Homily 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak

Human “blindness” and “deafness” can be part of each of our lives.  To what are you deaf in your own life asked the Scripture Group Leader to those gathered together to listen to the Scripture and share the word of God?

We can be deaf to those in our own house.  We can be deaf to ourselves – those physical and emotional noises and signs our body gives us.  We can be deaf to that which is too hard or too confronting or too different from us.  We can be blind to our own habits and faults and to our own beauty and goodness.  We can be blind to the person sitting next to us.  We can be blind to that which is too hard to see, to hurtful to witness, too disturbing to watch and too easy to simply shut our ears and turn a blind eye.  This seems to be human nature – selective hearing and seeing.  So when we listen to Mark’s Gospel we are never just listening to a story about physical healing of deafness and dumbness.  We are dealing with a deeply symbolic meaning as well.  

Jesus’ healing brings to a man in the gospel today, the opening of his ears, so that he may hear the word of God.  This healing happens away from the crowd.  Jesus took him aside.  There are only a few witnesses.  He opens the man’s ears.  This is how we come to know God’s word – when we are taken aside, in the quiet, putting our lives before the gospel or of discussing the meaning of the text with a friend, a believer or a trusted one.  And our ears can be opened too.  We have almost to stop hearing and stop speaking so that our ears and mouths can be given back to us, changed with the mind of Christ, to guide our hearing and inspire our speech.  Having encountered Christ we cannot hear and speak in the same way.  We cannot hear without hearing injustice, discrimination, prejudice, fear of the other and we cannot speak without calling for peace, forgiveness, understanding, justice, second chances, fair go.  

Consider the Ephphatha prayer at baptism “May the Lord soon touch your ears to receive his word and your mouth to proclaim his faith to the glory of God the Father.”   

Let’s pray that during the coming week we will be more aware of our listening and our seeing.  When we hear let’s listen again with gospel ears and before we speak let’s filter our thoughts and words through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Fr Brendan Reed

Published: 6 September 2024