Homily for 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Readings; IS 35:4-7A, JAS 2:1-5, MK 7:31-37

When I was younger, I was reminded on many occasions to clean out my ears so that I could hear what I was being told. This was usually said when I either ignored something or made like I did not understand.  I have even been accused of not listening to my wife. As my children grew up, I realized what my parents and wife were talking about as my children seem to be situationally hard of hearing.

I am sure there are people here who know fellow parishioners who are going through difficult times, but they seem to be some of the happiest folks we know. They are listening to and living God’s word. When we live as if this life is not the end but a step to eternal life, we realize being open to the word of the One who promises eternal life is a good idea. The best example of this I remember seeing was a young lady who was making her first communion. She was in the end stages of fighting brain cancer, a fight she eventually lost, but during her time here she showed us all the unbridled joy that can come with being open to God’s call. She happened to pass away in the early morning hours on the day of my ordination. I was made aware of this not long before the ordination Mass was to begin. The one thing I remembered was the Joy she exuded on receiving the Eucharist the first time.

In the gospel today Jesus meets a man who is deaf and also has an impediment in his speech. It is his friends who bring him to Jesus. We note the sensitivity of Jesus. He takes the man apart from the others, in order to cure him. We see the gentleness of Jesus in dealing with the man in a very personal and caring way. He doesn’t want to embarrass him or treat him as a case. He treats him like another human being in need of respect and gentleness because of his situation.

How many of us have been in a position to do the same but were situationally hard of hearing? When we were baptized whether it was as infants or as adults one piece of the Gospel is repeated. Ephphatha is a word that means be opened. In the baptism right as our ears are touched we are told “The Lord has made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May He soon touch your ears to receive His word, and your mouth to proclaim His faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father. Amen.”

When we are open to this we can be part of what we hear in the first reading;

Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication;
with divine recompense, he comes to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.

Now you definitely do not want to hear me sing a solo, but the idea is when we live for God, as He calls us to, we need to be open and honest with ourselves as well as others. This is something we cannot do if we are not open to listening to others. By listening to others we can learn things not only about ourselves, but where we may not be open.

As James reminds us today when we treat people differently because of their dress, appearance, financial situation, or their employment, then we are not living to do God’s word. We are supposed to treat all with equal dignity and respect, even when we disagree with them. This is a crucial piece of the puzzle. When we listen to others with respect, we have the ability to learn the reasoning behind their thinking. While we may still disagree with them, we will not need to attack them because we now have an understanding of why they could think this way.

When we listen to God’s word and proclaim his word, we show the world a better way to live. Today in society we hear such a destructive message. We are to work hard and make as much money as possible so we can spend it on things that allow us to be happy because we have more stuff. We try to keep up with our neighbors, all the time becoming more tired, stressed out and less connected.

Less connected is probably not something you would think we have in today’s world. We have instant access to as much information as we want. The so-called social media platforms are making us less social. We see people at restaurants sitting with each other, and both spend the entire time engrossed not in conversation with each other, but in their “smartphones.”

Now I am not saying that all these inventions and information are a bad thing. How we utilize them is where we can get off track. We begin by starting to weed out voices we do not want to hear and only listen to those we agree with. We become closed to new ideas and viewpoints. This leads to us being more isolated, closed, just the opposite of Ephpatha.

We are called to be opened. This means open to helping those less fortunate than us. Open to learning from different perspectives and not closing ourselves from society but being an active participant.

Now, this openness needs to work both ways as well. We need to be open enough to share our trials and tribulations. This can lead to others learning from us what not to do. This could lead to some penance we need to endure, but in the end, we will be working toward our eternal reward.

When we are open to dealing with adversity openly and honestly, we can experience short-term pain, but in the long term gain our eternal reward. Individually we experience these things on a regular basis. How we deal with them, we can see how open we are to listening to God’s word.

We will be sharing in the Eucharist celebration shortly. Are we all being as open as the young lady was when we approach the altar? We can all be open to God’s word, and while we may not proclaim the Gospel out loud, we can do so by our actions. When we are open to the Joy that comes from listening to and living the Gospel, we will show this to others, and they may want what we have.