With Apologies to ABBA, Money, Money, Money: Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Wis 7:7-11

Ps 90:12-12, 13-15, 16-17

Heb 4:12-13

Mk 10:17-30

 

Some of the most exquisite images in scripture describe the attributes of Wisdom.  Wisdom is not innate or genetic. It is never present at birth or the early stages of development, which go up to 25 or older.  It has nothing to do with IQ. It has even less to do with educational level or number of advanced degrees.  Wisdom is acquired and molded through long experience of success and failure, of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. It is the special possession of those with a listening heart who have the courage to enter into silence, prayer, and self-reflection.

 

Wisdom defines and supports civilization. It is fundamental to being human.  Wisdom definitively separates us from all lower animals, no matter how cute, cuddly, majestic, or clever they might be, only humans are capable of wisdom. Somewhere in the bowels of MIT worker bees are slaving away at artificial intelligence.  I’ve yet to hear of anyone working on artificial Wisdom.  A computer can be programmed to check the spelling of and translate the lyrical passage just proclaimed, but no computer can be programmed to create something as splendid from its circuit boards. 

 

The Wisdom literature is not inert. It is not an historical curiosity that explained the world to the benighted, non-scientific, and unsophisticated peoples of the Ancient Near East.  They weren’t all that different from us today.  Wisdom recognizes and supports all that God does in the world.  It should undergird all that we do in the world.

 

Though there is a pragmatic dimension to it, the Wisdom literature is not a handbook along the lines of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  It is much more than that.  Wisdom reveals the mystery of God, a mystery we cannot begin to approach through any literature but the mystical, the numinous, the poetic, and perhaps through music.  We come closer to understanding the mystery of God through the poetry of the psalms than we do through books of systematic theology or historical-literary criticism of the Gospels.

 

British neuropsychiatrist Sir Michael Trimble published The Soul in the Brain in 2007. The book emphasizes neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, and neurophysiology while outlining the role of the brain in the genesis of language and art.

 

Language and art are important components of religious belief and perhaps the most important means of transmitting that belief from generation to generation.

It is a brilliant book that also considers the ancient wisdom of philosophers and theologians.

 

Whether speaking of the Ancient Near East or the early years of the 21st century

one must ask what Jesus meant by the startling and uncomfortable image

of the camel passing through the needle's eye more easily than the wealthy.  Does wealth automatically condemn?  Are all the wealthy excluded

from the Kingdom of God? More specifically, what income level is damning?

Should I have saved all my W-2s?

 

Jesus is not warning against wealth as wealth.  He is warning about a human behavior that hasn't changed in millennia. That behavior is the drive to acquire more and more wealth.  The drive that demands more and more time, energy, and attention to maintain and increase that wealth, to the detriment of caring for and about others, if not outright destroying them. Too often the more one has

the less one shares. 

 

We've become almost jaded to news detailing the latest financial scandals

involving obscenely paid executives who appear to want even more. The saga of the recently imprisoned Elizabeth Holmes, the Stanford dropout foundress of Theranos Corporation, is a tale of greed mixed with the pursuit of wealth, fame, and magazine covers. She combined those desires with a callous and criminal disregard for the health of others.

 

As a society we tolerate, and even rationalize, the greed of overpaid athletes and their agents whose whiny demands for more and more astronomical salaries, have pushed the cost of taking a family to a game beyond the ability of many.  In an effort to increase its revenues, the NCAA is systematically destroying college football.  The impact of the business for profit model on medicine is a separate homily. There are also, of course,  middle and lower level atrocities in the pursuit of wealth committed by those with similar mindsets but much smaller budgets. 

Money seems to desire more money no matter the cost to others or the cost to oneself, as long as one doesn’t get caught.

 

It is not the cold hard cash that Jesus is decrying. Jesus is warning against the mind-set of wealth craving more wealth that is the well-beyond what is needed.  Unlike membership in a country club or a place on a Forbes Magazine list

salvation does not derive from human achievement.  One is not automatically saved because of rank, bank balance, or the number of toys one has upon death. 

