20180909
BE OPEN TO THE POWER
OF GOD’S LOVE
09 SEPTEMBER,
2018, Sunday, 23rd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Isaiah 35:4-7 ©
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The blind shall see, the deaf hear, the
dumb sing for joy
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Say to all faint hearts,
‘Courage! Do not be afraid.
Look, your God is coming,
vengeance is coming,
the retribution of God;
he is coming to save you.’
Then the eyes of the blind shall be
opened,
the ears of the deaf unsealed,
then the lame shall leap like a deer
and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy;
for water gushes in the desert,
streams in the wasteland,
the scorched earth becomes a lake,
the parched land springs of water.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 145(146):7-10 ©
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My soul, give praise to
the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,
who is just to those who are
oppressed.
It is he who gives bread to the hungry,
the Lord, who sets prisoners
free.
My soul, give praise to
the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
It is the Lord who gives sight to the
blind,
who raises up those who are
bowed down.
It is the Lord who loves the just,
the Lord, who protects the
stranger.
My soul, give praise to
the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord upholds the widow and orphan
but thwarts the path of the
wicked.
The Lord will reign for ever,
Zion’s God, from age to age.
My soul, give praise to
the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
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Second reading
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James 2:1-5 ©
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God chose the poor according to the
world to be rich in faith
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My brothers, do not try to combine faith
in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the making of distinctions between
classes of people. Now suppose a man comes into your synagogue, beautifully
dressed and with a gold ring on, and at the same time a poor man comes in, in
shabby clothes, and you take notice of the well-dressed man, and say, ‘Come
this way to the best seats’; then you tell the poor man, ‘Stand over there’ or
‘You can sit on the floor by my foot-rest.’ Can’t you see that you have used
two different standards in your mind, and turned yourselves into judges, and
corrupt judges at that?
Listen,
my dear brothers: it was those who are poor according to the world that God
chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom which he promised
to those who love him.
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Gospel Acclamation
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1S3:9,Jn6:68
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Speak, Lord, your servant is listening:
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.Mt4:23
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the
kingdom
and cured all kinds of sickness among the
people.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 7:31-37 ©
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'He makes the deaf hear and the dumb
speak'
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Returning from the district of Tyre, Jesus
went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, right through the Decapolis
region. And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech;
and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away
from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with
spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’,
that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue
was loosened and he spoke clearly. And Jesus ordered them to tell no one about
it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their
admiration was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said ‘he makes
the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’
BE OPEN TO THE POWER OF GOD’S LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Is 35:4-7; Ps 146:6-10; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37 ]
Many of us, like the
Israelites, feel disheartened, miserable and hopeless. They were in exile in Babylon, a foreign
pagan land. They lost their homeland, their kingdom and most of all,
their temple. The days ahead were bleak and they lost all hope for their
future. Like them, we might also feel forlorn. Things might not
have been easy for us, whether we have work or without work. Those who
have work are not happy with their bosses and colleagues. Those without
work feel useless and constantly worry about their financial situation.
Then there are those who are sick or suffering from terminal illness. We
have to care for our elderly demented at home or mentally and physically
challenged children. Others are struggling with relationships, especially
marital and family relationships. Indeed, the problems and
challenges of life are many. No one is exempted from the crosses of daily
life. If we are feeling this way, then the Lord wants to
assure us that He is with us. We are not alone. Through
the prophet Isaiah, the Lord consoles us. “Say to all faint hearts,
Courage! Do not be afraid. Look, your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the
retribution of God; he is coming to save you.” Just as the Lord promised
to restore Israel, so the Lord wants to restore us.
So what is preventing us
from being restored by the Lord? It is the lack of openness and docility
because of a weak faith in Him. That was why the Lord said to the man with a speech
impediment, “‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.'” Being open and receptive
to His grace is the first condition for allowing the Lord to enter into our
lives. This is the most important disposition we need to receive God’s
grace. So long as we do not want to be open, refuse to be open, God
cannot do anything. This precisely is what the sin against the Holy
Spirit is all about, a total rejection of the work of God through the Holy
Spirit in our lives.
Many of us are skeptical
about the power of God to heal us and
to make things well again for us. We delimit the power and wisdom of
God. Many do not really believe that the Lord does heal today. He
is always the last resort to whom we turn when we are desperate. We
do not come to Him for help so long as we have other means. Only when all
else fails, do we then turn to Him in prayer, hoping for a miracle to take
place since human science cannot cure us or human ingenuity cannot solve our
problems. Even in our prayers, we pray in such a way as if God does not
know how to do His work. We give specific instructions to God, lest He
does not know how to heal and restore us. Our minds are fixated on how
this God should come and put things right for us.
Perhaps, we are afraid
to be open because of our shame.
