Twenty-fourth Sunday
Ordinary Time
Let us begin by rereading the words of the first verse of Sunday's first reading: "The Lord God opens my ear that I may hear ... " (Isaiah 50:5).
Throughout the bible, especially in the writings of the New Testament, there are several accounts of miraculous healings. Blind men regain their sight; a deaf man hears and speaks again; possessed individuals have demons driven out of their lives; a hemorrhaging woman regains her health; dead adults and children are returned to life; countless hungry people are fed. Each of these special moments has a special significance for the individual and the community as well as for Yahweh (OT) and Jesus Christ (NT). Furthermore, all of these "healings' have a special meaning, a healing remedy for all of us today.
When we loo at a crucifix, whether it portrays a beaten and battered young man or a regal, risen Christ, Son of God, what we see is the reason or cause of God's being himself. All of these events remind us and tell the whole of human kind that God is being God. God is being who God is: God is love.
So often, when healing someone, Jesus asks or commands the recipient of God's special favors to an action that will eventually bring that person to a"return." "Just what is "a return"? In short: it is a return to wholeness, to being the full person that God intended from the eternity that person has been in the mind of God.
When Jesus spoke to the deaf man, he said "Be Open!" In that moment Jesus was inviting that man to return to the fullness of his humanity. God's wish, God's command was restoring to order the human being he had created.
So, Isaiah calls us to remember that God has healed everyone of us in one way or another. God, through his Son, has healed our sin-infected souls with the grace of forgiveness, the grace of healing which enables us to be who and what God planned for us.
So what should we take from these words of Isaiah? The answer lies in the answer to a simple question: have I allowed that inner voice to open my inner ears when God speaks to me? In the course of a single hour how many times, how many different ways does God use to capture my attention. Imagine the people, events or thoughts in my mind God gives me as signs of what he wants me to hear, to do to be the creature he sent into this world of his. An unexpected telephone call, a suddenly cancelled trip, the surprise visit of a friend, the arrival of an unexpected bill: is God speaking to me in these events?
So, turn to Isaiah: "The Lord God opens my ear that I may hear..."
