Reading 1 1 Kgs18:20-39

Ahab sent to all the children of Israel
and had the prophets assemble on Mount Carmel.

Elijah appealed to all the people and said,
"How long will you straddle the issue?
If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him."
The people, however, did not answer him.
So Elijah said to the people,
"I am the only surviving prophet of the LORD,
and there are four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.
Give us two young bulls.
Let them choose one, cut it into pieces, and place it on the wood,
but start no fire.
I shall prepare the other and place it on the wood,
but shall start no fire.
You shall call on your gods, and I will call on the LORD.
The God who answers with fire is God."
All the people answered, "Agreed!"

Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal,
"Choose one young bull and prepare it first,
for there are more of you.
Call upon your gods, but do not start the fire."
Taking the young bull that was turned over to them, they prepared it
and called on Baal from morning to noon, saying,
"Answer us, Baal!"
But there was no sound, and no one answering.
And they hopped around the altar they had prepared.
When it was noon, Elijah taunted them:
"Call louder, for he is a god and may be meditating,
or may have retired, or may be on a journey.
Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened."
They called out louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears,
as was their custom, until blood gushed over them.
Noon passed and they remained in a prophetic state
until the time for offering sacrifice.
But there was not a sound;
no one answered, and no one was listening.

Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me."
When the people had done so, he repaired the altar of the LORD
that had been destroyed.
He took twelve stones, for the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob,
to whom the LORD had said, "Your name shall be Israel."
He built an altar in honor of the LORD with the stones,
and made a trench around the altar
large enough for two measures of grain.
When he had arranged the wood,
he cut up the young bull and laid it on the wood.
"Fill four jars with water," he said,
"and pour it over the burnt offering and over the wood."
"Do it again," he said, and they did it again.
"Do it a third time," he said,
and they did it a third time.
The water flowed around the altar,
and the trench was filled with the water.

At the time for offering sacrifice,
the prophet Elijah came forward and said,
"LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
let it be known this day that you are God in Israel
and that I am your servant
and have done all these things by your command.
Answer me, LORD!
Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God
and that you have brought them back to their senses."
The LORD's fire came down
and consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust,
and it lapped up the water in the trench.
Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said,
"The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"

From: 1 Kings 18:20-39

The sacrifice on Mount Carmel

[20] So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel, and gathered the prophets together
at Mount Carmel. [21] And Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How
long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow
him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.
[22] Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD;
but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. [23] Let two bulls be given to
us; and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it
on the wood, but put no fire to it; and I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the
wood, and put no fire to it. [24] And you call on the name of your god and I will
call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And
all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” [25] Then Elijah said to the prophets
of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many;
and call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” [26] And they took the bull
which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from
morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no
one answered. And they limped about the altar which they had made. [27] And at
noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is musing,
or he has gone aside, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be
awakened.” [28] And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their custom with
swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. [29] And as midday
passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was
no voice; no one answered, no one heeded.

[30] Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me”; and all the people
came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been thrown
down; [31] Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the
sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, “Israel shall be your
name”; [32] and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD. And
he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of
seed. [33] And he put the wood in order, and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on
the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering,
and on the wood.” [34] And he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a se-
cond time. And he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time. [35] And
the water ran round about the altar, and filled the trench also with water.

[36] And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near
and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day
that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all
these things at thy word. [37] Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people
may know that thou, O LORD, art God, and that thou hast turned their hearts
back.” [38] Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and
the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the
trench. [39] And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they
said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”

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Commentary:

18:20-40. “Carmel” is a chain of mountains that starts near the port of Haifa and
runs some 30 km. (18.5 miles) south-east. Its height (almost 600 m. or 1800 ft.)
and its lush vegetation made it particularly suitable as a place of religious cult (at
that time, the local people worshipped Baal). There, the one, true God will make
himself manifest in the sacrificial fire. To begin with, the people have nothing to
say when Elijah upbraids them, but at the end of the episode (v. 38) they make a
profession of faith which echoes in a way the faith of the prophet, who bears wit-
ness to the living God. The name of Elijah, “The Lord is my God’, foretells the peo-
ple’s cry in response to his prayer on Mount Carmel” (”Catechism of the Catholic
Church”, 2582).

