and the murder of the prophets,
learned to work with greater calm, and thus also the coming of the Lord in hu-
man form is signified. In the light of the Law given to Moses, his coming will be
seen as an untroubled time when the bent reed will not be crushed nor the flic-
kering flame quenched. The sweet rest and peace of his reign is foreshadowed
here as well. After the wind that moves mountains, after earthquake and fire, the
calm and peaceful age of his reign will come, in which the Spirit of God will revi-
talize and gently encourage the growth of man†(”Adversus haereses”, 4, 20,
10).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Romans 9:1-5
The Privileges of Israel and God’s Fidelity
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Commentary:
Chaps. 9-11. In these chapters—as we indicate in the title given to this section
of the letter—St Paul deals with “God’s plan for the chosen people.” The Apostle
explains that Israel, as a people, in general has failed to accept the Gospel des-
pite the fact that God’s promises of salvation were made to the Jews in the first
instance.
3. There is an apparent contradiction between what is said here—”I could wish
that I myself was accursed and cut off from Christ’—and what is said earlier (cf.
8:31ff) about nothing being able to separate us from the love of Christ. The two
ideas in fact complement one another. God’s love moves us to love others so
intensely that we are ready to suffer anything if it means the conversion of others
to God. Paul is not referring to permanent separation from God, that is, eternal
damnation, but to being ready to renounce any material or spiritual favor God
might grant us. This means that we should be ready to bear public opprobrium
and be taken for evildoers, as Jesus was. Some writers have interpreted the
verse as meaning that the Apostle is even ready to renounce eternal happiness,
but obviously what we have here is typical oriental exaggeration, rather like what
Moses said when he interceded with God on behalf of those Israelites who had
fallen into idolatry: “[If thou wilt not forgive their sin] blot me, I pray thee, out of
thy book which thou hast written” (Ex 32:32). Both Moses and Paul know that
God loves them and protects them and that the vision of God necessarily involves
the indescribable happiness of heaven, but they want to make it plain that they
put the salvation of the chosen people ahead of their own personal advantage.
4-6. The Israelites are the descendants of Jacob, to whom God gave the name
Israel (cf. Gen 32:29). The fact that they are children of Israel is the basis of the
privileges which God bestows on them in the course of Salvation History—firstly,
their status as the people of God, chosen as the adoptive sons of Yahweh (cf.
Ex 4:22; Deut 7:6); also their being given the “glory” of God who dwelt in their
midst (cf. Ex 25:8; Deut 4:7; Jn 1:14); their good fortune in being able to offer
worship proper to the one true God, and in receiving from him the Law of Moses,
which spelt out the principles of the natural moral law and revealed other aspects
of God’s will; and, finally, their being the recipients of oft-repeated messianic
promises.
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The remarkable honor bestowed on the chosen people is to be seen most clear-
ly in the fact that God himself chose to assume a human nature which had all
the characteristics of the Israelite race. Jesus Christ, as true man, is an Israelite
“according to the flesh”, and he is true God because he is “God above all, bles-
sed for ever.”
Similar statements made in other epistles of St Paul about the mystery of the
Incarnation manifest Christ’s two natures and one Person (cf. Rom 1:3-4; Phil
2:6-7; Col 2:9; Tit 2:13-14).
In the present passage, this statement appears in the form of a “doxology” or
paean of praise to God, one of the most solemn ways in which Yahweh is exal-
ted in the Old Testament (cf. Ps 41:14; 72:19; 106:48; Neh 9:5; Dan 2:20; etc.).
By calling Jesus Christ “God, blessed for ever” his divinity is being declared in
a most explicit manner.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.