Wealth is not one of the keys to the kingdom. It need not be an impediment to entering the kingdom,  but it will never move anyone to the front of the line.

 

True wealth is not what one possesses, but what one gives. True wealth is not what one hoards, but what one shares. The more we share our treasure with those in need, the treasure of money, time,  or the gift of presence, the larger the eye of that needle becomes. 

 

. . .  and that there camel gallops right on through.

 

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Photos are black and whites from the monastery.  When the inevitable day comes that I won't be able to get out with a camera--and the day will come--I hope to spend the time converting and processing much of what I've taken into black and white.   

The refectory set up for the midday meal which, in most monasteries is the main meal of the day.

Vessels in the small sacristy.

Leading to the consecration

Crucifix in a chapel

All monasteries need a body of water of three

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

 

An Affair to Remember: Homily for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Gn 2:18-24

Ps 128

Heb 2:9-11

Mk 10:2-16

 

There are certain readings that make a homilist break out into a cold sweat when he looks ahead for the coming week.  Today's readings are of that type. There are, of  course, a few ways to avoid saying anything controversial. Tell a few cute stories from your past about how your family stopped at Dunkin' Donuts after Mass every Sunday,

Toss in a joke about a rabbi, a priest, and a minister . . . . . Use a few pious platitudes.  Decide it would be a good day for the deacon to preach Or plunge in.

 

Were a teacher or professor in a public school to say to a class today that "from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female" and indicate that there are only two sexes, (genders are for French nouns) the teacher's job would be on the line for contradicting the delusion that men can become women, women can become men, with multiple other options between.  But that is a separate homily.

 

Then we come to the matter of divorce,

 

Donahue and Harrington begin their commentary on this passage with a short summary that says it all: "Mark presents Jesus’ radical teachings on marriage and divorce.”  Radical is the key word.  The teaching on divorce is as radical, challenging, and difficult today as it was when Jesus answered first with a question of his own and then a teaching on marriage.

 

Jesus’ teaching was radical in His time because of the nature of marriage. Marriages were arranged and negotiated for financial, political, and social reasons.  Love or attraction had nothing to do with marriage. After a couple was engaged or betrothed they got to know each other for about a year before the woman moved into the man’s home. 

 

In their attempt to trap Jesus  into giving deviant teaching on marriage the Pharisees were alluding to two texts in Deuteronomy

regarding divorce.  Jesus, on his part, cited more ancient writing  from Genesis, as expressing God’s original plan:  “and the two shall become one flesh.”  Then, He elaborated and extended the teaching: 

“Therefore what God has joined together, no human must separate.”  

This charge is repeated following the giving of consent in the sacrament of marriage as celebrated in the Catholic Church. 

 

Divorce was the exclusive prerogative of the husband in the Ancient Near East.  The procedure was simple.  The husband gave the wife a certificate of divorce and sent her away.  She was now free to marry someone else.  

 

From Donahue and Harrington again, “In a society in which divorce was widely accepted and the controversial issue was the grounds for divorce Jesus’ teaching about no divorce went against custom and the cultural grain.”  The more things change the more the stay the same. 

 

The early Church struggled with the question as mightily as we do today.  There is Paul’s advice to those who found themselves in “mixed marriages” or marriages in which one party reverted to paganism.  And there are the “exceptive clauses” found in Matthew which permit divorce for porneia or what is translated as unchastity

though that translation does not fully capture what Matthew meant.  We continue to struggle with the meaning and implications of Jesus’ teaching on marriage today. 

 

Some time in the early 2000s I first heard a woman with whom I worked gleefully note that even at the wedding the family was referring to the groom as her sister's starter husband.  Even more mystifying are the celebrity types, --and many non-celebrities-- who have been "married" six or seven times.  After a certain point it seems silly to bother with the paperwork.

 

When considering Jesus' teachingwe have to ask if it Is an ideal to shoot for, a challenge to be faced,an extreme example, or divine law?”

