Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The
Word of God is often challenging.
It calls us to deeper conversion as we turn our lives away from sin and
towards Jesus, trying to live our life in conformity with the love that Jesus
showed us by what we say and do.
As a spiritual father, it is not uncommon for me to have to deliver a
tough message, a message which calls us to rethink the way we’re living, to
re-examine our priorities, and to change our habits of sin to habits of grace
and virtue. Just like a biological
father or mother who must, from time to time, correct children to ensure that
they will succeed in the world, not only as citizens of earth but also as
citizens of the New Jerusalem in heaven, sometimes I have to correct the sheep
of the Lord’s flock. But today is
not one of those days.
Today,
the message the Lord speaks to us is one of His healing love. Both in our Gospel and in our first
reading, we hear about the tender love of our God which wants to heal us. The Lord says to us today, as He spoke
through Isaiah then, “Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…he comes to save you.” We hear that he will open the eyes of
the blind, and clear the ears of the deaf. He will make the lame leap like stags, and loose the tongues
of the mute. He will turn the
desert into a watered garden. And
in our Gospel, Jesus fulfills that prophecy by healing the man who was deaf and
had a speech impediment. Jesus, as
the very revelation of God the Father, makes present for us the healing love
that God has for His people.
So, the
question is, will we accept that healing touch of God? Will we welcome the Divine Physician
into our hearts to cure us from what ails us? To those of you who have frightened hearts: of what are you
afraid? What causes you
anxiety? Whatever it is, open your
hearts up to the Lord, and hear Him say to you as He said to the frightened
disciples in the boat as the waves were crashing about it, and as He said to
St. Peter as He bade Peter walk across the water, “Be not afraid!” Those were the words that opened the pontificate
of Bl. John Paul II in 1978, and we still need to hear those words: “Be not
afraid!” Because, as St. Paul
says, “If God is for who, who can be against us?” The waves of the world may crash all around us, but Jesus is
in our boat, and He who separated the dry land from the water at the creation
of the world will not let us capsize in the waters of chaos.
Where do
we not see the Lord? Where do we
think that He is absent from our lives?
Cry out like the blind man in Jericho, “‘Lord, that I may see!’” Feel the warm, callused, but tender
hand of our Lord over your eyes so that you may recognize Him: in the poor, the
downtrodden, the infant in the womb, the elderly, the homebound, even in your
enemy. Let the Lord bring the
light of the Gospel truth to the darkness of sin which blinds us to the
presence of God in the world.
Where do
we not hear the Lord? Are we
familiar with how the Lord speaks to us?
Sometimes it is in great moments when the Lord appeared to Moses on Mt.
Sinai. Other times, like with Elijah,
it is in the whisper of a soft voice inside our hearts. Ask the Lord to touch your ears and
say, “‘Ephaphtha!’—that is, ‘Be
opened!’” so that when you sit in silence, you will hear the clear Word of God
in your heart and recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd speaking to you,
leading you to green pastures.
How are
our mouths bound so that we do not speak?
How do we mumble the Word of God in our words and our deeds? Ask the Lord to open you lips so that
you proclaim His wonderful works in all that you say and do. Ask Him to cleanse your speech so that
when people hear you speaking, they are truly listening to the voice of
God. Ask Him to allow you to proclaim
from the mountaintops that our God has come to save us, and the day of our
vindication is at hand!
But know
this, if we do not ask; if we leave this building and act as if nothing has
changed, then we will not be healed.
Not because the Lord does not love us, but because God, who did not ask
to create us, will not heal and save us without our permission. God loves us and respects our free will
so much, that He will not force us to take His medicine, even if we will die
without it. We must recognize that
we need the Lord’s help (which is itself a gift from God) and then ask Him to
heal our infirmities, whatever they are, whether of body and/or soul, and He
will come to us quicker than any ambulance ever could.
Brothers
and sisters, the Lord’s love for us will renew our youth and irrigate those
parts of us that are as dry as deserts so that they are a luscious garden, full
of life. Our Lord comes to heal us
so that we may not labor under the sickness of sin, but may have the fullness
of life through the power of the Holy Spirit. “Be strong, fear not!
Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he
comes to save you.” “He has done
all things well.”
