"As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." (2 Kgs. 2:2, 4, 6)

Presence is everything!  Like Elisha's commitment to remain with his master, Elijah, before Elijah was taken to God in a flaming chariot, we learn how "staying power" works.  Stories of other biblical heroes and heroines reverberate with this notion.  We cannot forget Ruth, who refused to leave Naomi, her mother-in-law:  "Wherever you go, I shall go" (Ruth 1:16b), or Jonathan's love for and loyalty to David (1 Sam. 18:1-4), despite Saul's murderous intentions toward David.  In another story of love and commitment, Tobiah, determined to remain with his beloved rather than consign her to a life of widowhood, endured the curse of death for Sarah, whose seven prior husbands all died on their wedding nights. (Tob. 7-8)  Even more astounding is the sheer determination and "staying power" of Jacob, slaving for his father-in-law for fourteen years in order to marry his heart's desire, Rachel, even after being duped on his first wedding night into marrying Rachel's older sister, Leah! (Gen. 29)

All these stories resound with the truth of God's own presence among God's people.  We are able to be faithful because God is first faithful to us.  God stays with us always.  The unpronounceable Name for God revealed to Moses in the flaming bush was YHWH - "the One Who Is," often translated "I AM."  God's repeated promise was one of presence.  Come famine, flood, wars, earthquakes, and total humiliation through exile and death, God's presence remained a constant.  God would not, could not leave us.

God's revelation in Jesus turned the promise of presence into living flesh, Emmanuel, meaning "God is with us." (Matt. 1:23)  Jesus promised not to leave his disciples "orphans" in John's Gospel (14:18) but promised them the Holy Spirit, their Advocate, who would be with them always (14:16).  This is a sign of God's continued presence among us, as told at the conclusion of Matthew's Gospel:  "And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Matt. 28:20)  God is so good; like a loving Mother or Father, God does not abandon us.  God remains with us always, and has passed on the gift of presence to us so we, in turn, can give it freely to others.

Elijah's miraculous powers were passed onto Elisha, for the good of others, like widows and their children, victims of drought, and even a Gentile leper!  God's saving presence worked powerfully through them, as it did through Jesus of Nazareth, and as it should through us today.  Jesus has "passed the mantle"¹ of God's presence onto us for the good of others.  How can we give the gift of presence to others today?

Perhaps by listening patiently to someone who does not seem to be making a point, or by visiting the sick, elderly, and dying, we can make God's healing presence felt in the hearts of others.  Perhaps by allowing "unexpected interruptions" to be welcome in our ordinary lives, we can listen for the small whispering sound of God's voice that Elijah heard in the cave.  Perhaps by giving others the right of way in traffic, or the store, or in conversation, we can show hospitality and generosity as the widow did to Elisha.  Perhaps by taking time for prayer of praise and thanksgiving for creation and for our loved ones, and for praising God, like Job, for our encounters with poverty, illness, suffering, and death, maybe we can draw closer to the Lord who draws near to us in times of darkness.  Our mantle of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, as we are told in today's Gospel, is not to win us the praise of others, but to draw us closer to God as we serve those in need, straining to hear God's voice in the whispers and cries of the poor.  Our mantle is the gentle yoke of Jesus, one of forgiveness, humility, and magnanimity, binding us irrevocably to God and others.

Our gift of presence, given from the abundant source of God's own being, will delight, refresh, and heal others if we give it as God does - not for show, but for love.

"Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord!  The Lord keeps those who are constant!" (Ps. 31:24-25)

  ¹Much has been written about the "passing of the mantle" from Elijah the Tishbite to Elisha, his successor.  The first-born son was supposed to receive a double portion of his father's belongings (Deut. 21:17), so Elisha received a double portion of his "father's" (2 Kgs. 2:12) spirit, enabling him to perform many of the miraculous deeds that Elijah had performed, and some even better.  While Elijah's famous showdown on Mt. Carmel with the prophets of Baal won him recognition as the  true prophet of the living God (1 Kgs. 18), he was also able to provide food miraculously to a starving widow and her son, and to predict a catastrophic drought, and the return of rain. (1 Kgs. 17)  He recognized God in the small whispering sound that succeeded a heavy wind, an earthquake, and a fire.  From today's first reading, we learn that Elijah was taken to God at the end of his life in a fiery chariot, joining Enoch (Gen. 5:24) as the only other person who mysteriously departed to God through some venue other than death.  We hear about Elijah's presence again with Mosesin the New Testament story of Jesus' Transfiguration, a sure sign of God's presence in different periods of Israel's history, even as Jesus prepared for death and felt his Father's presence in his "hour." (Matt. 17:3-4; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36)  While Elijah's and Elisha's stories seem to overlap and blend at times (Elijah and Elisha were both said to have raised a child from death, and to provide miraculous food to prevent starvation), Elisha's miracles outstrip his master's.  Elisha transforms poisonous stew into harmless food, and is able to multiply twenty barley loaves into enough food for a hundred men, with some left over. (2 Kgs. 4)  Elisha also had a special knack with water miracles, recovering a lost axe from the river (2 Kgs. 6:1-7) purifying putrid water (2 Kgs. 2:19-22), and using Elijah's mantle to divide and cross the Jordan, as in today's first reading.  Elisha's mercy in healing a man of leprosy extended even to a Gentile, Naaman the Syrian (2 Kgs. 5), and Elisha's bones were even able to revive a corpse placed by accident in Elisha's tomb!  In all these miraculous deeds, God's presence was communicated to others.