ဖာသာရ် ဂျော့ရွှေထွန် (၂၃) ကြိမ်မြောက် သာမာန်ရက်သတ္တပတ် တနင်္ဂနွေနေ့ ဩဝါဒ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၅ ၊ ၂၀၂၁

ဖာသာရ် ဂျော့ရွှေထွန် (၂၃) ကြိမ်မြောက် သာမာန်ရက်သတ္တပတ် တနင်္ဂနွေနေ့ ဩဝါဒ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၅ ၊ ၂၀၂၁ 

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CBCM Homily 

SUNDAY REFLECTION: 23rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - YEAR B

Encountering the Goodness of God and Our Own Ephphatha

Readings: Isaiah 35:4-7; Psalms 146:7, 8-9, 9-10; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37

Starter: “For those who believe in God, no explanation is needed; For those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)

Today’s Scripture readings offer us an invitation to become humble instruments of healing in Jesus’ hands by giving voice to the voiceless, the needy, and the marginalized in our society. Today’s Scripture also invites us to open our ears to hear the word of God and to allow the Holy Spirit to loosen our tongues to convey the Good News of God’s love and salvation to others.

Scripture Synopsis:

The first reading from Prophet Isaiah reminds us that God’s eyes are constantly focused on the helpless. God especially cares for “the frightened, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute,” and He encourages the powerless to “be strong and fearless.” To us, the Prophet reminds us of God’s goodness. The goodness of God who comes to save us. The second reading from the letter of St. James also speaks of God’s goodness by reminding us that God shows no partiality. While we may judge each other by externals or by how we may benefit from them, our God judges by different standards. James reminds us that the poor, marginalized, and abandoned people are often closest to God. The Gospel describes how Jesus, by healing a deaf man with a speech impediment, fulfills Isaiah’s Messianic Prophecy, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” The ailments listed by Isaiah are symbolic of our interior illnesses: blindness to the needs of our neighbor, unwillingness to hear God’s voice and the inability to speak words of praise, apology, forgiveness, and gratitude. Through this miracle story, Mark also reminds us that no one can be a follower of the Lord without reaching out to the helpless.

Jesus desires to touch and heal us by loosening our tongues in order to speak to the spiritually hungry through us, and to touch the lives of people in our day through our surrendered hearts, just as Jesus touched the lives of millions through saintly souls like Francis of Assisi, Damien of Molokai, Vincent de Paul and Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa). Today Christ continues to touch us and heal us in the Sacraments – visible signs of invisible grace (CCC #1504). We need to learn how to have Faith, trusting in our Savior’s words and actions. In times of grief, despair, and failure, we can be “deaf” to the presence of God in the love and compassion of others; or we can become so preoccupied with the noise of the marketplace that we are unable to hear the voices of those we love and who love us. We may find it hard to speak to God in prayer and harder still to hear Him speaking to us through the Bible and through the Church. Therefore, we beg God to touch us and open our ears so that we may hear.

Let us bring Jesus’ holy word “Ephphatha” to a generation damaged by the materialistic cultural aggression of our times. Religion and God are being removed from schools, colleges, courtrooms, politics and public life. One cannot speak of virginity or marital fidelity without a scornful laugh from others. We are told that sixty-five percent of our Catholic youth have no formal religious education beyond the eighth grade. They are exposed to the culture of free sex, loose relationships, liquor, drugs, and violence. It is because they become deaf and blind to Christian ideals of morality, holiness in life and social justice! May our Lord touch us through this Gospel so that we also can say “Ephphatha” (“Be opened!”) to everything and everyone so that we all will be open to God and His loving Providence.

The deaf man in today’s gospel received a great gift from Jesus: the ability to hear and to speak plainly. In the sacrament of Baptism, the priest touched our ears and mouth and spoke the words: “May the Lord Jesus who made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak grant that you may soon receive his word with your ears and profess that faith with your lips to the glory and praise of God the Father.” May we go forth, opened by the power of Christ to proclaim the Good News. As we continue with this Mass, in which God will continue his loving action in and through our lives, let's thank him for being so close to us, and promise that we will always do our best to stay close to him. God is good, All the time and All the time, God is good. God Bless!