I was recently at a child’s birthday party and we met some new people. I had made a comment about 
church and one of the women there said, “Oh, I don’t go to church. I just eliminate the middle man”. Meaning that she does not need to go to church in order to communicate with God.
Today I attended a funeral service for the great- nephew of a friend from our church who also happens to be a brother of one of the members of my weekly Cursillo group. The little boy was 8 months old and had died tragically in an accident at home. How very sad and the family was obviously devastated. I asked my friend how the wake was the day before. He said the turn-out was very large and he said that it really helped the family to get through it all. They knew that the infant will be in heaven and they got to celebrate the brief time he had with the rest of his family.
The reason I juxtapose these stories is this….the “middle man” in the first story is the same “middle man” that showed up at the wake and funeral for the family of the infant. Many of those in attendance were there because of the relationships that had developed in church. Extended family, if you will.
In today’s first reading Elijah is in deep despair. It didn’t start that way. In the previous chapter in Kings, he had just finished showing up the hundreds of prophets of Baal by calling down God’s fire after the false prophets got bupkis (Yiddish for “nothing”). You could almost seeing Elijah spiking the ball (baal?) in the end zone and doing a celebration dance. He was on top of the world.
But….Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, was none too happy after Elijah had the false prophets killed. She threatened Elijah with the same treatment, so our hero ran headlong into the desert. Elijah is way bummed. But a messenger of God comes along while Elijah is sleeping under a broom tree (sleep in the Old Testament is a way of showing the level of despair the person is in). He makes bread cakes and water for Elijah to give him strength. Enough to at least get him moving on his way. He winds up hiding in a cave. Caves were apparently great places to hide in biblical times. I am guessing fear of bats was not a big part of Elijah’s personality.
It is here where our reading for today comes in with the Lord’s voice being heard on a whisper and not in the earthquake, the wind or the fire (though these were elements made for a widely popular music group in the 1970s). God’s message was for Elijah to get back in the game. To appoint kings and prophets. And he did. But it was the gentle nudge from God’s messenger that saved Elijah from withering away under the broom tree. I am guessing it was not some earth-shaking demigod that appeared to Elijah. It very well could have been a passing shepherd or herdsman. It likely was a “whisper” of a human being that saved Elijah that day as much as the whisper from God.
We have these whispers in our lives all the time, don’t we? It could be the roommate who brings you pizza while you are up studying all night for a big exam. It could be the neighbor down the street who watches the kids for a night while you and your spouse catch a movie and a much-needed break from routine. Or the friend who helps you knock out that stubborn, worn wheel bearing from your motorcycle that you have been pounding on for 2 hours (can you tell that the person getting the help with the bearing was me? Motorcycle obsession creeps in to a reflection yet again).
It is when the world seems to be beating you down and you feel like you just can’t go on any longer. And at that moment God’s angels show up to lighten your burden…your Simon of Cyrene who helps carry that cross when you just cannot go any further alone. I remember on one of my first organized group off-road trail ride with some friends several years ago (Yes, yet another two-wheeled reference). Hal way into the ride every muscle in my body cramped up, and I could not go any further. The other guys in the group went ahead without me. But one of the group, not really even a friend at that point, would not leave me alone until I was able to ride on out of the woods. He had to wait with me for an hour until I could move without being in pain. He likely wanted to stay with the rest of the group, but my needs superseded his at that point. I will never forget his selflessness and I try to repay it whenever I can.
And how do you develop the propensity of doing these little things? That is a part of what Jesus is saying in the Gospel today. In it he talks about gouging out your eye and cutting off your hand. Of course, we know he means to not put yourself in a circumstance to sin. Avoid the near occasion of sin as it says in the catechism. But the flip side of that is to put yourself IN situations where you are influenced by the virtuous actions of people around you. To hang out with those “middle men”…don’t avoid them. Be community with your parish and then take the elements of that community out to others.
And take time to live in the quiet. It could be in adoration or in the quiet time of prayer. Or, as one minister’s reflection noted that I read preparing for this article, it could be the quiet of a cattle stall when the whisper of our Savior entered the world.
