Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jan 30 2025

The Tender Touch of Healing

Perhaps you saw the movie The King’s Speech about the future king of England, George VI, whose speech impediment was so severe that it reduced him to tears of anger and humiliation. His wife, Elizabeth, found a speech therapist who was able to help him by using some unorthodox methods, such as rolling around on the floor, cursing, and singing. It is a profoundly moving experience when King George finally addresses his people over the radio and delivers a speech flawlessly, giving courage to his people on the eve of World War II. The story in this Gospel tells us how Jesus helped a man to find his voice. The man whose tongue Jesus touched with his spittle (an element believed to ward off demons) came to speak “plainly.” Another word for “plainly” would be “rightly,” in the sense of correctly or truly. “Be opened,” Jesus says, and it happens. The man then spoke the truth of what Jesus did for him, and honored him. As we hold firm to our faith in the Lord, Jesus calls us to both speak and act “rightly” in the eyes of the world, caring for those who have little and treating them with the same dignity as those who have much. We are called to imitate Jesus by reaching out tenderly to touch those who have been wounded by life and burdened by the rejection of others. Helping others to hear the sound of love can be done in many quiet ways and with little fanfare.

Consider/Discuss

Has anyone ever helped you hear something you were unable to hear up until then, or to find your voice so that you could speak what was in your heart?
Consider how Jesus has touched your life and enabled you to hear his voice and sing his praise.

Responding to the Word

Lord, open our ears to hear the many ways you speak to us in our lives, to listen for the gentle sound of your voice that often comes to us in stillness. May we be still and know that you are our God, ever ready and desiring to draw closer.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

Isaiah depicts two ways in which the renewal promised by God is manifested: those who suffer physical maladies will be healed of their infirmities, and the barren wilderness will be filled with the promise of new life. Just as deprivation and infirmity were considered signs of evil in the world, so this restoration was perceived as a sign of the transformation that only God can effect. It was a testimony to God’s presence in the world and to God’s victory over evil. Once again God reestablished the original order of creation, and all life began again to flourish.

In broad and clear strokes, the author of the Letter of James paints a picture of unacceptable discrimination. He condemns the preference for the man dressed in fine clothing and the contemptuous way the poor man is treated, thus exposing the community’s bias. Such discrimination is not only an example of social snobbery, but it is also in direct opposition to the basis upon which the church was founded, namely, the gathering of all into the reign of God. Such behavior is condemned for two reasons. First, the people are reestablishing distinctions where God has eliminated them. Second, their partiality jeopardizes the justice that they are called to administer.

Jesus is in Gentile territory. There he heals a deaf man. In an oral culture such as his, those who cannot hear are at a great disadvantage. They are marginalized in ways that others are not. Furthermore, hearing symbolizes openness to God. Jesus unstops the ears of a man who was unable to hear his words, so that now the man can hear them and can be open to their message. Those who witnessed this miracle relate the wonders that Jesus can perform to the prophetic promise of regeneration that will take place during the new age of the reign of God. They proclaim that Jesus has accomplished here exactly what was to be accomplished in that time of fulfillment.

Jan 28 2025

The Lord Keeps Faith Forever

My dear young friend, I write this to you from the middle of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Have you graduated now? Are you in the first few weeks of medical school as you planned? When you read this, hopefully the pandemic crisis has passed.

Today, the sun comes up. The sun goes down. The birds sing. The buds on the trees, as this is being written, swell in early springtime. The garlic grows. Life goes on.

While all around us changes.

What can I say to you about today’s story of the healing of the deaf man? Jesus groans at the restriction, the brokenness of this earthly life. Then he shouts out, “Be opened!” as in “Make it flow!” and power flows into that deaf man’s ears and he can hear. And the Gentile crowds are amazed!

I also want to see the broken healed. I want to be astonished beyond measure, to be struck with a sudden “Wow!” faith—not a blasé “Well, that’s kind of interesting” faith—shaken to the core by what Jesus is doing.

I want that kind of healing to flow right now.

As I write, people are praying their rosaries in Italy, struggling to breathe, dying alone. A student of mine lost both of her grandparents in one day. A newly pregnant woman develops a sore throat and she is afraid for her baby. Is everything going to be all right? Will we recover?

The people of Israel were beaten down. Isaiah prophesied: “Say to those who are frightened: ‘Be strong, fear not! Your God is coming.’” We are beaten down, too. We are hemmed in by earthly brokenness. Jesus, send your power to flow into us! We want to be healed.

