As Yourself

A Homily for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026

In the Creation Story God looks at all he has created, including you and I, and he says each time: “It is Good!”

In the gospel accounts of the baptism of Christ, God Speaks to Jesus, and through Jesus, to you and I and he says: “This is my Beloved in whom I am well pleased!”

When Jesus is asked: “What is the Greatest Commandment?” He replies in part: “To love your neighbor as yourself.”

So, what does it mean then to love as ourselves? Well, we love as Good. We love as Beloved. And we love the fundamental goodness and belovedness of others.

And it is simply by this that God, through us, can continue to redeem the world.

Today, in our first reading, Elijah finds himself in a place perhaps we all know too well. He’s being run, driven, by fear, by anxiety. He is cast into doubt. He has lost not only his way but he has lost himself.

There is a wonderful story in “The Life of St. Benedict” by St. Gregory the Great. It seems that Benedict was called out of solitude to come to the aid of a local monastery where all kind of bad behavior and breaking of the monastic rule was running amok. So, Benedict goes and he tries really hard to reestablish religious decorum to this disruptive monastery. Of course his efforts are not appreciated and one night at dinner, Benedict is informed that his chalice has been poisoned. On that report Benedict flees for his life back to his hermitage. And St. Gregory writes:

“Then he returned to his beloved place of solitude, where he lived alone with himself but under the gaze of the Heavenly Spectator.”

Now we may feel that Benedict failed. He ran away. The monastery he went to heal was still overrun by reckless behavior. To that concern Gregory writes:

“[If Benedict had stayed] he would have neglected his own soul; he would have lost himself without finding them.“

We can only “find them” when we commit to the work of letting ourselves be Found as ourselves and under the gaze of the God who knows us and has loved us into being.

So, now back to Elijah, he is fleeing the fury of Jezebel. He has aggressively and violently put to death all the prophets of Baal. Elijah had lost himself and therefore, in his call as prophet, he risked losing all those he would hope to aid.

So, Elijah enters the divine detox center on the top of Mount Horeb. God calls Elijah back into solitude to return to himself under the divine gaze. God calls him back to his own heart, back to himself. Reminding Elijah to put all his trust first in the God who feeds him, leads him, sees him, and knows him by heart. And to risk trusting once again his own fundamental goodness and belovedness.

While in divine detox Elijah has to confront his addiction to Wind, Earthquake, and Fire. Elijah has to confront all the things that led him to forge and inflict his own brand of justice over God’s Just Mercy. God asks him that fearful, but hopeful, question that we all need to return to regularly: “Why are you here?” It’s a call back to the heart of things. It’s a call back home. Elijah was lost and now is found. And, as one Found, he can now find those he was called to serve.

God demonstrates to Elijah that he is not in the coercive wind, the destabilizing earthquake, or the scorching fire. Rather, he is in the still small voice that, when Elijah hears it, he comes back to himself, who he always was in God’s eyes, he comes back to his original call. The self-imposed burden of wind, earthquake and fire are lifted and Elijah knows again “Why” he is here.

We can all develop addictions to Wind, Earthquake and Fire. The coercive winds of life teach us too often to build extensive and thick walls of self-protection. The destabilizing earthquakes of life teach us to grab hold of whatever we feel will secure our safety. The scorching fires of life too often teach us to keep our distance, don’t get too close, don’t risk loving again.

Constantly God says to each one of us: “Why are you here?” Come back to yourself, as yourself. Live the only way you can live as yourself under my loving gaze. Because, like Elijah and like Benedict, we often need to remember: If we lose ourselves we lose them as well. If we lose ourselves we will not find them, all those we have been called to serve.

In light of regular aggression and violence in our own world. In light of on-going war, disease, the harsh treatment of immigrants in our own time, like Elijah, we may be tempted to take up the weapons of Wind, Earthquake, and Fire. But God is not in them! Instead let us enter into our own necessary Divine Detox, listen to that still small voice reminding us why we are here. And realize: We are Good and They are Good. We are Beloved and They are Beloved. And the only way we can participate in the on-going redemption of this world is as ourselves. If you love the other as yourself God will bring about that of which we can only dream.