 

Another line of questioning asks which part of New Testament evidence is more compelling: Jesus’ prohibition of divorce or the exceptions introduced by Paul and Matthew?”  These questions are destined to be debated

for a very long time

 

In today's world and, as was probably true in Jesus' time, there are marriages that never should have taken place and that must end. 

 

Perhaps one of the saddest commentaries on the misuse of Church teaching against divorce comes from the life of the actor Spencer Tracy.  Tracy carried on a twenty-five year long adulterous affair with Katherine Hepburn. The affair ended only with his death.  However, he remained legally and ecclesiastically married to his Episcopalian wife for 44 years.  As several sources confirmed he wouldn’t divorce his wife to marry Katherine because of his "staunch Catholicism." 

Apparently adultery posed no problem whatsoever to that staunch Catholicism.  

 

Some see Tracy and Hepburn, and similar stories as great romantic epics, when, in fact, they are tawdry stories of adultery. 

 

We live in odd and very troubling times marked by a frightening arrogance and egocentrism,  times in desperate need of prayer.  

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The photos are from St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, PA the first Benedictine monastery in the U.S. founded in 1846.  Alas, the original abbey burned.  The new one was built in brutalist style.  When you can't say something nice say nothing.  The grounds are beautiful. 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Gordon Gekko was wrong: Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Nm 11:25-29

Ps 19 8-14

Jas 5:1-6

Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

None of today's readings elicits warm, fuzzy, or comforting feelings.  There is nothing to soothe a troubled soul.  If anything, the gospel has the potential to cause discomfort. Both the first reading and the gospel consider the question of who should prophesy and evangelize.  The short answer is everyone.

In response to the concerns that two men--Eldad and Medad--were prophesying along with the other elders despite having been absent when the spirit descended,  Moses replied, "Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!"  In a similar vein we have John's complaint "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us. "  Jesus silenced him silenced with, "For whoever is not against us is for us." 

The second reading is a warning to those whose only goals in life are wealth, power, influence, fame, and expensive shiny things.  One of the saddest bumper stickers in the past is the one proclaiming, "He who has the most toys when he dies wins."  What and how does he win?   Having more, bigger, better, flashier, and faster do not matter at the end.  During life those objects do nothing more than divert our attention from the things that matter, and sadly, from the people that matter.  They are useless after death.

It is important to note that having money or being able to afford nice, or even expensive, things is not evil or sinful in and of itself.  Wealth does not necessarily equate with sin. The wealthy are not always evil, malicious, or uncaring.   The obsessive pursuit money, power, fame, or influence, to the exclusion of all else is another matter.

Paul's First Letter to Timothy is usually misquoted as. "Money is the root of all evil."  That is wrong. Verse ten of the letter is correctly rendered as,  "For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains."  The words, "the love of . . . " are critical.  One can substitute “worship of money” to make the point. 

It is the disordered affection for money, the perverse desire to have the most toys, the monomaniacal pursuit of the biggest and most expensive that drives evil rather than the fact of the money itself. 

The 1987 movie "Wall Street" illustrated what James wrote in his letter.  The slimy protagonist, Gordon Gekko spoke the unfortunate line  "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."  That line is also misquoted, usually being cited as "Greed is good."  It is sad to recall that it was a mantra for several years, seeming to excuse bad behavior, flaunting one's wealth, and other excesses. James is criticizing the destructive greed that tramples anyone or anything standing in its way. 

On one side we have the greed of Bernie Madoff of a generation ago ripping off investors or the greed that put Elizabeth Holmes behind bars for up to 14 years in May of 2023. On the other we have the immoral greed of drug dealers peddling their wares to addicts or the greed of the little league treasurer who embezzled funds to buy that loaded SUV. The sin of greed is no different at either end of the spectrum.  The latter group are simply working with a smaller budget.

In the Gospel Jesus is damning scandalous behavior in those who would call themselves his followers.  It is critical to point out  that Jesus is using hyperbole when he says, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off . . . . If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out,"  Unfortunately, too many psychiatrists have had to admit, evaluate, or treat delusional patients who took this in literal fashion and mutilated a part of the body that he or she perceived led into sin. 

