"Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord," we pray in today's responsorial psalm. In today's first reading, 2 Kings 2: 6-14, Elijah is taken from Elisha, the prophet to succeed him. Knowing that he is about to leave, Elijah asks Elisha to stay with him. He also encourages Elisha to ask for whatever he would like Elijah to do for him before he takes leave of him. Elisha asks for "a double proportion of your spirit....'[I]f you see me taken up from you, your wish will be granted; otherwise not.'" Elisha watches as "Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind....When Elisha saw it happen he cried out, 'My father! my father!'...[W]hen he could no longer see him, Elisha--overcome with grief--gripped his own garment and tore it in two." In his grief and facing a challenge beyond him, Elisha cries: "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?"
Imagine someone dear to you about to leave you, someone you admire greatly for their service to and personal relationship with the Lord. For what would you ask? Also think of times that you have been overwhelmed with grief and facing seemingly insurmountable problems, what do you do? To whom to you call for help?
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