The fire which consumes the offering is a figure of the Holy Spirit: “While water
signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes
the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit’s actions. The prayer of the prophet E-
lijah, who ‘arose like fire’ and whose ‘word burned like a torch’ (Sir 48:1), brought
down fire from heaven on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel (cf. 1 Kings 18:38-39).
This event was a ‘figure’ of the fire of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he tou-
ches. John the Baptist, who goes ‘before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Eli-
jah’ (Lk 1:17), proclaims Christ as the one who ‘who will baptize you with Holy
Spirit and with fire’ (Lk 3:16). Jesus will say of the Spirit: ‘I came to cast fire up-
on the earth; and would that it were already kindled!’ (Lk 12:49). In the form of
tongues ‘as of fire’, the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the morning of Pen-
tecost and fills them with himself (Acts 2:3-4). The spiritual tradition has retained
this symbolism of fire as one of the most expressive images of the Holy Spirit’s
actions (cf. St John of the Cross, “The Living Flame of Love”). ‘Do not quench
the Spirit’ (1 Thess 5:19)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 696).

The similarity between the fire of Elijah’s offering and the action of the Holy Spi-
rit in the eucharistic sacrifice was noted by the Fathers. But the typology can be
extended further: “The sacrifice on Mount Carmel is a decisive test for the faith
of the People of God. The Lord’s fire consumes the holocaust, at the time of the
evening oblation. The Eastern liturgies repeat Elijah’s plea in the Eucharistic epi-
clesis” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 2583).

Elijah’s action at the end — killing the false prophets — needs to be understood
in the light of his zeal for the Lord and of the mentality of the time, for the Mosaic
Law prescribed exactly such treatment for prophets of pagan divinities in order
to safeguard the religious purity of the people (cf. Deut 13:13-19).

*********************************************************************************************
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: Matthew 5:17-19

Jesus and His Teaching, the Fulfillment of the Law

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [17] “Think not that I have come to abolish the law
and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. [18] For tru-
ly I say to you, till Heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass
from the law until all is accomplished. [19] Whoever then relaxes one of the least
of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the King-
dom of Heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in
the Kingdom of Heaven.”

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

17-19. In this passage Jesus stresses the perennial value of the Old Testament.
It is the word of God; because it has a divine authority it deserves total respect.
The Old Law enjoined precepts of a moral, legal and liturgical type. Its moral
precepts still hold good in the New Testament because they are for the most
part specific divine-positive promulgations of the natural law. However, our Lord
gives them greater weight and meaning. But the legal and liturgical precepts of
the Old Law were laid down by God for a specific stage in salvation history, that
is, up to the coming of Christ; Christians are not obliged to observe them (cf.
“Summa Theologiae”, I-II, q. 108, a. 3 ad 3).

The law promulgated through Moses and explained by the prophets was God’s
gift to His people, a kind of anticipation of the definitive Law which the Christ or
Messiah would lay down. Thus, as the Council of Trent defined, Jesus not only
“was given to men as a redeemer in whom they are to trust, but also as a law-
giver whom they are to obey” (”De Iustificatione”, can. 21).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: White.

First reading
1 Kings 18:20-39 ©

Elijah vanquishes the priests of Baal

Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. ‘How long’ he said ‘do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.’ But the people never said a word. Elijah then said to them, ‘I, I alone, am left as a prophet of the Lord, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it and lay it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I in my turn will prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it. You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.’ The people all answered, ‘Agreed!’ Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.’ They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. ‘O Baal, answer us!’ they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar they had made. Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. ‘Call louder,’ he said ‘for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.’ So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them. Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.

Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come closer to me’, and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord which had been broken down. Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, ‘Israel shall be your name’, and built an altar in the name of the Lord. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed. He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood. Then he said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood’; this they did. He said, ‘Do it a second time’; they did it a second time. He said, ‘Do it a third time’; they did it a third time. The water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water. At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,’ he said ‘let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, the Lord, are God and are winning back their hearts.’

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. ‘The Lord is God,’ they cried, ‘the Lord is God.’

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 15(16):1-2,4-5,8,11 ©