The sayings in this gospel are sometimes referred to as the "scandal sayings." Jesus is telling us that scandal is to be avoided at all costs.  The cost of causing scandal is high  for the one who causes it but may be even higher to the family, friends, and others affected by the individual's behavior.

We are all called to evangelize in the name of Jesus.  We are all called to spread the gospel of Christ.  Many would ask how we are to do this short of mounting a pulpit, addressing a class, or publishing in a theology journal.  The best advice on evangelism 101 remains that of Francis of Assisi who wrote, "Preach the gospel at all times,  use words only when necessary." 

If we can preach the gospel through both word and deed we too can sing with the psalmist:

 

"The law of the Lord is perfect

refreshing the soul;

the decree of the Lord is trustworthy,

giving wisdom to the simple." 

 

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Photos are from my final vow retreat at the Trappist Abbey in Spencer, MA.  made from 22 to 29 September 2013.  Vows were pronounced on 1 October.  

Writing out the vow documents that would be read at the Mass.  Few things are as terrifying as a left-handed MD having to read his own handwriting in public.

A friendly dragonfly had no objections to posing.

The cottage within the monastic enclosure in which I made the retreat.

The tabernacle behind the main altar.  This was taken from the visitors gallery that is outside the cloister

The abbey infirmary

Sunrise and mist in the valley.

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Shakespeare Was Right: Homily for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Wis 2:12, 17-20

Ps 54

Jas 3:16-4:3

Mk 9:30-37

 

In the course of our daily lives we are regularly treated to scenes of people handling their emotions badly. Too often performers, athletes, and politicians—especially the politicians, both parties—throw temper tantrums in the public eye. Those tantrums are, of course, reported breathlessly by the news media thus consuming gazillions of bytes on the internet, generating too many words of empty commentary, and setting a pathetic example. Having and learning to control emotions is one of the challenges of being human. Learning to recognize and handle emotions is one of the major tasks of child and adolescent development.  Some never succeed in that task.  Each of today's readings involves dangerous emotions that can drive even more dangerous responses.

 

The first reading is both a prediction and synopsis of Jesus’ passion .

 

“Let us beset the just one because he reproaches us for transgressions of the law.” 

 

“Let us condemn him to a shameful death. . . “

 

Jesus sealed his death warrant when he pointed out hypocrisy and sin.  Sometimes the reproaches were subtle:  “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.”  Other times they were unmistakably direct: “You have made my Father’s house a den of thieves.” 

 

Most of us don't handle criticism of our behavior very well. The critiques are frequently met with hostility if not outright rage.Telling someone “Give me the car keys you're drunk and in no shape to drive” may end a friendship.

 

The second reading points out  two of the most dangerous and destructive of human emotions: envy and jealousy. 

 

Envy and jealousy are not identical, synonyms, or interchangeable, though they may coexist.  Envy describes wanting what the other has.  Call it keeping up with Joneses.  Envy is not always a negative emotion.  Accruing severe credit card debt in an attempt to have the same car and granite countertops as the neighbors is damaging.  However, envy may be a positive motivation to aim higher or work harder to attain a goal, as in "I wish I had grades like his.  Maybe if I studied more."  Jealousy, on the other hand, is the fear that someone will take what one has or possesses.   The responses to that fear can range from threatening to lethal.  Shakespeare made his career with plays about jealousy and its lethal effects.  We heard, “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder. . . . you fight and wage war.” Human nature has not changed since these words were written, we simply have larger budgets and more powerful weapons, including social networking with which to wage war. 

 

In response to the disciples' jockeying for power and prestige, Jesus placed a child in their midst.  He was not, and is not,  implying a sentimental understanding of childhood. Jesus does not suggest that childhood is a time of sweetness, light,  sun, fun,  wide-eyed joyful astonishment, and harmless naiveté.  Childhood is not a Hummel figurine writ large.  Jesus is not suggesting that children are untainted by dangerous emotions. 

 

Children know envy and are well-acquainted with jealousy by the age of three. If sufficiently provoked they too will express, anger, fury, and violence. Just watch a few three year-olds struggling over a toy.

