Sep 9 - Sunday 23rd Week in Ordinary TIme

+ Our readings today have to do with at least 4 levels of deafness that can be found in our world. First) There is the absence of the ability to hear, using the human ear, that comes as a defect of birth: sometimes the hearing apparatus is not intact or even present at all and so deafness results; Second) in other cases a person is born hearing, but through some disease or accident, or even the natural process of growing older, he loses the ability to hear - slowly or quickly - sometimes temporarily - sometimes permanently. Third) there is also another kind of inability to hear or deafness that can occur as well, and this is a very real case of psychological deafness: people hear only what they want to hear and tune out the rest, quite conveniently and dare I say easily. And finally) the last kind of deafness is what can be called theological or spiritual deafness: things of God and of the spiritual life somehow are accessed by the inner faculties only slightly, or not at all: this is the saddest and worst kind of all the deafnesses: for it can end in personal eternal loss and separation from God.

Jesus came to our world to repair the third and fourth kinds of deafness: the psychological and the theological/spiritual; while at the same time, not being entirely uninterested in the first and second kinds of inability to physically hear what is going on in the world. And to show his power over all of nature, he did open the ears of the deaf so that they could literally hear; but he would do this only if it would not be the end of the story. What comes after any restoration of healing of any of the four deafnesses is very important: which Jesus demonstrated in the healing of the deaf man in the gospel passage. Once hearing is restored, really and fully restored, one can hear the voice of Jesus speaking (in the variety of ways in which he does indeed speak to us during any given day), and then it is up to the healed person to sing out his praises (literally) and to proclaim the glory of his Father, and by his own words and actions to invite others to join him in sharing his newfound joy!

Our first reading tells us that God indeed comes to be our vindication – to make things right – everything about us (even our hearing) – but this is so that all of us, rich and poor alike (as we hear in the second reading) – on a level playing field – can receive God’s healing and blessing and share with all others the good things we have so undeservedly received.

And so, may we who have heard the words of Jesus clearly at this Mass experience a deeper opening of our theological / spiritual ears and thus have even more to sing about, give God the glory about and reason to invite all we meet to become one with us in God’s never-ending praise and worship!

Praise the Lord, my soul!