Ephphatha! Fear not!

 

23^rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

7-8 September 2024 – St. Therese Parish

Is 35:4-7a

Jas 2:1-5

Mk 7:31-37

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       Today’s first reading presents me with a real challenge. It is an example of a message which is not heard, of an encouragement or consoling words which do not necessarily register with the people who need to hear them. It is good news which goes right over most folks’ heads. It just passes them by. The great prophet Isaiah is speaking in God’s name to console the chosen people: “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…”  Crickets! Nothing!

       It may be that there is no small amount of fearfulness and anxiety among people when facing the trials of this life. Courage is sorely lacking, and many people are just down, depressed even. It may be that people are looking to be consoled, to be rescued from what seems to oppress them. It is certainly true that people need to be uplifted, but that does not necessarily mean they would take courage at the words of the prophet Isaiah, even as confident and reassuring as those words are. And, well, that is kind of my read; I don’t think the prophet, or for that matter the Church, is able to get our world out of its rut. “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…” Isaiah is shouting it from the housetops, and it does not seem to make a difference. People just drag on.

       True, maybe that is not exactly how it works, and it is certainly not always like that in the Gospel. We read there accounts of people seeking out the Lord, of blind men or lepers shouting out to Jesus as He goes by and begging Him to heal them. There was that woman in the crowd who snuck up behind Him and touched the hem of His cloak in hopes of healing. More than once however, the person needing healing, needing help did not come on his own but was brought to Jesus even carried on a stretcher to Him by the people who had come to hear the Lord’s words. Often things happened with Jesus like in Mark’s Gospel today where the people brought a man to Jesus, a deaf mute, asking the Lord to lay a hand upon him. In any and every case, though, the Lord’s answer to their prayers goes way beyond what they expected. Ephphatha! Jesus’ word as He touched the man’s ears and tongue, giving him hearing and clear speech, this miracle went beyond everybody’s expectations. “They were exceedingly astonished, and they said, ‘He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’”

         We have the reference to this specific miracle from the Gospel registered for all time in the rite of infant baptism, as the priest or deacon, touches the ears and mouth of the child and says, “Ephphatha! May the Lord soon touch your ears to hear His word and your mouth to proclaim His praise!” It is a lovely prayer, a great prayer for that baby! “Ephphatha! May the Lord soon touch your ears to hear His word and your mouth to proclaim His praise!”

       That prayer from the Rite of Baptism (prayed over a healthy baby) certainly speaks better about the priorities in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ than do many of our expectations. That is as it should be, but my fear is another, namely that we expect nothing of God and just kind of drag on with our miserable or at least depressing life. It seems to me that the Liturgy of the Word for this 23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time would have us truly come alive in Christ, empowered by the Lord Who truly does act in our lives for good.

       What is my intention for you today? Very simply, I would have you open up to the Lord’s uplifting and healing power. I would have you such that you not have to be carried on a stretcher to the Lord or not even that half desperate you would be sneaking up to touch the hem of His garment. I would have you confident in His love and in His power to save. I would have you with a healthy measure of happiness and peace already in this life and for the life to come. Us older folks learned in the Baltimore Catechism, “Why did God make me? He made me to know, love, and serve Him in this life, so as to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.”

       “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…” The more I think about people who miss out on the consolation preached by the prophet Isaiah, the more I am convinced that they have not known love even in a simple family way. Isaiah proclaimed an ordered universe under the mighty hand of God. Jesus reached out with His hand, touched and made whole. Those who miss out on all of this do so because they keep at arm’s length those who would carry them to Christ.

