Cycle B - Year I:  

5 September 2021: Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Isaiah 35:4-7

Second Reading:   James 2:1-5

Gospel:  Please Read  Mark 7:31-37 

The Lord answers our need, one on one!

This Sunday's Gospel proclamation is an opportunity to meditate on our Lord's healing ministry.  The Lord is not only concerned with our spiritual needs but also the well being of our physical body as well.  That is why our Holy Mother Church teaches that salvation is both body and soul on judgment day.  Recall that our Lord Jesus ascended into heaven with His gloried body, and few Sundays ago we also celebrated the assumption of the Blessed Mary in heaven in body and soul.

The Gospel is a story about ordinary life, someone hard of hearing, suffering with poor speech.  Now we know that most of Jesus's life is about the ordinary, in the company of people who are sick, depressed, worried about the future.

St, Mark narrates about Jesus healing a deaf-mute.  The people wanted Jesus to place His hands on the man to cure him.  The first thing that Jesus did was to take "him aside in private away from the crowd." In this way Jesus could deal personally with the deaf man. For the Lord always deals with us "one on one".  Now, if you ever had a speech impediment, or the difficulty of deafness, you'd know the distress it can cause.

Jesus was distressed at the suffering of this man.  Because our Lord cares in his heart. So as the story goes, Jesus puts His finger into the man's ears and touches his tongue, looking up to heaven in prayer.  Jesus sighed deeply and said, "Ephphatha!" that means, "Be opened!"  And at that very moment the man's ears were opened and at once the impediment of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly.  Thus, our Lord demonstrated both the beauty and the goodness of God in this healing.  

Some religious writers and theologians attribute a deeper meaning to the healing of the deaf-mute man.  Notice that it happened in a Gentile territory, which Jesus often visited in His ministry. It also involves a foreigner, a pagan, who is looked down by the Jews.  So its significance is to highlight the universality of God's gift. It means that Jesus came to save all, with no exception.

What lesson do we get from this healing incident by our Lord Jesus?  Well, Jesus heals the sick and disabled so that people can praise the heavenly Father and the Son.  Our Lord's example should inspire us to also cure the sick and help the needy in our midst with Christian charity and love.  Because we are God's caring heart and healing hands when we minister to peoples' needs.

The miracle of healing of the deaf-mute is very significant spiritually, since many human beings in our times suffer spiritual deafness when we reject God's voice through the Church. We also suffer spiritual muteness when we don't want to speak  to Jesus in prayers and meditation, or in defense of Church's teaching when it is unjustly criticized and attacked.

Another point to meditate on in today's Gospel proclamation is this. Notice that the initiative for this healing miracle did not come from the deaf man himself.  It was others who brought Jesus to him. It was these people of good will who "begged him to lay his hand on him."  Perhaps, we should remember, too, that many of the good things that happen to us come from the good will of others on our behalf.  Let us thank God for these people and do the same to others in need of God's healing.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!