Jesus went to a gentile district, a place of disgust for the Jews because they were considered unclean and undesirable people. Yet, the presence of Jesus in that undesirable place tells us now how God will work wonders to those who are troubled, to those who are struggling in life, who are rejected and abandoned, those who are taken for granted, the lonely and the oppressed. The story was more meaningful at the presence of the deaf man. At that time, when a person is sick, it was believed that he/she is a sinner and has been punished by God. Sickness is equivalent to God’s punishment because of sin. Thus, the person is undesirable and not to be touched for fear of contamination.
But let us also pay attention at how this man was brought to Jesus. The deaf man did not go to Jesus all by himself. He could not speak for himself. The deaf man was actually brought by his friends who interceded in behalf of him.
Thus, the response of Jesus was surprising for the Jews. Jesus took away the man by himself and put his finger into the man’s ears with his spittle and touching also his tongue. The action of Jesus seemed to de disgusting but for the deaf man, it was a personal encounter with the Lord.
What draws us deeper into the Gospel is the invitation of Jesus to the deaf man, Jesus said, “Ephphatha! – which means, be opened!” It was at that moment that the man was transformed. The deaf man began to hear and speak clearly.
We are reminded that God would never leave us alone and would not allow that we journey on our own. The rejections and struggles that we experience are windows for us to discover and recognize God’s promise that He is truly with us.
Jesus pays attention especially to us who are troubled and lonely, rejected, sick and undesirable for others. Jesus desires us and wants us. We too are reminded to allow ourselves to be helped by our friends just like the deaf man who was brought to Jesus. Or, we can also be the friend who will bring a person closer to Jesus.
The deaf man too, is symbolically, each one of us. We are the deaf man in the story. We are the undesirable, the sick, the lonely and the brokenhearted. We are the man who pretended to be deaf, who does not want to hear God’s message of love and mercy. Yet, the church brings us closer to God, to be healed and to be opened.
We may ask ourselves now, what is preventing my ears and heart in listening to the word of God, to Jesus’ invitation today? What has stiffened my tongue so that I may respond with honesty, in faith and in love?
Jesus wants us to be opened – to be opened to the many wonders of God, to his mysteries, to his forgiveness and unconditional love. In return, Jesus also wants us to become open in loving others even those who are unlovable. Jesus also wants us to open our eyes and ears so that we may be able to recognize the needs around us and that we may be able to respond. Jesus wants us to open our mouth to sing our praises to Him, to speak of the injustices today, and to share his message of mercy. Hinaut pa.
Even God realized that it is not good for a human being to be alone. Though God is portrayed in an anthropomorphic way (in a human character) but the story itself behind this second account of the creation story tells us of our human nature. Our soul and our heart longs for companionship and for friendship with another person. This proves and tells us that we find not just our identity but also our meaning and our being within our community.
What has been revealed to us today in the first reading from the Book of Genesis is not only referring to the Sacrament of Marriage between a man and a woman, but also of the human community. It is not merely about who is superior and who is inferior in the order of creation, but in our capacity to give life, create life and heal life with God.
If we would become more conscious of that power to give, create and heal life with God, the world and our local communities will always be celebrating life and having the abundance of life. To give and create life is not just even limited in physical birthing of another human being but also in nurturing another life. This is the wonder that each of us can do within the limits of our influence and capacities and in the abundance of our generosity.
The many areas of pain and fear around us can become life-threatening and life-paralyzing to others especially those who are afraid and do not know how to respond in difficult situations. This pandemic reveals to us that there are many helpless individuals who struggled to live. The many forms of injustice and oppression that also happen in our society are evidences that many have been deprived of life and to live life fully. Yet, when one becomes convinced and confident of the gift of his or her person, this can be a blessing to another.
This is what Jesus showed us in today’s another healing story. A Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was possessed and controlled by a demon, had been deprived to live life fully. The mother knowing that it was beyond her capacity, begged Jesus to be that very gift to her daughter. She knew that Jesus has the power to give and renew the life of her daughter.
Moreover, as Jesus granted the request, Jesus redirected such power to bring life into the person of the mother. The daughter was actually healed through the faith and love of her mother. The seemingly cold response of Jesus was received in humility by the mother. She was willing to bow down not for her sake but for the sake of her child. This was how Jesus worked miracle with the mother and brought new life to the daughter.
This is also the invitation in today’s memorial of the Our Lady of Lourdes. The Church even celebrate today as the World Day of the Sick to remind us to pray for all the sick and to be life-giving and to be healing channels of God’s grace to each other. The very person of Mary is gift and a blessing to the Church. She has been an instrument of giving life, creating life and healing life because of her generous response to God and to the world.
May our words and actions then, our concern and love, our commitment and dedication and our very person become the very channel of God in order to give, create and heal life. Hinaut pa.
“Let there be light.” This was the first command of God in order to bring light to earth covered with darkness. Even until now, there are also dark spots in our life that need to be lightened. We experience pain of loss and rejection, of sickness and fear, of injustice and oppression. These areas are what we seek to be illuminated. This is the reason why we do things to overcome the pain of loss and rejection. We seek the comfort of friends when we are afraid. We seek the expertise of doctors to bring us into health. We fight and confront the unjust and oppressive to bring justice and compassion.