It is significant that the Lord took the man away from the crowd. “He
took him aside in private, away from the crowd.” The man must have felt
embarrassed because he could not speak properly. He was even afraid to
speak, probably because he was made fun of by others. But so long as he
did not have the courage to open his ears and mouth, nothing will come out of
him. And this is true in many instances in life. Because of past
failures and embarrassment in our work or performance, we are afraid to take
risks again. We allow our shame and past to imprison us. A person
who makes a mistake performing in public and is laughed at will surely lose his
or her confidence to perform in public thereafter.
However, to those who
have faith, the Lord demonstrates His love and power. Only when we surrender in faith
completely will the Lord step in to save us. This is the testimony of all
those who have entrusted their lives to God, as expressed in the history of
Israel in today’s responsorial psalm. “It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,
who is just to those who are oppressed. It is he who gives bread to the hungry,
the Lord, who sets prisoners free. It is the Lord who gives sight to the
blind, who raises up those who are bowed down, the Lord, who protects the
stranger and upholds the widow and orphan.”
When we have faith, we
will be able to see how the Lord is at work in our lives, in good times and in
bad. Faith provides us
a holistic perspective in looking at life situations. Things are good or
bad depending on the way we see it. We need to see our lives, our
sufferings and our happiness from God’s perspective. In the second
reading, St James warned the Christians not to see and judge people externally
and practice favoritism. It is always a temptation for us to treat the
rich and famous better than the poor and ordinary people. We fail to see
that neither the rich nor the poor are better compared to each other.
A rich person might be
rich in resources, talents and wealth. However, he might be poor in love, in friendship
and most of all, in faith in God. When we are poor in love, we are really
poor. Those who are rich unfortunately are tempted by pride and
arrogance, thinking that they are the ones who have made themselves rich through
their hard work and ingenuity. They fail to realize that without God’s
grace and help, he would not have had the gray matter, the resources, contacts
and opportunities in life. Indeed, many are rich not because they are
hardworking or resourceful but because they were born into a rich and wealthy
family with good connections. Worse still, many are rich but through
ill-gotten gains, corruption, cheating and dishonesty.
The poor on the other
hand are rich in faith, because they are materially poor. “It was those who are poor according
to the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the
kingdom which he promised to those who love him.” Because they know
that they cannot rely on themselves, they depend on God and whoever God sends
to them. They are humble and grateful for all that they have. Their
gratitude will earn them sincere friends because gratitude always leads to
compassion for those who are in the same boat as them. Those who are
truly grateful will also help others with whatever little they have because
they know what it means to be poor and deprived of basic necessities. Of
course, the poor can also take the negative attitude by becoming envious of the
rich, resentful of God and bitter with the world.
Regardless whether we
are rich or poor, we can be happy if we know how to use our resources and
wealth for the service of others and making true friends in life. The rich are called to use what
they have for the good of others. The poor are called to inspire faith in
those who lack faith. For this reason, St James says we should not make a
distinction between the rich and poor. So this principle applies to all
circumstances in life. Good or bad, positive or negative, the truth of
life is that passion precedes the resurrection; suffering teaches us obedience
and understanding.
Today, we must therefore
continue to be open to God’s grace that comes to us, whether in suffering or in
joyful moments, in sadness or in happiness. We need to come to the Lord to be touched by
Him. We read that the people asked the Lord, “to lay his hand on him.
He…put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with
spittle.” The Lord comes to us in a personal and tangible way through
signs, personal touch and through the people that He sends, through their
words, examples, kindness and encouragement. Most of all, He comes to
heal us when we are prayed over by the laying on of hands, for this is the way
in which God’s love and power is mediated to us in a real and experiential
manner.
We too are called to be
instruments of God’s mercy and love.
Just as those concerned people brought the deaf and dumb man to Jesus for Him
to lay His hands on him, so too, we must be messengers of His mercy. We
need to lead others to Jesus by encouraging them to turn to the
Lord. Indeed, in the gospel, we have people like the friends of the
paralyzed man who lowered him down through the roof and asked Jesus to heal
him. So too when the Centurion’s servant was dying, the people interceded
for him, asking the Lord to heal the servant.
And what better way to
be His instruments than to announce and declare the love and mercy of God as
the psalmist did. “My soul, give praise to the Lord.” In the gospel, we read too that the man’s
“ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened and he spoke
clearly.” Now tongue loosened and fear overcome, he could
speak. But he did not speak about himself but what the Lord had done for
him. In spite of the fact that “Jesus ordered them to tell no one
about it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their
admiration was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said, ‘he makes
the deaf hear and the dumb speak.'” Truly, a sign that we are healed is when we
become missionaries and evangelists for Christ. (cf Acts 4:10-12)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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