Easy For Him

 First Reading: Is 35:4-7a

Thus says the LORD:

Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10

Second Reading: Jas 2:1-5

My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Sit here, please, " while you say to the poor one, "Stand there, " or "Sit at my feet, " have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

Gospel: Mk 7:31-37

Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. 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!" -- And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, "He has done all things well.

He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

Reflection

By Cris Balla

The passage from Isaiah is a narration of the future; after all, he was a prophet. He asks those whose hearts are frightened to be strong for a Savior is coming. "Thus says the LORD: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, He comes with vindication; with divine recompense He comes to save you." Then the Gospel reading tells of the miracle Jesus performed on a deaf-mute. This miracle is a very specific confirmation of what Isaiah foretold many hundreds of years before the time of Jesus.

The story starts with Jesus traveling to Decapolis. (I did some wiki-reading about the Decapolis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decapolis - and it was apparently a 10-city federation around the Sea of Galilee). There in Decapolis, He was asked to heal a deaf-mute, and so He performed a miracle.

I think there are a number of learning for me in this Gospel reading.  First, I think that God listens and responds appropriately when we ask Him for something. In the Gospel, Jesus obliges when He was asked by the people. He did not deny them the healing of the deaf-mute when they "begged Him to lay His hand on him"... So, let's ask Him. And let's not be abashed for He is our Father after all. And am sure He will answer our prayers. It is easy for Him to grant our prayers.

Imagine how apparently easy for Jesus to perform the miracle. "He took Him off by Himself away from the crowd. 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!".

Apparently easy, but if we put some emphasis on (1) His act of taking the man away from the crowd and then (2) His gesture of looking up to heaven, I think we can also deduce that He was probably praying to God when He looked up to heaven, and so He took the man away from the noise of the crowd so He can pray and talk to His Father in a more conducive setting.

So my second learning is that we should pray. And when we pray, we must concentrate, away from distraction, away from the "noise" and the clutters of our lives. After all, even the Son of God has to pray to the Father, and when He prayed, He wanted an environment that did not interfere to His praying.

My third learning is from this same snippet: We need assistance of God. When Jesus prayed, He was probably asking for His Father's assistance. I believe that He can do it alone, but He chose to ask assistance. By this gesture, I think He is teaching us to recognize that we need assistance from the Father too. That our own abilities and all our education are insufficient to face the challenges in our lives.

So, let's go ahead and ask; we shall receive :) And then "He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it"… Good deeds cannot forever go unnoticed, and so the people themselves proclaimed His deeds. And so my last take-away is a reminder that "Actions speak louder than words".

Have a great day!

Prayer:

Father, like Jesus, please make it easy for us to pay attention to people who needs our healing touch. Help us in bringing more people closer to Your embrace as we try to nurture an intimate relationship with You.