These desires to be in the light, to be illumined and to experience that grace of God, are being portrayed to us also in the Gospel of Mark. People followed Jesus wherever he went because they have recognized him to be that person who can bring light into the darkness they experienced in life.
That desire gave them the hope that there was something better for them that God offers to them. People wanted to touch Jesus, then, even just the tassel of his cloak. They believed that even in that small way, God shall bring them the hope they have been waiting for. True, indeed, all those who were sick who touched it were healed. At last, the darkness in their heart and soul disappeared because of God’s creative work in the world.
In the same way, Jesus invites us today to also have that desire in our heart, that we may always recognize his presence and seek to touch God. Jesus as well calls us today to become his tassels in our homes and communities where those who are in need shall also experience light and healing through our kindness and generosity, through our words that bring consolation and encouragement, through our presence that gives assurance and confidence. Hinaut pa.
Who among us here who experienced pain and suffering? Or a failure or a heartbreak? I am certain each of us has these experiences in one way or another. There might be some of us here who have also experienced being humiliated, oppressed or abused. Perhaps there are those who are ill at the moment, or in trouble at work, have lost a job, failed in a business or in a relationship or who are in great sorrow for losing a loved one.
It has been a year when the first report of death from Covid-19 has been revealed. Since then, the outbreak of the virus brought so much difficulty to many of us particularly those who have health issues and those whose source of income are already unstable even before the pandemic. Aside from these, there are also others who suffered very much because of the surrounding circumstances in their life.
This happened to Joy (not her real name). She was working in a big hospital and when Covid-19 Pandemic made the first infection in the City, the hospital became busier. All medical staff felt the pressure as well as the fear and anxiety in working in a very toxic environment.
Joy has a boyfriend. She was happy with him and he too was happy with her. They have been together for several years and thought that the relationship was going to the stage of a life-long commitment. One day, Joy found that she was pregnant. At first, she was surprised and at the same time felt afraid. Though she was happy with her boyfriend, but, she felt not sure after all. Few weeks later, when she was ready to inform her boyfriend, the relationship suddenly became unstable. As she expected it, the relationship was broken and Joy was not able to tell her boyfriend that she was pregnant. Her boyfriend broke-up with her and left her. And she kept her pregnancy to herself.
But, the New Corona Virus came, and the national government declared lockdown in major cities. People were advised to stay home. Hospitals became busier. Herself and her colleagues felt not only the pressure of work but also the emotional burden. With this, the more Joy decided to keep her pregnancy a secret.
For Joy, the situations surrounding her pregnancy, the recent break-up, the pandemic, the pressures at work, the emotional stress brought so much confusion to her. Her heart and mind now filled with darkness. She could not understand herself and her situation anymore. She felt not ready too to become a mother. She was afraid. She was terrified of raising the child alone and bringing the child in the midst of this pandemic and broken-relationship.
With so much emotional/psychological stress from all aspects of her life, Joy aborted the baby after her third month of pregnancy. She thought it would solve the problem, end her troubles, her fears and anxieties, her pain and anguish. However, that was just the beginning of more pain and guilt, of shame and deep sorrow in the heart of Joy.
She could not sleep anymore. Her colleagues began to notice changes in her attitude. She would break-down and sob even at work and even in public places. Joy was lost. She has been carrying a truck of guilt in her heart. She was searching for forgiveness, looking for God, yet, she could not forgive herself. Yet, deep within, Joy desired to find comfort and peace, light and hope in her heart.
Joy has been keeping all those painful experiences in her heart alone. Joy needed a listening ear and heart that will only keep listening to her story without judgment and without any biases. Joy needed a big amount of understanding and it can only be given to her by listening fully to her story, to her anxieties and fears, to her broken-relationship and pregnancy, to her struggles at work and to her sins. And at some point of her life, she began to open up and allowed herself to be touched by the presence of those around her. She took the risk and let herself be embraced by her friends
As Joy was assisted to recognize all of those circumstances that have happened in her life, this paved the way to forgiveness, to the road of healing and freedom.
A reality such as this reminds me of today’s readings. So, allow me to bring you a bit deeper into our readings and let us discover how God unfolds His invitations for us today.
Our first reading tells us about the misery and hopelessness of Job who lost everything, not just his material possessions but especially his family and health. But what was intriguing was that Job seemed to be a good and righteous man. He never oppressed anybody. He had been honest to God. However, being good and righteous did not make him immune to human pain and suffering, to misery and hopelessness. With that horrible experience of Job, he said, “I shall not see happinness again.” This is Job’s testimony of that bitterness in a life filled with so much pain and darkness.
Nevertheless, Job’s story did not end there. He actually saw and experienced joy again in his life because God showed mercy to him. This mercy is what we find in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus, as he began his public ministry, went from one town to another in order to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the diseases that plagued the people of his time and freed those who were possessed by demons. Jesus came in order to let the people know that God has come and is not blind to our suffering and difficulties. God wants to free us from those that enslaved us, that make us suffer and hopeless.
