Readings for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Isaiah 35:4-7
Psalms 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10
James 2:1-5
Mark 7:31-37
We live in the Age of Information that promises instant, endless means of communication, whether it’s through television, the internet, social media or artificial intelligence. And one would think that the sheer speed and abundance of ever advancing means of human communication would eliminate isolation and loneliness in human relationships. Yet the irony is that the more advanced technological forms of communication we have, the less united we really become. And the more ways that technology allows us to speak to one another, the less connected we truly are.
While digital communication connects us to the world at the click of a computer mouse, it cannot guarantee that we become less fearful, isolated, or alone.
Fear of the unknown and of human isolation is a fundamental part of our wounded human reality. Popular movies often appeal to our nameless fears. Whether it’s the fear of an apocalyptic event or nuclear disaster, the threat of nature’s destructive forces or the threat of widespread viruses and emerging diseases, we experience a profound contradiction of our technological age. Faster and easier means of human communication have not erased the loneliness and anxiety that grips the human heart.
The word of God continually offers the divine response to the deep-seated fear and despairing isolation that marks the human condition.
From the opening creative words of Genesis to the closing assurances of Revelation, God offers a sure path to overcome the human fears that diminish our existence and keep us from experiencing the fullness of divine love and mercy. Like the deaf man in the Gospel who must have experienced profound fear. His speech impediment ensured that he was alone and helpless. And he would have known the pain of isolation. First, at the natural level of his physical senses of hearing and speaking. And then at a social level as he was prevented from participating fully in the life of his community. His physical weakness would have undoubtedly led him to fear deeply for his future and the well-being of his family.
St. Mark offers an intriguing detail as he describes how Jesus healed the deaf man. We are told that Jesus looked up to heaven and groaned, as he placed his finger in the man’s ear and, spitting, touched his tongue.
Perhaps it is the sacred author’s way of telling us that Jesus was reaching into the very fear that gripped the deaf man, even as he healed his body.
Jesus desires to reach into our daily and persistent fears. He desires to heal all those who are, in one way or another, deaf to the relentless love and mercy of God. Jesus groans with longing that we open our lives to God in faith, just as he opened the deaf man’s ear. In Jesus’ suffering love on the cross, we encounter God’s definitive victory over every fear, and the pain of isolation and despair.
The words of the prophet Isaiah, in today’s first reading, confirm God’s response to human fear: “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.” And then the prophet promises that God will indeed open the eyes of the blind, clear the ears of the deaf, make the lame leap like stags and release the mute to sing the praises of God.
The psalmist echoes the same gratitude for God’s healing love that alone can free us from fear and isolation. He encourages the people of Israel to give thanks to God for “the LORD gives sight to the blind; the LORD raises up those who were bowed down. The LORD loves the just; the LORD protects strangers.” We are invited to join the psalmist in giving thanks to God by singing, “praise the Lord, my soul!”
God intended for his creatures to live in communion and in freedom. We were not created to be bound by chains of fear and loneliness. On the cross, Jesus overcame the sin that introduced fear into our relationship with God and with one another. And today, God’s word invites us to replace fear with faith, and isolation with communion with God and neighbor, as we pray in faith, “speak to me, Lord.”
Question: What fears will you offer to God’s healing hand today?
Jem Sullivan holds a doctorate in religious education and is an associate professor of catechetics in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
