Sept. 9, 2018 23rd Sunday B
Sept. 9, 2018 23rd Sunday B
How many of us have been told by our friends or loved ones to have our hearing checked? When I go visit my parents in Dallas, I take ear plugs with me because both of them turn on the TVs in their home to the maximum volume because they are both hard of hearing. One can be hard of hearing because of physical deterioration, but also due to selective hearing. I saw a cute comic in which the caption stated, “Selective Hearing Aid for Men.” It was an image of a hearing aid stuck in an ear with a switch with three modes: Off mode, TV mode, and Wife mode. Do you know of a person with such hearing aid? All of us have a hearing problem—a tendency to hear only what we want to hear. We have a similar problem in hearing God’s voice. We complain often that God is not speaking to us. I wonder though, is it that God is not speaking to us, or are we selectively tuning him out because we only want to hear what we want to hear from him? This type of hearing problem is due to the hardness of heart, not due to damaged ear drum. Jesus came to heal and restore our hearts that refuse to listen to the Father’s voice.
We heard from the gospel Jesus healing and restoring a deaf and mute man’s ears and speech impediment. The man that Jesus pulled away from the crowd already suffered from double isolation--he was a foreigner and had a physical disability that excluded him from community. We can’t imagine the kind of frustration and depression this man suffered throughout his life due to his disability. I wonder what it was like for him to suddenly be able to hear sounds and to be able to verbalize his wants and desires. We all have experienced frustration of being misunderstood even when we tried our best to express our needs and desires. Perhaps for the first time, he was understood by others and treated as a person with dignity. Even more, this miracle shows that Jesus recognizes each of our needs even before we can voice them. Jesus comes to each of us, personally, to touch and heal us, whether we are sinners, marginalized, scandalized, or unchurched; His mercy is for everyone.
The miracle that Jesus performed foreshadows the restoration of our hearts to be able to hear, speak, and love the Father’s voice. Before Jesus uttered the word, “Ephphatha—Be opened,” he looked up to heaven in a gesture of prayer and sighed. Perhaps as he looked up to heaven, Jesus was speaking with His Father about the man’s condition as well as “deafness” of all of humanity. When we reflect on our lives, are we deaf to God’s voice? Even though the voice of the Father is spoken loudly and clearly to generations of people to come, His voice is falling on deaf ears by our selfish desires of pride and lust. Like the deaf man who was cut off from the community, we can also be separated from the life that really matters--the joy and peace in God. We can read the sacred words of scripture, but not put it into practice. We can receive Eucharist at Mass, but not nourished by Him. We cannot be changed by the scriptures or nourished by Eucharist if we do not stop to acknowledge Jesus, the one who came to be one of us, redeem us and graces us continually. So we also need to come to Jesus to ask him to heal the ears of our hearts and enliven our desires to praise him.
Jesus never turns anyone aside who approaches him with sincerity and trust. He treats each of us with kindness and compassion. In turn, Jesus calls us to treat others likewise. Have we been deaf and mute to anyone who needs us? Are we afraid to step forward in faith to help them? Trust that the Holy Spirit who has been placed in us at our baptism enables us to see, hear, and love others just as Jesus loves.
How many of us have been told by our friends or loved ones to have our hearing checked? When I go visit my parents in Dallas, I take ear plugs with me because both of them turn on the TVs in their home to the maximum volume because they are both hard of hearing. One can be hard of hearing because of physical deterioration, but also due to selective hearing. I saw a cute comic in which the caption stated, “Selective Hearing Aid for Men.” It was an image of a hearing aid stuck in an ear with a switch with three modes: Off mode, TV mode, and Wife mode. Do you know of a person with such hearing aid? All of us have a hearing problem—a tendency to hear only what we want to hear. We have a similar problem in hearing God’s voice. We complain often that God is not speaking to us. I wonder though, is it that God is not speaking to us, or are we selectively tuning him out because we only want to hear what we want to hear from him? This type of hearing problem is due to the hardness of heart, not due to damaged ear drum. Jesus came to heal and restore our hearts that refuse to listen to the Father’s voice.
We heard from the gospel Jesus healing and restoring a deaf and mute man’s ears and speech impediment. The man that Jesus pulled away from the crowd already suffered from double isolation--he was a foreigner and had a physical disability that excluded him from community. We can’t imagine the kind of frustration and depression this man suffered throughout his life due to his disability. I wonder what it was like for him to suddenly be able to hear sounds and to be able to verbalize his wants and desires. We all have experienced frustration of being misunderstood even when we tried our best to express our needs and desires. Perhaps for the first time, he was understood by others and treated as a person with dignity. Even more, this miracle shows that Jesus recognizes each of our needs even before we can voice them. Jesus comes to each of us, personally, to touch and heal us, whether we are sinners, marginalized, scandalized, or unchurched; His mercy is for everyone.
The miracle that Jesus performed foreshadows the restoration of our hearts to be able to hear, speak, and love the Father’s voice. Before Jesus uttered the word, “Ephphatha—Be opened,” he looked up to heaven in a gesture of prayer and sighed. Perhaps as he looked up to heaven, Jesus was speaking with His Father about the man’s condition as well as “deafness” of all of humanity. When we reflect on our lives, are we deaf to God’s voice? Even though the voice of the Father is spoken loudly and clearly to generations of people to come, His voice is falling on deaf ears by our selfish desires of pride and lust. Like the deaf man who was cut off from the community, we can also be separated from the life that really matters--the joy and peace in God. We can read the sacred words of scripture, but not put it into practice. We can receive Eucharist at Mass, but not nourished by Him. We cannot be changed by the scriptures or nourished by Eucharist if we do not stop to acknowledge Jesus, the one who came to be one of us, redeem us and graces us continually. So we also need to come to Jesus to ask him to heal the ears of our hearts and enliven our desires to praise him.Jesus never turns anyone aside who approaches him with sincerity and trust. He treats each of us with kindness and compassion. In turn, Jesus calls us to treat others likewise. Have we been deaf and mute to anyone who needs us? Are we afraid to step forward in faith to help them? Trust that the Holy Spirit who has been placed in us at our baptism enables us to see, hear, and love others just as Jesus loves.