This is what Jesus did to the mother-in-law of Peter and to those people who have been brought to Jesus. Jesus healed and freed them by touching them. This is what our Psalm proclaimed to us, “The Lord heals the broken-hearted.” Our Psalm testifies that God is a healer. God brings completeness, wholeness and healing to the broken-hearted, to the wounded and to the miserable. God brings hope and light to us who find life hopeless, bitter and dark.
Indeed, it is when we allow God to touch us that God also brings healing into our life. God’s touch is showed to us in many ways. And this is what I realized in the life of Joy. God touched her through her friends who showed concern to her. God also touched her through the sacraments that Joy received. Peter’s mother-in-law was touched by Jesus through Peter himself who brought Jesus to their home. The sick and the possessed were touched by Jesus and were healed through the people who brought them to Jesus.
It is in this way that God works wonders in us and also through us. This is the invitation for us today which I summed in two points.
First, God wants to heal us, to make us complete and joyful. Jesus is letting us know that our God is for us the wounded, for the broken, for the sick and for the hopeless. We might be like Job who find life miserable – come closer to the Lord, then, do not lose hope but rather seek healing and ask what you need from God because our God is, indeed, a God of healing.
Second, each of us can be an instrument of healing too. We can be a friend who will be able to bring healing to others by bringing them closer to God. We can show it by being generous of ourselves to others, that is, by offering a helping hand to those in need, by making our ears available to a person who wants to be heard, by assuring a sick friend of our prayers and company, by letting a person know that you are there to support and give comfort. Yes, we don’t have to look far, just be aware of those people around us because he or she might just be one of our friends who has been hiding his/her suffering from a smiling façade, or could just be a family member who has been making himself/herself busy with work or worst indulging themselves in their own rooms with their gadgets or with chemical substances. Let us be instruments of God’s healing presence today. Hinaut pa.
A group of barangay leaders once went to attend a week-long seminar on leadership and public service. Since they have heard a lot about the speaker of their seminar, they looked forward meeting him hoping that they could learn some new wisdom about leadership and service. As they arrived at the venue, they happen to see a simple man around, and ordered him to bring their luggage to their respective rooms. The man obligingly obeyed their order. And off they went visiting other sites since they still have more time to spend before the seminar. As the seminar begins, much to their dismay, they were all ashamed of themselves because the man whom they asked to bring their luggage to their rooms is the very guest speaker himself.
We hear from our gospel today Jesus responding to the immediate needs of the people. As he arrived in Peter’s house, Jesus healed the fever of Peter’s mother-in-law, and until nighttime he cured all the sick people of the community. Yes, Jesus is indeed a compassionate healer, who reaches out and responds to the needs of the people. But we must also know that in responding to people’s need, Jesus also have to stop and leave them, so that he can continue his mission. Though he is a frontline healer, for Jesus, His main mission is to preach and spread the Good News and to build God’s Kingdom, rather than just responding to the immediate needs of the people.
Jesus is more than just a healer of life but he is The Giver of life. He is more than just trouble-shooter or mechanics but he is the engineer or builder. He is more than just our “kargador” but he is the guest speaker himself. Jesus is the Life-giver Himself, more than just our frontline healer. He is God’s offer of Life than mere health to us.
Like the people of his time, sometimes we only recognize Jesus as he heals and responds to our immediate need. So that we may be happy, we only want Jesus to satisfy our urgent needs. We want Jesus to create miracles or magics, to ease our pain and free us from our life’s loads and burdens. Like those baranggay leaders, at times we may have considered Jesus only as our “Kargador” baggage-carrier to lighten our loads, serve our needs and ease our pains. Sometime in life, we see Jesus as a mere gasoline station – we recognize Him only whenever we need Him, when we run out of gas. Sometimes, we need Jesus to be just our caregiver who should readily respond to our immediate needs – without caring about the message He preached, story to tell, role to play in our lives as well as His life and mission to partake & live with us.
Well, surely Jesus will respond hands-on and on-hand to our needs and hope, for He do know what we need & what we are going through in life. But Jesus can offer us more than just carrying our burden. He is the guest speaker who offers us more than just lightening our loads, cure our sicknesses, free us from our problems or filling-up our gasoline tank. Jesus comes to us to renew our lives and offer us God’s kingdom. His mission is to preach the Good News of Salvation. He came not only to respond to our immediate petty needs but to heal and recreate our land and the world now. He comes so that we may have life – life to its fullness, and not just life to our satisfaction.
Be reminded then of what Jesus say to us in our gospel today, “Let us move on to the neighboring villages so that I may proclaim the good there also. That is what I have come to do.”
In this Eucharist, we pray that our faith in Jesus moves us not to limit & abuse God’s graces for us, but rather move us to be more open & trusting to God’s plans & will for us now during these pandemic times, and thus participate fully in the Mission of Jesus of sharing God’s offer of Life & Salvation to all in our world now & always. Amen.
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 