The prophet Isaiah
declares: Be strong, fear not. Our God
is capable of changing everything! He
will give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute. Our God can even change the climate, putting
water where the land is dry. As we hear Isaiah's prophesy, as we hear about the
miracle of Jesus healing the deaf mute in the district of the Decapolis, we're
invited to understand what this miracle story really means for us and what
implications it could possibly have on our lives of faith as modern-day followers
of Christ.
On the surface, the story
we hear in today's Gospel tells us how a deaf & speechless man came to hear
and speak through a miracle at the hands of Jesus. We can see an obvious purpose of this story:
it provided a cure for this man who begged for healing in his life. It also demonstrates that Jesus is indeed the
Messiah, the Holy One of God, as the people saw this display of profound
healing power as being so far beyond what normal human capabilities can
accomplish.
Yet, there is more to this
story. It shows the importance of
community in our lives of faith. This
deaf and mute man couldn't come on his own: he was brought to Jesus by friends,
just as most of us were brought to Jesus in our baptism as children by our
parents, by our family, and by our godparents.
The man's friends obviously bring him to Jesus out of their belief in
him, out of their love and compassion for this man who needs healing in his
life. While all of us ultimately have to
decide whether we're going to continue to journey with Jesus, both as youth
& adults, there are always people who accompany us on that journey out of
love and compassion: our families, our friends, our community of faith, or the
community of saints that constantly accompany us through their prayers.
“Ephphatha!” “Be opened!”
There is more than meets the eye to what Jesus healed and opened for
this man. Jesus not only opens the ears and tongue of this man with the gift of
hearing and speech. Jesus also heals
him by opening up his life to what Jesus is truly saying. Everyday on our own journeys of faith, Jesus
challenges us to be more open to him as well.
Our eyes, our ears, our mouths can be closed so much of the time: we're
often blind to our neighbors' needs; we often don't hear God speaking to us in
the reality around us. When we do hear God's voice, we're often unwilling or
too stubborn to move to where God wants us to be. We often refuse to speak the words of praise,
kindness, or consolation that God puts on our tongues.
When the man is opened up
to Jesus in today's Gospel, he's given new hope, he's reunited with the
community from whom he'd been separated for so long. Although they're told to
keep quiet, the man and his friends sing out the praises of Jesus for all to
hear. This is what Jesus gets for giving
this man the gift of speech!
God's love touches us and
opens us up, but only if we’re willing to listen to what Christ is saying. For
example, take Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest intellects & theologians
in the history of our Church. Through
his writings, he synthesized Greek philosophy, Arabic science, & Jewish
wisdom with centuries of Christian tradition.
But, at the end of his life, Aquinas was seen coming out of a chapel,
visibly shaken. He told his brothers to
burn all of his books and his writings to which he had dedicated his life,
because what Christ had just revealed to him in a mystical experience in that
chapel made all that he had written seem like mere straw. It is the voice of Christ that speaks to us
clearly in our lives that opens us up to the truth.
If we’ll just listen,
we’ll hear the words of wisdom that God is speaking to us in our lives. As many
of you know, my own journey of faith as a priest has been opened up in many
ways by my prison ministry. One of the
prisoners I visit and correspond with once wrote me how even though he has
connected so strongly to the word of God in Scripture, he realizes that there
is so much he can't explain about the faith that is growing inside of him. This young man describes this faith as going
beyond the definition of faith that he finds in a dictionary, as going beyond
mere knowledge, mere emotions, and mere feelings. He sees his faith as being rooted in the very
essence of his life, from the graces God has placed in the recesses of his
heart. Although this young is confined
to a prison to serve out a life sentence, his heart is being opened by the
voice of God each day, and his mouth is being opened to speak the words of God's
truth. This young prisoner’s goal is
trying so hard to minister to his fellow inmates, to bring the truth of God
that he's found in the Catholic faith to others.
With Jesus' spit &
finger touching a man's ear and tongue in today's Gospel, in a very earthy,
organic way, Jesus is able to open him to a new reality and a new life. We see many examples of Jesus opens up the
lives of people around us. I just gave
you the examples of Thomas Aquinas & and this young prisoner serving out a
life sentence in our Mississippi state correctional system, of how God has
opened their hearts and their minds to new ways in which they can serve our
Lord. Jesus can speak to us in amazing
ways. He can touch our lives and open us
up in so many ways. When we were all baptized, we received the Ephphatha prayer
over our ears so that we will receive God's word, and over our mouths so that
we can proclaim our faith in our lives, to the praise & glory of God. Even
today, many years after we've been baptized, Jesus can open up our own lives to
a new way of seeing, a new way of speaking, a new way of hearing, and a new way
of experiencing life.
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