Just a Word Before We Go… Twenty-third Sunday In Ordinary Time
Most of you know that Fr. John was a great friend of my family’s. After he died, several of us had vivid dreams about him. Our readings today reminded me of one of those dreams in particular.
It was several months after his death, while the sting was still fresh, that one of my daughters told me of her dream. In describing the dream, she painted the picture of a party, with lots of people around, and there was music. As she surveyed the guests, out of the corner of her eye she saw someone running up and down the staircase. As she moved closer to the stairs she looked up and realized that it was Fr. John. In amazement, she spoke to him: “John, why are you running up and down the stairs?” He answered, laughing as he did, “I am not running! I am dancing!”
In our gospel today, Jesus is continuing his mission to the Gentiles. Having just healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus finds himself encountering another Gentile in need of healing, a man this time, who was deaf and had a speech impediment. Taking him aside from the crowd, Jesus touched his ears and spitting, touched his tongue. He looked up to heaven and uttered that beautiful word, “Ephphatha!” “Be opened!” and immediately, the man was able to hear and to speak clearly. Aware that the people were following him because of his acts of physical healing without understanding the Spirit who was at work, Jesus in vain cautioned the crowds to tell no one.
It was the people who brought the deaf man to Jesus, seeking a physical cure; it was a communal act of faith. We also bring people to faith in Jesus, and sometimes others bring us. Our faith is communal. We each seek a personal encounter with Christ, but we often experience Christ in the gathered community. Each time we are together, we give witness to our belief; we hold one another up when we are suffering, when we have doubts, when we are struggling. We share our joys with one another as well.
These readings are designed to open our eyes to recognize the hardships of others and to encounter those others, offering whatever strength we can provide. Perhaps we cannot make the deaf hear, but that is not the only kind of healing. Every act of kindness, of justice, of helping the poor and the hungry, of raising the dignity of others, is a way in which we reflect the unconditional love of our God to others, as Jesus did. And as we offer renewed life and hope to another...we also offer that to ourselves.
In God’s kingdom, all will be made whole. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the desert will bloom. Whatever is lacking will be filled; and all shall be well. Isaiah and the psalmist tell us this; but how do I know it is so? I remember that dream, and I see that lame man, not walking, not running, but dancing and laughing! And I believe...