       As a child I can remember going through piles of family photos, for Dad’s side of the family, many black and white photos from the late 1920’s and the early 1930’s. I guess you could say they pictured hard times and poverty, but from the security of my family situation, where meat was not an everyday thing and powdered milk had to do, I could only imagine those older generations being as me, in the palm of God’s hand. “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…”

       Ephphatha! Pray that prayer over your world, over all those whom you love, and over our greater world which seems to have lost its way. “Ephphatha! May the Lord soon touch your ears to hear His word and your mouth to proclaim His praise!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Rallying to Christ

 

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

September 1, 2024 - St. Mary’s in Dell Rapids

Dt 4:1-2, 6-8

Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27

Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       “For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” That is Moses, the lawgiver, speaking to the people, to the children of Israel in this our passage today from the Book of Deuteronomy. I guess we can understand Moses boasting even if it seems a bit foreign to our way of thinking and expressing ourselves. “For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” You would be hard pressed to find an older Catholic today who speaks so confidently of the faith. If you say, “We are the one, true Church,” lots of folks get nervous or embarrassed.

       We live in strange times, because we should be able to express a similar pride in our Catholic faith as did Moses, but a lot of adults around my age (give or take twenty years) just do not seem to be able to do that. These same older people, who may even be regular Mass goers, just shake their head at young people who are enthusiastic about their Catholic faith. Thankfully, I guess, such older folks can more easily identify with our Gospel passage today from Mark chapter 7 than with Moses pride about being part of the chosen people.

       “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile.”

        Let there be no mistake, when describing a stranger to someone, I too am convinced that it is less a matter of criticizing or condemning anyone, but rather of saying something positive, of knowing how to express approval of that other person for what is good in them. That is only good manners and should always be the case. How would you make a compliment about a person, a third party, whom you are describing to someone who does not know them? It was easier to do so maybe a hundred years ago. People back then would commonly say: He’s a law-abiding citizen. Or… She’s a God fearing woman. These days we have become less specific or maybe politically correct, and so perhaps we might just say: She’s a lovely person. Or… He’s really a good guy. There’s nothing wrong with talking that way, but it gives us less of a handle for talking about that person in the context of an ordered society. It is hard to express any notion about us being answerable to the God Who made us and saved us in Christ, about our relationship to the God Who loves us. We dodge or skirt the issue of what is really important for time and eternity.

       The Lord Jesus in the Gospel registers His concern or disapproval about a common distortion or exaggeration of the law in Israel, which we today would label pharisaism. It was an insistence on certain modes of behavior at the expense of God’s law. In Jesus’ day and yet today for many Jews of the strict observance, this customary law regulates things like washing your hands before meals. It attaches moral significance to them, and it imposes all sorts of dietary rules doing the same. I remember when I lived in Israel in your typical restaurant you couldn’t get a rare steak even if you wanted it, nor could you mix meat and dairy (kosher). I suppose the only thing comparable to it we have in our society would be political correctness or that government hotline in Minnesota during COVID, where you could denounce your neighbor for not wearing a mask or sitting more than four at a picnic table in their own backyard. Pharisaism! It is a kind of hypocrisy, which puts limits on us and restricts the other. Nothing to boast about and certainly no way to save your soul or give greater honor and glory to God.

       “For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?”

       The baptized but unchurched or the fallen-aways have always plagued the Church, what has changed is that my uncle’s silly joke back in the day about being “episcopillow” because he sleeps in on Sunday can nowadays even be repeated in the presence of children: no shame! Faith, belief, religious practice, church has lost its pride of place in society. Similarly, we have a 50% divorce rate even among Catholics, because nobody defends marriage and family anymore. Entering a second marriage within months of a divorce from the first marriage which hardly lasted a year is maybe embarrassing for the family, but not much more.

       Jesus’ listeners needed to hear Him say, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” Kosher is not a moral category like purity of heart is. My willfulness which puts me at odds with the whole moral law, “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile.” My willfulness is what is damnable. Moses was right when he said clearly to his people that when it comes to God’s law you cannot pick and choose.

Take some quiet time this Sunday to examine your conscience to see whether your embrace of God’s law is complete, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. St. Ignatius Loyola posed the question as to whose standard you rallied to on the battlefield of life. Christ’s banner or Satan’s, those are the only two choices. I think young people appreciate that sort of talk and older folks should see if they cannot regain some of the enthusiasm of their youth.

       Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI