Overview:

Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

The LORD’s fire came down
and consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust,
and it lapped up the water in the trench.
Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said,
“The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”

Find today’s readings here.

There are some Scripture passages that immediately evoke music in my head, be they hymns or songs from musicals like “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” or even, like for today’s readings, classical works. Back in my university chorus, we sang selections from Felix Mendelssohn’s epic “Elijah” oratorio, the first part of which recounts the dramatic showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal from today’s first reading.

To refresh you on the story: Elijah, a prophet of God, challenges the 450 prophets of the pagan god Baal to a contest, in which each will lay out an offering and pray for their god to send fire to consume it. The prophets of Baal go first, dancing and praying and even slicing themselves open with knives to appease Baal, but to no avail. Elijah, a bit of a showman, taunts them. “Maybe Baal is traveling or sleeping! Call him louder!”

In Mendelssohn’s rendering, the music grows increasingly more violent through several rounds of “Call him louder!” As a chorus member, the harmonies become even more challenging and dissonant. Ultimately, when it is Elijah’s turn, he further ups the ante by having his offering to God doused in water. Then, the climax—the fire descends on Elijah’s offering, and the followers of Baal cry out, first in staggered, confused, clashing vocal parts before proclaiming in unison, still in tense harmonies, “Before Him on your faces fall!”

And then, my favorite part: After 13 and a half movements of conflict, the entire chorus and orchestra come together in a reverent and soaring: “The Lord is God, the Lord is God! O Israel hear, our God is one Lord and we shall have no other gods before the Lord.”

I don’t have any deep, moving spiritual reflection to offer beyond this music today. The message is straightforward: God is almighty, his presence brings comfort, and he is there for all who turn to him. As Mendelssohn reminds his protagonist when Elijah is begging God to let him die, “He watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps.”

[Note: To read along with the lyrics of the linked videos, scroll to movements 13, 14 and 24 on this site.]

Colleen Dulle is the Vatican Correspondent at America and co-hosts the "Inside the Vatican" podcast. She is the author of Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter (Image, 2025).