Trust is not easy. We cannot manufacture conviction as a psychological “strong feeling.” Come, God of Jacob, and let the grace to trust flow into us.

Consider/Discuss

The pandemic/economic breakdown revealed to us how much of life is not under our control. This can be a source of anxiety. Anxiety can cause us to turn to prayer, to turn to God. Anxiety can also cause us to turn away from a God who doesn’t seem to be intervening, at least not in the amazing ways that Jesus did when he cured the sick. As you went/got through the time of the pandemic, how did/does your faith respond? What graces did God give you? How are you different today?
What happened to your pre-COVID plans? Has everything turned out the way that you hoped that it would? If so, God be praised! If not, then God be praised as well? How do we trust in God, no matter where life takes us?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, as we read the scriptures, we see people who have been oppressed for centuries. Yet they still hold fast to you, believing that you keep faith forever. On this day, give us the eyesight of centuries, for this day is not looking so good. Show us what we can do today for the world in which we live—whether to forgive and reconcile, to aid those who are hurting, or pray for those who struggle alone. In you we trust. Protect us from the blame and hate and finger-pointing that cause division. Bless this world with a strong dose of your peace.

Jan 28 2025

Scripture Study for

The context of the oracle from Isaiah is a time period or an experience of oppression or military conquest. The oracle contains elements common to many oracles of salvation, such as the exhortation to “be strong, fear not.” Such an exhortation responds to a sense of being defeated and abandoned by God, which is how recurrent political and military oppression at the hands of others was likely to be interpreted. Here the prophet assures the people that God has not in fact abandoned them; God is acting now to “vindicate” them and to bring about a change of fortune. This is exemplified by healing—in the human realm afflictions cease, and in the natural realm the infertile desert blossoms.

James continues to develop his thoughts regarding how to be “doers of the word and not hearers only.” One clear manifestation of this is to “keep oneself unstained by the world,” which is to say, to refuse to live according the greater society’s values, such as the elevation of the rich over the poor and the treatment of the poor with contempt. James has already noted that pure religion involves caring for the vulnerable and the poor, who have a special place in God’s heart, and who will inherit the kingdom. This is the opposite of the world’s perspective. Those who would be doers of the word of truth must be prepared to reject the privileges and privileging of the rich and the powerful.

The Decapolis was a group of ten autonomous city-states, most of them east of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus here enters Gentile territory. Yet here also the people have heard of him and immediately approach him with a deaf man for healing. It is unusual for Jesus to be depicted performing a healing ritual (see, though, 8:22–26; John 9:6–7).

Usually he either touches the sick or simply proclaims that they are healed. Jesus was not limited to one approach to healing. The man is cured, the people are amazed, and word spreads. The Decapolis context of all this indicates that the reign of God is being actively extended beyond the ethnic and geographical borders of Israel.

Jan 15 2025

A Job Nobody Wants

We can respond in different ways when someone wrongs us: we can ignore the offense, cut off the offender, announce our anger or hurt, or be equally offensive. Perhaps you have tried each of these. Jesus sets out another way for his disciples. First, go to the person and point out the failure; if that doesn’t work, take another with you; if that doesn’t work, “refer it to the church.” And if that doesn’t work, “treat the person as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.”

This last remark could sound like even Jesus put limits on what you had to do to bring a person around, especially since tax collectors were generally held in contempt and Gentiles kept at a distance. But this wasn’t so for Jesus; these were the very ones he reached out to. So, his last remark indicates that you never stop trying to win over another.

These words are part of Jesus’ fourth speech in Matthew’s Gospel, focused on life within the community of his followers. They are to be a community of reconciliation. This call to engage in fraternal correction has got to be one of the more difficult aspects of living out the way of Jesus, by loving others enough to tell them when they are committing a wrong. It’s frequently much easier to let it slide or move away from the person altogether.

Paul’s exhortation to “owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another” finds fulfillment in this difficult area of fraternal correction. Such love fulfills the law.

Consider/Discuss

How do you react when someone wrongs you?
Do you see any value in the process Jesus sets out here?
Do you accept that being a church community means correcting those who do wrong?

Responding to the Word

We may need to ask God for the courage to face those who have wronged us and tell them of their failure. We pray to the Spirit whose work is to bring about unity, strengthening the bonds of love between all disciples so that this love may extend to all creation.