6/9/2014 – St Columba – Monday of 10th week in Ordinary Time – 1 Kings 17:1-6

       Today we are officially out of the Easter season and back into Ordinary Time, the 10^th week in Ordinary Time to be exact. We will be having readings from the 1^st and 2^nd books of Kings in the daily masses for the next 3 weeks.  Today, we hear about Elijah, who is called to be a prophet during the reign of King Ahab.  Ahab has married a pagan wife, and has introduced the worship of the pagan god Baal to the people of Ancient Israel.  God sends a drought to Israel to punish her, but sends Elijah to an oasis, where he will find water and where ravens will bring him morsels of food to keep him alive.  With the absence of Elijah, God’s holy prophet, the people of Israel will be deprived of God’s word as a punishment in addition to the drought they have to endure.  It is interesting that we have the Beatitudes as the Gospel reading today, because the Israelites definitely don’t show the humility and dependence on God that is portrayed in the blessed ones in the Beatitudes.

     We also celebrate the feast day of St Columba today.   Columba was an Irish monk from the 6^th century.  He was born into a royal Irish family and founded several monasteries in Ireland.  Legend has it that he was sent away from Ireland due to a family feud, eventually landing on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland.  The monastery he found in Iona became very famous and still exists today.  Columba is considered one of the founders of Catholicism in Scotland.  Columba became a great religious leader in Ireland and Scotland.  And Elijah became one of the most important prophets in the history of Israel.  Sometimes God can call us to some very unexpected things.  We need to be open to the way God is calling us, no matter what that call may be.