23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings are collectively a reminder that the reign of God is more than just the forgiveness of sins and the transformation of minds and hearts. It is also the deaf hearing, the dumb speaking, the blind seeing, the lame walking, the abolition of distinctions between different types of people…
Today’s gospel is contextualized by the first reading as an event within the fulfillment of the holistic Divine refreshment promised by the prophets: He does all things well, he makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Or, the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them, or, good news for the poor, liberty to captives, to set the downtrodden free..
The original prophetic promise includes not just the
fullness of human reality in its individual and social dimensions; it includes even
the natural world (cf. Isaiah - quote).
But according to
Our continuation of the mission of Jesus, from its beginnings after the Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit, has focused more on the central themes of the forgiveness of sins, and the transformation of the human heart, made possible by the death of Christ, his resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit: body given up for us, blood shed for us and for all, so that sins may be forgiven.
This is indeed crucial. It is our sins which mostly keep us down, coming from the human will and therefore reaching to the heart of who we are: in deciding for ourselves we also get to decide ourselves, what we freely do, expressions of the heart, become part of our identity, so deeply that as the scribes argued, “no one can forgive sins but God alone”. And as we learned last week, it is from the human heart that the vast bulk of evils in the world derive, both individual and social. Make everything lovely but without transformation of mind and heart, leave the people involved the same, and before you know it things will be back the way they were.
God’s solution to this is to do the totally unexpected: out of his ‘so much’ love, in a total reversal of the Abraham situation and indeed of all past religion, God gives up his only son, it is God who does not spare his own son but gives him up for us all, and Christ in turn does not spare himself but gives himself up for us and for our salvation, for the forgiveness of sins. Normal religion and ethics fails, us trying to do the right thing or to save ourselves, so God takes the initiative. And, as if this wasn’t enough, in consequence we also get the Holy Spirit, the wherewithal that made Christ who he was and enabled him to do what he did, so that we may truly be, and live our lives as, the true sons and daughters. And this is not just for us, but for all the nations, across all distinctions and for people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation: a transformation of the heart, and a transformation from the heart.
Our gospel today, in its context in Mark’s gospel, does have
a number of possible symbolic effects, in addition to making a difference to
that first century deaf and dumb man. It
may be a bit difficult and messy, like the blind man at
But all this does not preclude its functioning within the
more holistic package of prophetic promise, the holistic divine refreshment
promised by Isaiah and represented by the ministry of Jesus: on the contrary. Indeed, as Pope Benedict has written in his
first encyclical, the church on every level has never been, and should never
be, completely bereft of a Ministry of Christian Love alongside its usually
more prominent Ministry of the Word and Ministry of the Sacraments, usually
directed at the poor and the sick, and the education of the children of the
poor. Nor did we have to wait until the
invention of the RSPCA for Christian-inspired care and stewardship and indeed
love for all God’s creatures, great and small.
Though this is a very interesting story in its own right, including its
original Christian institution and its connection with the institution of the
first societies for the prevention of cruelty to children. (Cite from The
Nor are the various elements within this holistic vision, the elements of God’s marvelous vision for our world, God’s will for us and our world, in conflict with each other. As the above story illustrates, the concern for the human and the natural worlds can indeed go hand in hand, to reinforce each other. Beyond that, all the technology and wealth creation in the world are not going to solve either our human individual or social problems or our environmental problems unless matched by a transformation of minds and hearts. The whole of creation indeed is groaning while it awaits the revelation of the children of God.
Nevertheless, we might like to pray especially today for all those who in fact in our day are doing God’s work, who work hard in all parts of the healing professions, who endeavour to make the blind see, the deaf hear and the dumb to speak, the lame to walk, and to cleanse the lepers; and also for those dedicated to the care of and renovation of the environment and all its creatures – including snakes and crocodiles! Especially but not only those inspired by the Christian vision of Our Lord Jesus who did all things well, who made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, appreciated and admired and valued the flowers of the fields and the birds of the air and spent time in company with the wild beasts. While still working for the transformation of minds and hearts, starting with ourselves, the revelation of the children of God, for their own sake and for the sake of the groaning creation.