The Fifth Mountain is a novel written by Paulo Coelho – a famous Brazilian author.

The

story depicts the journey of the prophet Elijah, who ventured on the uncertainties of life while

carrying within his heart the desire to follow the will of God. He lived in a time wherein being a

prophet meant you’ll be executed at sight because of Jezebel – the wife of King Ahab and the

princess of Phoenicia – who wanted to spread the worship for the pagan god Baal.

This novel is a philosophical one that carries deep wisdom and realizations about God

and people. I particularly liked how the author wrote Elijah’s life in a way that displayed his

human side. The author showed that even though Elijah was an upright man and followed God,

still, he was human and along with that he also felt emotions such as anger, fear, frustration, grief

and love just like everyone else. Elijah’s life also reminded me that no matter how good of a man

you are, that doesn’t excuse you from the troubles of life. But the difference between Elijah and

most people is that he didn’t allow his emotions to rule over his actions. In the midst of pain and

confusion he still chose the path of righteousness which directly led to the road God intended for

him to take.

The story started with how Elijah ran from those who tried to kill him until his feet

brought him to the Cherith where in surrender he waited for death because he figured one way or

another the king’s soldiers will find him there and kill him. But God had a different plan. Under

a tree Elijah rested and contemplated while a crow brought him food, this scene – wherein Elijah

felt tired and confused because he didn’t know where to go or that if he would even live to see

the next day – was a part that struck me. A line from that part said, “When a man journeys

toward his destiny, often he is obliged to change paths. At other times, the forces around him are
too powerful and he is compelled to lay aside his courage and yield. All this is part of the

apprenticeship.” Those words rang true for my life and maybe it’s safe to say for other people’s

lives as well. Sometimes we go through situations that are unfamiliar and the detour that took us

there was an unpleasant one. Maybe a door closed on us and because of that we lost sight of our

dreams creating doubts inside our minds. But a piece of wisdom I found in this book is that

everything that happens in our lives is all part of our “apprenticeship” – a stage where in we are

being honed and prepared for a mission far beyond our comprehension. It doesn’t take a genius

to trust God when everything doesn’t make sense. Because the truth is God will never take us

somewhere without His love, protection and strength following us. Just like how God provided

for Elijah in the Cherith through a crow, He’ll do the same thing for us whatever situation we

maybe in. This journey we call life is rigged to take us to where were supposed to be, so the

lesson there is even though we are not yet where we’re supposed to be we don’t have to worry or

even hurry because in the end we’ll land where we need to be.

I’d like to point out one of Elijah’s human qualities shown in the book but wasn’t

elaborated in the bible. We have come to know Elijah as one of the greatest prophets called by

God but nonetheless he was just a mere man and being a man he too experienced a myriad of

emotion and one of those is love. The woman who Elijah fell in love with was the widow from

Zarephath. Their love story – unlike the ones we see in movies which were more or less

sugarcoated – is the kind that is real and unselfish. The lack of physical intimacy between Elijah

and the widow made their love story more spiritual and true for me. Elijah’s feelings for the

woman were pure and selfless while the woman’s love for Elijah was the same and because of

that it freed them. I realized from this story that love is simple. It doesn’t even need to be
returned for it to be real because love in its purest form only needs to be expressed. Like how the

widow loved Elijah, even though she had no assurance that he felt the same, still she gave him

her heart without fear. Elijah, on the other hand, at first tried to dissuade himself of the love he

felt for the widow but it was a losing battle. In the end he gave his heart to her without question.

A line from that part of the novel said, “The Lord heareth the prayers of those who ask to put

aside hatred. But He is deaf to those who would flee from love.” It’s kind of amusing how Elijah

asked for his feelings to be taken from him but the angel’s answer to him was the

abovementioned line. Many of us might be like Elijah and asks God to take love out of our hearts

because we feel that the other person doesn’t deserve our love or that we fear our love will not be

returned. Loving someone is not a matter of weighing weather that person deserves our love or

not instead it’s something that we freely give without asking anything in return. We have to

remember that our primary calling is to love. And because of that we can never flee from it.

What we do need to run away from is hatred for it goes against our very nature which is to love.

From experience it’s so much easier to love and to give than to carry the burden of hatred. We

should be wise enough to free ourselves from the prison of hatred and instead choose to love

which is the key to liberation.

From the Bible we know that Elijah returned to Israel and performed the miracle that

made everyone believe in God again. But in the novel the difficulties faced by Elijah before he

asked God for that miracle was elaborated as well. The city that took Elijah in after he ran from

Israel suffered from a war and a casualty from that war was the widow whom Elijah loved. He

was distraught for the loss of his loved one and he even lost the will to continue his mission. I

felt compassion for him because I have seen people lose their loved ones and the pain that grips
them is immeasurable. If I were Elijah I would’ve felt the same and maybe I would’ve even sunk

into depression. But what’s surprising about Elijah is that despite all those hardships he faced he

never gave up because he knows that God is there for him. As he bounced back from that pitfall,

Elijah knew that God was smiling down at him feeling proud because he didn’t give up and

trusted God enough to fulfill His plan for his life. It’s a great reminder that we should never

allow life’s struggles to destroy us from fulfilling our destiny and purpose.

In conclusion this entire novel affected my view of life greatly because of all the wisdom

I gained. I realized from Elijah’s story that sometimes life will take you places you don’t want to

be in and sometimes it will even break you, but in the end we’ll see that life was simply

preparing us for our role in the future and it was just teaching us a lesson which will inevitable

turn us into a better person. Hardships and difficulties are only temporary but the lesson we

learned and the person we become are permanent. So in times of trials we should remember that

God is always on our side the same way he was on Elijah’s.

Developmental
Reading
(Reaction Paper – The Fifth Mountain)

Submitted to:

Dr. Imelda Torres

Submitter by:

Gamaro, Windelyn V.