Elijah Experiences God in the Cave

Today’s first reading is one many use on retreats to talk about how one hears the voice of God. However, I would like to focus on a different take on this passage that we can focus on all the time.

God looks at us in ways that are beyond our understanding. We may feel we failed at some important task but we discover that whether we succeeded for failed, God is still there for us because he looks at us as his children.

In today’s first reading, we are looking at Elijah at one of the lowest points of his life and it follows his most famous success. So let’s look at what happens.

The King of Israel, Ahab married Jezebel, who is the queen of that nation. Jezebel is the most evil woman in the Bible. She is also a Philistine, which is a pagan culture. She promotes and has prophets of the pagan deity Ba’al. Elijah has a showdown with these prophets because they are worshipping Ba’al in the land reserved for the God of Abraham. It is a gross violation of his authority. Elijah wins the showdown, which is a story for another time, and orders the execution of the prophets of Ba’al.

This obviously angers Jezebel and in her anger she promises that he will be dead by the same time the following day. Elijah panics and runs. He keeps on running until he can finally run no more. He stops along the side of the road and tells God to take his life because he is no better than his ancestors. He has judged himself unworthy to continue as prophet. However, God sees him differently. An angel appears and leads him to the cave where we pick up the story. The angel says that God will speak to Elijah then.

This passage we hear today, is of Elijah in that cave. There he discerns the voice of the Lord, not in the great powerful acts of nature but in the gentle wind. The Lord communicates to Elijah his continued confidence in him and sends him back to do his work.

It is an important lesson because God judges our daily realities in his ways not in ours. Times when we may feel we failed, the Lord may see us completely different and still recognizes us as his children whom he loves and supports.

Mother Theresa said, it does not matter whether we succeed for fail but that we remail faithful. God addresses our results, we leave the results up to him.

This is why our prayer is so essential as we see in Elijah. He thought of himself a failure but he continued his relationship with God. God blessed the fruits of his work even though he lost confidence in himself.

I had an interesting question this week on YouTube. A listener to my podcast was surprised to discover that I don’t like the Baltimore Catechism. For the record, I don’t. He then asked me if I was also against the Catechism of the Council of Trent and I said that I was not against it at all, explaining the point. The Baltimore Catechism is a poor compendium of the Catechism of the Council of Trent. the current Vatican II Catechism has Trent in its foundation. I also mentioned how the Baltimore Catechism gives prayer a short shrift.

You know how prayer is intensely important in all my teachings and in today’s first reading, although Elijah believed he failed, he still prayed.

I discovered this quote from the Catechism of the Council of Trent as I did my research:

The necessity of prayer must be taught, a duty not only recommended by way of counsel, but also enforced by peremptory command, as Christ our Lord declares in these words: We ought always to pray.

Catechism of the Council of Trent Part IV, Question 1, Chapter 2

When things go right, pray. when things go wrong pray and do not assume that God considers that you failed when you feel something went against your plans. Trust that God continues his mission in your life and continue in your prayer.

Fr. Tom DiLorenzo used to teach that the greatest tool of the devil is discouragement. When you feel you failed and are ready to give up. God sees both our successes and failures differently and we can trust this.

Elijah looked at himself as a total failure. God saw things differently and restored his strength and his confidence. Our prayer helps us to continue serving God and to allow him to judge our results by his standards and not by our own.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity