First Reading - Isaiah 35:4-7
Responsorial
Psalm – Psalm 145(146):7-10
Gospel Acclamation – Isaiah 3:9, John
6:68
Alternative Acclamation – Matthew
4:23
The Gospel According to Mark 7:31-37
©
(NJB)
Listen!
God has prepared you for eternity, but eternal life is not a reward for your faith and service, it is a gift-given freely, our faith and service are how we show our thanks. For the salvation we have already received.
2. To engender hope
There is no other purpose and there is no predictive power augurs and omens.
The words of a prophet are always addressed to the people in their own time, in their own place. Prophecy is never meant to guide the lives of future generations, except in cases when the prophet is addressing an issue of universal truth, such as the nature of justice, which is itself unchanging.
Know this.
The Gospel writers were propagandists. They fabricated many of the details of Jesus’ life to suit their understanding of who Jesus was, why his mission was necessary, and what his life and death meant for the early church.
Consider the Gospel reading for today, which gives us an example of Jesus’ healing power. The narrative constructed in such a way as to have the reader believe that what is important is the story of Jesus’ power, that he is able to make the deaf hear and the dumb speak. This is understandable, because the people wanted to believe that these kinds of miracles did in fact occur, they hungered for such stories, in this they are no different from our own generation.
The writers of Mark told the same stories that were circulating among the believers, they were compelled to make Jesus’ ministry a tale of wonder-working, and yet they were able to work a caveat into the story by expressing the notion that Jesus did not want his healings to be publicized…miracles were not the thing he wanted to be known for.
Mark’s Gospel, the earliest of the four, is replete with these admonishments to secrecy. The message they were sending is this; faith should not be based on stories of the supernatural. Myths and fables, while they be used for instruction, do not strengthen the Church.
Be mindful.
To have faith is to trust; faith in God is trust in the unseen.
This is the way.
First Reading - Isaiah 35:4-7
The
Blind Shall See, the Deaf Hear, the Dumb Sing for Joy
Say
to all faint hearts, ‘Courage! Do not be afraid.
Look,
your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God; he is coming
to save you.’
Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the
lame shall leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy; for water
gushes in the desert, streams in the wasteland, the scorched earth becomes a
lake, the parched land springs of water.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 145(146):7-10
The
Blessedness of Those Who Hope in the Lord
I
will praise my God all my days.
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Praise
the Lord, my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life,
make music to my God as long as I exist.
Do
not trust in princes to save you,
they are only sons of men.
One
day their breath will leave them, they will return to the ground;
on that day perish all their plans.
Happy
the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who
made heaven and earth and all that is in them,
who keeps faith for ever,
who gives justice to the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
The
Lord frees prisoners,
he gives light to the blind,
he raises the fallen.
The
Lord loves the upright, cares for strangers,
sustains orphans and widows;
but the wicked he sends astray.
The
Lord will reign for all ages,
your God, O Zion, from generation to
generation.
Amen.
I
will praise my God all my days.
Alleluia,
alleluia!
God
Chose the Poor According to the World to Be Rich in Faith
My
brothers, do not try to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with
the making of distinctions between classes of people. Now suppose a man comes
into your synagogue, beautifully dressed and with a gold ring on, and at the
same time a poor man comes in, in shabby clothes, and you take notice of the
well-dressed man, and say, ‘Come this way to the best seats’; then you tell the
poor man, ‘Stand over there’ or ‘You can sit on the floor by my foot-rest.’
Can’t you see that you have used two different standards in your mind, and
turned yourselves into judges, and corrupt judges at that?
Listen, my dear brothers: it was those who
are poor according to the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be
the heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.
Gospel Acclamation – Isaiah 3:9, John 6:68
Speak,
Lord, your servant is listening: you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
Alternative
Acclamation – Matthew 4:23
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Jesus
proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom and cured all kinds of sickness among
the people.
Alleluia!
The Gospel According to Mark 7:31-37 ©
‘He Makes the Deaf Hear and the Dumb Speak'
Returning from the district of Tyre, Jesus
went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, right through the Decapolis
region. And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech;
and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away
from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with
spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’,
that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue
was loosened and he spoke clearly. And Jesus ordered them to tell no one about
it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their
admiration was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said ‘he makes
the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’
A Homily – The Twenty-third Sunday in
Ordinary Time (Year B)
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