The Mantle

In today's first reading (1 Kings 19:19-21), the prophet Elijah casts his mantle upon the young Elisha.

It is no mere gift of a cloak or exchange of ponchos: it is a classic symbolic action of passing on authority, wisdom and power.

Elijah's rhetorical question to Elisha is therefore ironic: Have I done anything to you?

Indeed he has done something to Elisha - or rather, God has.

We as Christians, by virtue of our baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit, have had a mantle cast upon us.

It has indeed done something to us, and like Elisha, we must respond.

Like Elisha, we must attend to our responsibilities.

Like Elisha, we must follow and we must serve.

And then, when the opportunities present themselves, like Elisha and like Elijah, humbly bearing the mantle given us by God, we must make present the truth, the love, and the power of the Lord.