Elijah and Elisha

The readings over the last week or so have focused on the prophetic mission of Elijah the Prophet. (If you have to go to Heaven, might as well go in the Fiery Chariot, eh?)

In today's First Reading, the Church presents for us the reflections of the author of the Book of Sirach on this great prophet and his successor:


Like a fire there appeared the prophet Elijah
whose words were as a flaming furnace.
Their staff of bread he shattered,
in his zeal he reduced them to straits;
By the Lord’s word he shut up the heavens
and three times brought down fire.
How awesome are you, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
Whose glory is equal to yours?
You brought a dead man back to life
from the nether world, by the will of the LORD.
You sent kings down to destruction,
and easily broke their power into pieces.
You brought down nobles, from their beds of sickness.
You heard threats at Sinai,
at Horeb avenging judgments.
You anointed kings who should inflict vengeance,
and a prophet as your successor.
You were taken aloft in a whirlwind of fire,
in a chariot with fiery horses.
You were destined, it is written, in time to come
to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD,
To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons,
and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.
Blessed is he who shall have seen you
And who falls asleep in your friendship.
For we live only in our life,
but after death our name will not be such.
O Elijah, enveloped in the whirlwind!

Then Elisha, filled with the twofold portion of his spirit,
wrought many marvels by his mere word.
During his lifetime he feared no one,
nor was any man able to intimidate his will.
Nothing was beyond his power;
beneath him flesh was brought back into life.
In life he performed wonders,
and after death, marvelous deeds.


Listening to these words at Mass this morning, I thought that they might make for a good 'eulogy' for a priest, that many marvels are wrought by his words; that the spiritually dead are brought back to life through his administration of the Sacraments, that he not be intimidated by the esteem of others, etc.


Pray that I might make it even close to this one day.