The World Turned Upside Down

God often seems to turn our world upside down. In the Beatitudes, our Lord says, "Blessed (Happy) are you who mourn." In today's first reading, a man in the desert has all the food and water he needs while the king and his people suffer from famine.

Why? Because, as Elijah says, "there shall be no dew or rain except at my word," that is, the word of the Lord.

Elijah gets what he needs in the desert because he knows that everything comes from God and he lives accordingly. Those who mourn, but trust in God, receive that infinite comfort the world cannot give.

The king and the people, on the other hand, do not look to God. They try to fulfill their needs, desires, cravings, and whims by throwing themselves in every direction except God's, but they never get what they truly need, quite the contrary.

As a matter of fact, by excluding God from their view of reality, it is they -- it is we -- who have turned the world upside down. Even so, God still works to turn our worldview right side up again.

Many times we feel need or needs in our lives. We should be like the prophet and always follow the Lord as best we can, clear our minds of those things which would distract us, and ask the Lord for what we truly need.