20260610 THE CHOICE WE HAVE TO MAKE
10 June 2026, Wednesday, 10th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Kings 18:20-39 |
Elijah vanquishes the priests of Baal
Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. ‘How long’ he said ‘do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.’ But the people never said a word. Elijah then said to them, ‘I, I alone, am left as a prophet of the Lord, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it and lay it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I in my turn will prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it. You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.’ The people all answered, ‘Agreed!’ Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.’ They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. ‘O Baal, answer us!’ they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar they had made. Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. ‘Call louder,’ he said ‘for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.’ So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them. Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.
Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come closer to me’, and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord which had been broken down. Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, ‘Israel shall be your name’, and built an altar in the name of the Lord. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed. He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood. Then he said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood’; this they did. He said, ‘Do it a second time’; they did it a second time. He said, ‘Do it a third time’; they did it a third time. The water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water. At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,’ he said ‘let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, the Lord, are God and are winning back their hearts.’
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. ‘The Lord is God,’ they cried, ‘the Lord is God.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 15(16):1-2,4-5,8,11 |
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.
I say to the Lord: ‘You are my God.’
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows.
Never will I offer their offerings of blood.
Never will I take their name upon my lips.
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup;
it is you yourself who are my prize.
I keep the Lord ever in my sight:
since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in your presence,
at your right hand happiness for ever.
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:27 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Make me grasp the way of your precepts,
and I will muse on your wonders.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Matthew 5:17-19 |
I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete them
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.’
THE CHOICE WE HAVE TO MAKE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 Kgs 18:20-39; Ps 16:1-2,4-5,8,11; Mt 5:17-19]
In today’s First Reading, Elijah, who was passionate about preserving Israel’s covenant with Yahweh, reprimanded the people for being ambivalent in their faith. He said them, “How long, do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.” Elijah’s challenge applies to every generation. If Yahweh is the only God, and the Lord of every sphere of life, then we should give Him not just honour and respect, but also our obedience. The truth is that, like the people of Israel, we often only provide lip service. The people knew this to be true, which is why, “the people never said a word.”
To force the people to take a stand for Yahweh or for Baal, Elijah called for a spiritual contest to demonstrate who the one true God is.Elijah gave the prophets of Baal an opportunity to act where their deity was supposedly at its strongest, as Baal was believed to be the god of nature. He challenged them to call upon their god to set the holocaust on fire. However, no matter how much they cried out to Baal from morning to noon and even mutilated themselves to demonstrate the fervency of their prayers, their god did not send fire to burn the offering.
When midday passed, Elijah, confident in Yahweh’s power, simply appealed to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. To underscore God’s fidelity to the covenant, he “took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob.” With faith and confidence, he said to God. “Let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, Lord are God, and are winning back their hearts.” He did this despite having asked the people three times to “fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood” until “the water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water.” “Then, the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood, and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell on their faces. “The Lord is God,” they cried, “the Lord is God.”
It is significant that acknowledgement of Yahweh as Lord requires more than just a verbal profession; it means being obedient as well. As the Lord said in the Gospel, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'” (Mt 7:21-23)
This theme of fidelity to God’s covenant and His law is also the message of our Lord in today’s Gospel. To ensure that there are no doubts about His fidelity to the Law, Jesus states without any ambiguity, “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.” In other words, a true disciple of our Lord must be committed to observing the commandments without reservation. If anyone is not committed to the Law, he or she is not a Christian at all. “Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least commandments and teaches other to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.” Like the Jewish teachers, Jesus demanded total obedience to the Scriptures. He made it clear that He was not undermining the Law, as charged by the religious leaders, but to fulfil them perfectly.
He even made it clear that not even the smallest letter can be taken out of Scripture. In other words, even the smallest detail of God’s law is important. While it is true that there are different degrees of importance among the laws of God – the light and heavy commandments – all commandments must be kept. Indeed, as Catholics, we make a distinction between mortal and venial sins. Just because some sins are venial, it does not mean we can commit them freely. In the short run, they cause us to live a less liberated and joyful life; in the long run, they harden our hearts. What was once small will grow in strength until it becomes so exaggerated and ingrained in our system that we cannot overcome it using our own will alone.
However, Jesus went beyond His contemporaries, who merely observed the letter of the law; He was not satisfied with mere compliance. In fact, He demanded more than external observance; adhering to the law must come from the heart and seek the spirit of the law. Observing the law legally while ignoring its intent is still breaking it. This is why the Lord warns us, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:20) Why we do something is just as important as what we do in determining whether we have fulfilled the Law. In Catholic teaching regarding the examination of conscience, the gravity of a sin depends on three factors: namely, knowing the seriousness of it, the depth of consent, and the motivation for sinning, in other words, the context that gave rise to the sin. Therefore, going to confession cannot be reduced to merely bringing a checklist of sins to confess before a priest. Rather, it calls for a deep examination of conscience – our motives, reasons, causes, the why and the extent of our consent and involvement in committing the sin. We must avoid a casuistic consideration of our sins.
Regardless, we will be judged by our response to God’s word. We cannot pick and choose which commandment we want to observe. To reject any of God’s commandments is to reject His lordship over us. If God is the lawgiver, then we must allow Him to rule our lives by obeying His word without compromise. This explains why Jesus was not only hard with those who broke the laws, but even harder with those who undermined the faith and obedience of others by explaining the commandments away. We must be careful of teachers who undermine faith in the name of “critical thinking.” This is not to say that critical thinking is unimportant, but it must take place within the firm foundation of the laws prescribed by God. Critical thinking must not originate from pride and independence; rather, it is best founded on the fear of the Lord. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Prov 1:7)
So today, we must choose God and not put Him to the test as the people of Israel, and the people during the time of our Lord did. In the letter to the Hebrews, the author warns us, “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'” (Heb 3:12-15) We are called to be faithful to the commandments of God.
We must use our freedom properly when making choices in life. “The moral law has its origin in God and always finds its source in him” (Veritatis Splendor §40). True freedom does not lie in the rejection of the law, but in its acceptance. God’s law is not given to constrain our freedom or our happiness. Rather, God’s moral law is for our greater good and real happiness in life. Like a good heavenly Father, God knows what is best for us. He does not establish laws to deprive us of our joy and freedom. On the contrary, by observing His laws, we protect our freedom and preserve our joy. Authentic freedom is found when we are in union with His mind and His will, which is His wisdom for us. Let us pray for the fire of the Holy Spirit to descend upon us, so that He can write God’s law and truth on our hearts.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
