Date: June 8, 2020 ()

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The words of the prophet Elijah in the first reading today speak to me very significantly in this time of crisis. As the number of cases continue to rise and some people have gone desperate, many of us may have been asking “when Lord will this pandemic end?” The scriptures tell us today of the heaven’s answer. “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word.” We be patient. We wait!

Meanwhile, the Lord allows disasters to happen. While the fight against covid-19 is still going on, the natural cycle of weather anomaly is still happening in the different storm prone areas and we ask again, “What is the Lord doing in these hard times?” During the pandemic, we hear instructions like “stay safe at home and pray.” The other month, at the height of the crisis, the government sent help to each one of us with its 1200-dollar stimulus fund from the IRS. In the Philippines, our government is giving out monthly amelioration of 8,000 pesos to help the people survive without having to go to work. Not to mention the generosity of the blest people who shared their blessings to the less fortunate and the courage and dedication of our front-liners, the doctors, nurses, caregivers, and the whole team or task force for the pandemic.

In the first reading today, the LORD then said to Elijah: “Leave here, go east and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan. You shall drink of the stream, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.” The providence of God did not come in a magic. They come in the ordinary things already around us which we fail to recognize or give importance to until something really happens that opens our eyes to see their value. The truth is: the answer to the question is perceptible to what we can see around with people helping people. Those were the providence of God disguised in the beautiful hearts of men and women touched by the Holy Spirit.

The Lord sent us ultimately the Holy Spirit, as our Advocate to help us discern the hands of God at work in us. Those who can see the work of God, by the aid of the Holy Spirit in them, will definitely become people of humility and gratitude. Those of us who shun the guidance of the Spirit will eventually remain complaining and most probably, blame God for seemingly not doing anything.