It can get ugly. 

 

“Mooooooooooommmmmmmm. That's my toy!!!!!

 

“I WANT IT.” 

 

“NO!  It's mine.” 

 

SMACKKKKKKK!

 

"Mooooooooooooommmmmyyyy, Suzy hit me."

 

 

Jesus used a child to make a point about relentless status seeking though some context is needed.  Unlike the modern U.S. in which family life may be ruled by the children's whims and wants, children in the Ancient Near East had no social standing. They had no political significance.  They had minimal religious responsibilities.  Children were powerless.  Jesus’ statement, “unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven” makes the point that status has nothing to do with entering the Kingdom of heaven.  He is telling the disciples, 'stop arguing,' 'stop jockeying for position.' 

 

Humans are habitual status seekers who crave money, power, prestige and shiny objects.  We even seek status through reflected glory; how else to explain spending $150 for a football jersey with the name of the star quarterback emblazoned on the back except that the wearer is trying to proclaim status because my team's quarterback is better than yours.

 

Throughout the liturgical year we hear other Gospel readings that caution against pursuing, accumulating, and hoarding possessions or wealth. At the final judgment he who has the most toys when he dies will be no different from the one who dies never having had a toy in his life.

 

By using a child as His example Jesus emphasized the need for indifference to worldly success, power, and possessions if one wishes to enter the kingdom of heaven. Power is not bad but relentlessly seeking it to the exclusion of all else is.  Wealth is not necessarily the path to hell but ruthlessly and callously chasing it is. 

 

The Principle and Foundation that begins the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola gives good advice. 

 

“. . . it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things. . .  so that, on our part, we ought not to seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a short one, and so on . . .”

 

Once achieving status, accumulating honors, or pursuing the biggest and shiniest toys becomes the reason for our existence, we are risking the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 

The compelling question is whether or not those toys, baubles, and power re worth that risk. 

 

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The beginning of autumn up on Mt. Equinox is glorious.  It is more subtle than the visual the full-on assault of color in October.  

 

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

 

Nm 21:4b-9

Ps 78

Phil 2:6-11

Jn 3:13-17

 

"We adore Thee O Christ

and we bless Thee,

Because by Thy Holy Cross

Thou hast redeemed the world." 

 

Those of us who attended Lenten Stations of the Cross on Fridays while we were in parochial school have an almost Pavlovian urge to genuflect at the beginning of today’s gospel antiphon.  The only change being that it was easier to get up then than it is now.

 

The Gospel antiphon reminds us that the cross is the main support for our lives

and the life of the world. 

The antiphon reminds us: In Cruce salus.

“In the Cross is our salvation.”  It also encapsulates the Carthusian motto:

Stat Crux Dum Volvitur Orbis  “The Cross stands firm while the world revolves.”

 

Without the cross there is no Church.

Without the cross there is no salvation. 

Without the cross there ain’t nothin’.

 

The narrative of Moses lifting up a bronze serpent is remarkable when we recall that this was a people to whom graven and carved images were forbidden, a people on whom the golden calf brought down Moses’ wrath at Sinai.  But here, the image of a serpent on a pole reversed the punishment that the Lord had sent on the people as they were preparing to enter the Promised Land.

 

The Jewish Study Bible notes that, “Rabbinic interpreters were disturbed by the magical nature of this cure, and suggested that it was the glance of the afflicted to their father in heaven, rather than the snake, which resulted in the cure.” Some commentators suggest that these verses prefigure Jesus’ crucifixion.   John’s Gospel makes that connection. where we read in chapter 10: “And just as Moses

lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

 

The Cross was the most shameful of all means of execution in the Ancient Near East. It was  a form of execution reserved for slaves and other dregs of humanity. 

But through Jesus’ humble obedience the cross became, and remains, the living sign of salvation venerated throughout the universe. 

 

“For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perishbut might have eternal life.”These verses comprise a mine field for preachers and a stumbling block for many who confront their own deaths or the death of a loved one. 

