Liturgy Live - 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Directed Zeal

This week on the Podcast we talk about Discipleship and zeal. In the first reading we talk about how Elijah throws his cloak over Elisha while he is farming. This seems quite strange to our ears, but it is a call to discipleship that Elisha would have understood in his time. Elisha was allowed time to slaughter and cook the oxen and feed his people before leaving, he destroyed the temptation of ever looking back from this choice to follow Elijah. In the second reading we talk about how the political climate resembles the words of St Paul when he says if you keep biting at one another you will soon be devoured by one another. We have to be careful to not destroy each other. In the Gospel we talk about how, again in a moment of zeal, James and John are clearly wrong. The teaching this week tells us that there will be groups of people who will not welcome us because of Christ, and we are to keep moving forward and not bring down destruction upon them.