Homily – Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time September7, 2003

 

A wealthy Jewish merchant treats a poor old man with rudeness and disdain as they travel together on a train. When they arrive at their common destination, the merchant finds the station thronged with pious Jews waiting in ecstatic joy to greet the arrival of one of the holiest rabbis in Europe, and learns to his chagrin that the old man in his compartment is that saintly rabbi.

 

Embarrassed at his disgraceful behavior and distraught that he missed a golden opportunity to speak in privacy to a wise and holy man, the merchant pushes his way through the crowd to find the old man.  When he reaches him, he begs the rabbi’s forgiveness and requests his blessing. The old rabbi looks at him and replies, “I cannot forgive you. To receive forgiveness you must go out and beg it from every poor old person in the world.”

 

Its too easy to be blind to what is before us- to be deaf to what we are being told.  Our eyes and ears are blocked, so often, by our prejudices and our narrowness.

 

 

There is a story a chaplain at a state mental hospital told of the sad case of a Greek man in an institution who was thought to be a hopeless schizophrenic.  The man had been vegetating in the hospital for years. NO one knew much about him, where he had come from, but all agreed he was a hopeless case.  The chaplain asked the Greek Orthodox priest in the community to pay the man a visit, just to give the poor fellow a chance to speak in his native tongue as much as for any pastoral reasons. He hadn’t had a chance to do this for years.

 

The Greek Orthodox priest returned from the visit and asked the chaplain:  “What in the world is that fellow doing there?  He’s as healthy as you and I.”  Bit by bit the tragic story unfolded.

 

The Greek had jumped ship long ago in a nearby port.  Speaking no English, he had gotten into some sort of trouble and as mistakes sometimes happen, he was locked up in a mental institution.  There he slowly learned English, but he learned his English from schizophrenic patients.

 

Certain language misuse is characteristic of that mental dysfunction, and the poor Greek fellow managed to learn  totally schizophrenic English.  To all English personnel he sounded schizophrenic and as removed form reality as his fellow patients. The priest, however, conversed with him in Greek, the first time anyone had done that in the hospital, and the man spoke perfectly correct Greek.  The hospital staff were humbled and were taught a lesson by the experience.

 

 

Our scripture for the Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary time is about healing – for sure.  But it is also about discovering – about recognizing the truth – about being able to see clearly and hear plainly.

 

The disciples bring the man who was deaf and couldn’t speak plainly to Jesus. And without much conversation Jesus simply touches him – and prays that he be opened up and indeed he is. He hears clearly and speaks plainly. And the crowd who witnessed it are amazed – and no one, even Jesus, is going to keep them quiet about this dramatic event.

 

And of course we see that this event is clearly connected with the first reading today and the promise Isaiah.  The prophet promises that God will come through and free us – and open our eyes to be no longer blind and our ears will hear clearly and we’ll leap for joy and no longer be impeded.  And this will happen, the prophet says, because God comes to save us.

 

Of course the prophet is speaking to a people who are oppressed – they are the minority – they have no power – they have little hope.  But because God loves them, even favors them, the prophet says, they will be freed from any bondage that is placed upon them.  The prophet gives images of God’s salvation that show how radically this God will work:

Not only will the blind see and the deaf hear and the lame leap but there will be streams of water in the desert and the burning sands will be turned into pools of cool water and the dry land will have springs of refreshing water shoot up. Dramatic images to illustrate the dramatic love of God.

 

And so we see this image of salvation in he prophet in the works of Jesus.

 

But James brings it home.

 

James warns us that this dramatic salvation is not just for us.  God’s plan is not just for the white American-European Roman Catholic population.  Sometimes we act as if we have the exclusive claim to salvation!

God’s plan is not just for the churchgoer.

God’s dramatic movement is not just for those who get up early each day and go to work and have the usual family structure and live what we consider normal lives.

God’s action – God’s freeing and healing and opening action is all inclusive – for people of every land, and race, and sex, and orientation, and denomination.

God’s love is dramatic and radical.

And James warns us that if we limit by our attitudes where we think God’s love exists we are not people of the Gospel and not followers of Jesus Christ.  James is quite clear about this. It’s a real challenge to our usual way of thinking.

 

Our problem is that we don’t always have ears open enough to hear the good news – the fact that God loves us so much.  James tells us in the second reading that that we will behave in love toward all when we really believe that God has loved us.  Only when we forget that we ourselves have been rescued from dire spiritual poverty will we treat the poor and all come into our midst with disdain – only when we realize what God has done for us will we truly love.  When we realize that God loves us infinitely, exactly as we are at any given moment – in spite of our failings – our faithfulness – our selfishness –then we will truly put down the barriers that divide us from the rest of God’s people.

 

When we can sit next to the poorest and realize that God loves us both equally and fully and radically then we will be responding to the Gospel.

When we can listen to the other – even though we speak different languages and come from different value systems and attitudes – and we can hear what the other is saying than we will be responding to the Gospel.

When we can simply realize that God loves us – and God loves the other – we are on the road to healing and liberation and freedom.

Our acceptance of God’s all-inclusive love is what helps to establish the reign of God.

And that is what our ministry is all about.