Elijah, the prophet of God, lays his prophet’s mantle, a distinctive camel-hair cloak, on Elisha in Sunday’s first reading. He calls Elisha to a vocation that changes his life. Like the gospel, Sunday’s first reading explores the change in relationships a prophetic vocation demands.
When Elisha begs Elijah’s permission to kiss his father and mother goodbye, Elijah consents. However, in taking leave, Elisha does more than say goodbye.
By sacrificing all 24 oxen and turning his plowing equipment into fuel to cook a feast for his family and neighbors, Elisha shows he understands that his life is taking a completely new turn. No longer will he follow the plow and tend to his own affairs; from now on he will follow Elijah and become God’s prophet himself.
The story from Kings asks us to assess what our Christian commitment asks of us. It is not a prescription to do exactly what Elisha did. Indeed, many troubled and searching people need encouragement these days not to hand over their money and their lives to telegenic false prophets and visionaries. Elisha’s drastic and enthusiastic departure from his old and familiar life does suggest how radically we must reorient ourselves in order to follow God’s call.
Elijah calls Elisha.
NARRATOR: God spoke to the prophet Elijah.
GOD: You shall anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.
NARRATOR: Elijah set out and found Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah.
ELISHA: Please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and I will follow you.
ELIJAH: Go back. Have I done anything to you?
NARRATOR: Elisha returned, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them. Using the plowing equipment, he boiled their flesh and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah and became his servant.
1 Kings 19.16,19-21
- What is a way in which you want to reorient your life?
- What can you do this week to be freer as a Christian to respond to the needs of people around you?