 

In his commentary on this verse the late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow points out that these words do not mean that one will not die.   As he puts it, “What the gospel of John proclaims . . . is “eternal life” not exemption from dying, and certainly not immortality, but the overthrow of the power of death itself." 

 

Anyone doing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, be it in the traditional 30-day form, the 19^th Annotation, or simply returning to part of them while on an annual retreat, encounters an instruction in the first days that is referred to throughout the exercises. It is known as the triple colloquy. Ignatius instructs the one making the Exercises as follows,

 

“Imagine Christ our Lord present before you upon the cross, and begin to speak with him. Ask yourself how it is that though He is the Creator, He has stooped to become man, and to pass from eternal life to death here in time, that He might die for our sins.” 

 

After allowing a suitable amount of time for  meditating on this Ignatius instructs the exercitant to make the colloquyby asking himself or herself:

 

“What have I done for Christ?

What am I doing for Christ?

What ought I to do for Christ?”

 

This Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross is an ideal time to make this meditation.  Look at the cross in your room and after a suitable period of time,

ask yourself:

 

“What have I done for Christ?

What am I doing for Christ?

What ought I to do for Christ?”

 

And then after reflecting on the colloquy repeat the antiphon:

 

“We adore thee O Christ

and we Bless Thee,

because by Thy Holy Cross

Thou hast redeemed the world.”

_________________________________________

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary

 

12 September 2024

Today we commemorate The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a celebration that occurs within the octave of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The commemoration of Mary’s birth was on Sunday this year and thus suppressed.  Today’s memorial is a quiet commemoration with little fuss about it, no Gloria at the Mass, and a degree of flexibility with the readings. But today’s memorial  is now forever linked to the terrorist action that irreversibly changed life in the U.S.  

Mary’s yes, “May it be done unto me according to your word” a yes given at the Annunciation, changed the history of the universe.  That yes continues to echo down the universe and will echo through the universe until and beyond the end of time.  But today, September 12, 2024, we hear the echo of another sound from the past.  It was the sound of violence, destruction, and evil. It was a sound to which we shrieked NO! and then wept.

Twenty-three years ago today most of us were walking around in a catatonic state.  The full extent of the terrorists’ actions was still unravelling:  New York City, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, PA all the sites of terrorist caused plane crashes.

Twenty-three years ago today was the first full day following the attacks.  The tally of deaths was still climbing.  The reality of the holes in the sky where the twin towers had stood was yet to fully sink in.

Twenty-three years ago today the communal shriek NO contrasted with the strange silence in airspace as in Boston, NY, D.C., and all metropolitan areas as planes were grounded. That silence was interrupted only by the sound of jet fighters patrolling the sky while the comforting roar of 747’s coming in for a landing was absent.  It was eerie. 

Millions of Americans screamed WHY?  Those screams and whys were greeted by the same eerie silence.  Those screams continue to echo twenty-three years later and the same silence follows as we await an answer. 

Good people and bad ones were destroyed in equal measure without attention to which was which.  We remain perplexed.  We continue to scream  WHY as a quarter of a century as approaches.  Only a complete fool would stand in a pulpit and give an answer to that why with blather, rambling, and assurances that people are really good.  Only unchecked hubris would permit anyone to survey the devastation and explain the why. Only the most arrogant would interrupt the silence following the blast with babble or rationalizations. 

Sometimes the only possible response to an anniversary such as this is to sit in and with the silence and listen to that silence.  If we listen closely enough we can hear Elizabeth’s salutation in today’s gospel, “blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” 

And then we continue to ask: WHY? and struggle with the grief and angry residue of the past 23 years.

 

________________________________________________

The icon on the wall and the cross on the altar summarize it all.  

 

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

 

Be Opened: Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Is 35:4-7a

Ps 146

Jas 2:1-5

Mk 7:31-37

 

"Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened,

the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap as an hart

and the tongue of the dumb shall sing."

 

Charles Jennens, the librettist for Messiah, gave this verse from today's first reading to Handel, who, for his part, composed the recitative that leads into the exquisite air, "He Shall Feed His Flock." 

