Elijah and Moses are not just great prophets but also signs of continuity. Jesus is not a rejection or replacement of Judaism or the traditions which shaped him.
Moses is the giver of the Torah, the great ethical teaching (a better translation than “law”) on which God our Father founded his relationship with the
Jewish people. While Jesus himself, rather than Moses, is our starting point as Christians, we, too, look back on a tradition and a history of relationship with God. We are made for a relationship with God and shaped by the faith handed on to us. Jesus, the living Jesus, is in constant dialogue with this tradition and with our origins, making them holy and always enlivening them anew. How do I engage with my personal history?
Elijah is
the prophet of fire. He speaks not only for all the prophetic voices of Israel’s history but also for the way God’s Spirit has moved in our lives, sometimes in the fire and sometimes in the still, small voices in the depths of our nights. Jesus is intimately connected with all of this as well. He is the pattern and the fulfilment to which the Spirit draws us. How do I experience God moving in my life, and where is Jesus in this experience?
As I come to this season of Lent, where does Jesus touch my personal history? Are there memories that need to be healed, places where God has touched me, and places where Jesus is inviting me to revisit in the light of the love of Jesus? Are there relationships with others which need revisiting?
Reflections by Fr Justin Glyn SJ
