Who has trouble finding their keys? Without fail, although I have told myself that there is a designated place in the house that I will set my keys, when I arrive home I place them somewhere else that is usually tied to a distraction that I carry into the house with me. Then, of course, the great search begins when I am trying to leave again. It may be wrong-headed in the first place to think that a familiar or habitual “placement” of something can always help in finding or identifying things, but at the same time, being creatures of habit, sometimes it can be helpful.
It’s interesting how familiarity grants such identity to things and people. I am not the most observant person in the world when it comes to the visual arrangement of physical things. For example, I may suddenly notice something and ask if it is new, only to be told that it’s been there for a very long time. I had simply not really noticed it before. Sometimes if something is moved within a physical space, the familiarity of where it was originally placed is gone, and I see it as something out of place or entirely new. Sometimes I don’t recognize something at all that has been around for quite a while. This may be the result of growing older, not paying attention, or any number of things. But I feel that others may share this experience. …At least I hope so…
This translates into a more serious situation when it involves people and relationships. The familiarity of people we know or feel we know closely can be shattered by an unexpected behavior change or outburst in that person. There is a sense of the unknown that is now attached to someone we felt we “knew.” Sometimes the result is fear, anger, or even repugnance. When people don’t act the way we expect them to or have grown accustomed, we more easily perhaps pull back than question without judgment. They now may seem as enemy rather than friend.
It appears that the scriptures today are naming the Hebrew people’s understanding of the significance of Elijah in their cultural and religious history as an example of this very thing. In the first reading (Sir 48:1-4, 9-11 ), we hear about the great significance of the prophet Elijah and how his return is so significant for the Hebrew people:
“How awesome are you, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! Whose glory is equal to yours? 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.”
This wondrous prophet characterized by the powerful symbol of fire was eagerly awaited upon by the people. His return would signify the re-establishment or unifying of all the people. And yet, in the Gospel today (Mt 17:9a, 10-13), we hear the perplexing situation presented to the Jesus’ disciples regarding the return of Elijah, namely in the person of John the Baptist…
As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.
So it looks like we are now back to those expectations based upon familiarity that, although can helps us to function on a daily basis, can also become so entrenched within us so that we cannot see something right before our eyes. There may be something “new” about something or someone we have “known” before. There is nothing wrong with familiarity, i.e., as long as it does not cause our relationships to stagnate and result in a reactionary violence. The failure to recognize something or someone in a new “light” can bring about much destruction. It can be difficult to “befriend” someone or something that seems so different than our expectations. This can become a stronghold of ignorance.
Jesus is telling his disciples that the prophet who was carried into the heavens in a fiery chariot has indeed returned, namely in the person of John the Baptist, the reclusive “madman” in the desert that preached repentance. This “re-establishment of the tribes of Jacob” that we hear in Sirach now takes on the appearance of a unity based upon shared brokenness and the need to be healed. And the sad inevitable result of this failure to recognize the “gift” under a different guise is that there is outright enmity – violent rejection. As John the Baptist was killed, so will Jesus, the Son of Man and living Pattern of God’s Life be rejected and put to death.
Isn’t this the real truth of the Paschal Mystery, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ patterned into our own life experiences? We have to let go of something, let it die, in order to see and appreciate it for what it really is. We have to “befriend” it. Even in the loss of a loved one, there is the necessary grieving for the physical closeness and familiarity of that person now lost that must be experienced. But if we stay with it and listen in the darkness of that loss, we can begin to see the NEW life that is given – the resurrection of that person lighting up in our lives. It remains a glorious and hopeful mystery of what the NEW LIFE is as experienced by our beloved who have gone on before us. I believe we can share some of that New life now in our lives, when we can befriend it, i.e., begin to see and experience the love shared by us and them in the world and people around us – in garden flowers, in those sick in need of company and healing, and yes, even in confronting those situations around us that are “killing” us by approaching them with intentional healing.
The New Life moves or flows through us, when we can let go and die to “old ways.” It’s not even that the old ways completely die so much so as that they are somehow miraculously transformed and brought forward into new and brilliant Life! This is when we can begin to see old familiarity transformed into a new “friendship” as the Book of Sirach speaks of with regards to Elijah – a kind of “friendship” that comes from seeing something New and embracing it dearly….Befriending God!
“Blessed is he who shall have seen you and who falls asleep in your friendship.”
Peace
Thomas