1 Kings 17:7-16 / Matthew 5:13-16
There are times when we say things out of desperation without really knowing what it can mean.
It could be just an utterance of desperation and we say it because we don’t know what else to say.
So it can be an utterance like “Oh my God!”, though we do not intend to use God’s name in vain.
It seems like we want to tell God something, but words fall short, and we are also not sure what we want God to do for us.
In the first reading, the prophet Elijah asked the widow at Zarephath for water and food.
But it was a time of famine, and the widow said to Elijah, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no baked bread but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug.”
She was going to prepare the last meal for her son and herself and then they will wait for death to overcome them.
She may have said “As the Lord your God lives”, just like how we say “Oh my God”
But the God of life heard her, and even gave her the miracle of the jar of meal shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be emptied.
So, in desperate moments, when we say “Oh my God”, let us also finish the sentence by saying:
“Oh my God, save me” or “Oh my God, help me” or “Oh my God, protect us”
When we use God’s name, then let us also say what we need from God.
And our God who lives forever, will hear and answer our prayer.