Mark 7:31-37 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time September 8, 2024 He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time September 1, 2024 “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
August 31, 2024
Mark 8:27-35 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time September 15, 2024 “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.” Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
September 14, 2024
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 35:4-7
James 2:1-5
Mark 7:31-37
A. Text/Context
• We have heard from the gospel that Jesus now goes to the district of Decapolis passing through Sidon and Tyre which is today located in modern Lebanon
• Now what is so significant with these places mentioned?
• These places are Gentile territories which means that the people here are non-Jews or they are pagans and they have a different religion or they do not believe in Judaism, the religion of the Jews or simply they just do not believe in God
• So through the situation it will not be a very friendly or hospitable place to preach the good news of salvation because the people are indifferent
• Our evangelist today St. Mark makes it prominent that Jesus is now in a Gentile territory to make a difference that Jesus is accepted or believed by the Gentiles
• While he is rejected by his own countrymen in Nazareth
• Here in this strange territory Jesus performs a miracle by healing a deaf man who has difficulty in speaking
• Remember that if we are deaf we will also have difficulty in speaking because we cannot follow the patterns of the sound we hear
• The faculties of hearing and speaking is related to each other
B. Human Situation
• So in this Gentile territory Jesus heals the mute man using the rituals or the usual practice of the people in healing
• If you listen intently on the gospel seems very superstitious…
• The man who was deaf mute was healed on that very moment
• But what he did was to imitate the traditional practice of the people in exorcising the devil
• Why did Jesus follow this pagan ritual? When in fact as a God possessing immense powers can just do it with a flick of his finger?
• Jesus did not act like a Jew who appears like a real stranger to the people doing the healing ritual of Moses that the people never knew. And they all believe in him
• In our lives as Christians, this is the message of the gospel
• That as Christians we are told to respect the others. We respect their rights, their culture, their traditions and their practices
• Why is it that until now we still did not attain peace when it comes to relationship with the Muslims in the south?
• One of the reasons is that as Christians we fail to acknowledge and respect their culture. Of course they also have their own pitfalls in the peace process, rather, the efforts for peace must be mutual
• Why do they spit during Ramadan? The reason is that they are fasting and they do not eat so that even the saliva in their mouth they have to spit it out because they are not allowed by religion to swallow anything even the saliva
• Sometimes it is really ignorance of the cultural practices that Christians and Muslims hate or dislike each other
• Going back to the gospel when Jesus is in the Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon he exercised prudence so as not to make the people a little scandalized because he acts like a real stranger
• Instead, when a deaf mute man was brought to him he healed the man using the traditional pagan practice in their culture
• And the people believed in him, Jesus won the respect of the people and perhaps even conversion
• In the many places that Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God people are attracted to him so much so that everywhere he goes there would be new disciples and followers
• While the Decapolis are populated by pagans there are still among them who are Jews
• Remember that Jesus said that he is sent to the lost children of Israel
• Apparently the disconnection of the Jews from mainstream Judaism have evolved in the faith with the mixture of deep pagan practices due to intermarriage, exiles due to punishments, seclusions due to the long distance from the central temple in Jerusalem
• For many other reasons, there are Jews scattered everywhere where Jesus is to preach the kingdom of God as in the 1st reading in Isaiah says “those whose hearts are frightened“
C. Challenge
• So today my brothers and sisters we are challenged to practice the message of the gospel to respect other people in order to attain harmony in relationship
• When we respect other people, when we respect and recognize the difference of the dialects of the different ethnic groups, when we appreciate how the traditional Igorots dress themselves, how the Bagobos perform their marriage rites, there will be harmony
• When we transcend the many differences that we have even in our own family in our community in the workplace there is restoration of relationship
• This is the very essence of the gospel today; the restoration of harmony in human relationship.
• We are reminded in the 2nd reading in the letter of St. James that we should not discriminate others; rather we practice kindness and charity
• Jesus returned the harmony of relationship performing the role of a peacemaker by not offending their culture
• So today we are all called to respect others of who they are and in that sense we will be able to restore harmony in relationships
• If we do that as mentioned in the 1st reading in Isaiah even the eyes of the blind will open because respect begets respect and there will peace and harmony
• Even the pagans, be they so different from us, just the same we are all created in the image and likeness of God
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