 

The images that follow in Isaiah's text: "streams in the desert," "rivers in the steppe" "thirsty ground becoming springs of water"—are images that promise

the same comfort and safety, beauty and peace, that Handel limned musically

when the libretto leapt from Isaiah to chapter eleven of Matthew's Gospel. 

 

It is no surprise that Isaiah's prophecy, that the ears of the deaf would be opened

and the tongue of the mute would sing was joined with today's Gospel. Jesus, the Suffering Servant, who would be buffeted and spat upon, freed the deaf and the dumb from their silent prisons and returned them to themselves

and to society. 

 

The Gospel is captivating because it describes Jesus efforts to effect the miracle. He touched the man's ears.  He spat and touched his tongue.He looked up to heaven and groaned.  Finally he said "Ephphatha."

 

This is one of the few miracle narratives in which Jesus seems to struggle

or to exert force in the battle against the evil one.

 

I'm fascinated by the description "he groaned."  Why? What did the groan sound like?  Did the tone rise, fall, or remain steady?  Was it the groan of pain, of effort, or relief?  How long did it last?

 

Of equal fascination is the question that we can ask about every healing miracle in the New Testament. What happened afterwards? We know the crowd did not obey Jesus' injunction against telling what they saw.  I imagine the grapevine overheated quickly.  Suppose there had been Twitter or the Internet. Imagine the comments and replies!

 

Nothing more is mentioned of the man.  We don't know his response to the gifts of hearing and speech.  Did he become a local celebrity or did life go on as usual?  Place yourselves in the unwritten part of the narrative.  Suppose you are the man's friend, or child, or neighbor.  Did he change?  How?  Did your relationship with him change? How? What was the effect of being able to hear the Good News of Jesus on this renewed man and to share it fluently with others?  What is the effect on you of witnessing what happened to him?

 

Several years ago I found a small book titled, The Hunted Priest on a bookshelf at the Abbey of Regina Laudis.  It is the autobiography of Jesuit Father John Gerard who ministered in Elizabethan England during the fierce persecution

that accounted for the martyrdom of many Catholics who resisted the Protestant heretics. 

 

Many of the Jesuit martyrs' names are more well known than Gerard, who was not martyred but died in Belgium at the age of 73.  They included: Robert Southwell,  Nicholas Garnet, Edmund Campion, and Brother Nicholas Owen, who was so skilled at designing and creating hiding places in homes, that some of them remain undiscovered today. 

 

Many laymen and laywomen who sheltered priests and maintained chapels in their houses for the celebration of Mass also died, oftentimes after prolonged imprisonment and dreadful torture.  

 

Gerard's autobiography is valuable because he gives a non-hysterical almost matter-of-fact description of the torture meted out to Catholics.  The details of his escape from the Tower are definitely the stuff of a Douglas Fairbanks silent film. 

 

He tells of many conversions and returns of heretics to the Church.  Many of the men subsequently entered the Society or became priests.  It appears that he

almost singlehandedly populated a monastery of Benedictine nuns in Belgium with English women he brought into or back to the Church.  Like the deaf mute in the Gospel, their ears were unstopped and their tongues were freed.  They preached the Good News in word and deed, at considerable risk to themselves and oftentimes paid for that preaching through financial penalties or with their lives.

 

Our challenge is to preach the news of Jesus crucified and risen from the dead,

no matter what.  Once our ears have been opened and our tongues loosed we must use that which has been given to usto open the ears and give sight to others.

 

The promises in Isaiah: hearing for the deaf, speech for the mute, were already fulfilled in us at the time of baptism. The Church recalls those promises and reenacts today's Gospel narrative, every time she celebrates the sacrament of baptism.  Toward the end of the ritual, in what is called The Ephphatha,

the priest touches the child's ears and mouth with his thumb and prays aloud:

 

"The Lord Jesus 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."

 

For that reason we sing with the psalmist today,

 

Praise the Lord my soul.

 

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The photos are from the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration in Vermont.  I've been doing some teaching there over the years and have been allowed a great deal of latitude with photography both in and outside the monastery itself.  

 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD