Healing Each Other
It is through our senses that we experience and understand the goodness of Creation. Through our senses, we interact with the world. This means that the loss or impairment of our senses can make the world a lonely and difficult place. When Jesus heals the hearing and speech of the gentleman in today’s Gospel, he enables him to experience the world in a new way. The gentleman now has open ears and a tongue ready to tell the story. Perhaps we all need to learn to live in this new way?
In Jesus’s day, sickness and disability were seen as signs of sin by many people. When Jesus heals blind people, deaf people or those with physical disabilities, the underlying action is a removal of the sin from their lives. Their brokenness is healed.
Of course, we no longer think this way about disability. We know that the loss of senses or limbs happen to all kinds of people for lots of reasons: illness, accidents, genetics. We do not consider their disability or illness any fault of their own.
In this world, we know that people with disabilities live exciting and full lives. For example, the 2024 Paralympics has been a celebration of the skill, dedication and bravery of people who battle their disability and win.
To succeed, the Paralympians, just like those competing in the general Olympics, require the support and commitment of their families, their coaches, and community around them. The job of the Christian is to empower and support everyone to fully participate in a shared life. This is what Jesus is doing when he heals and repairs our brokenness, and something we can do in a plethora of beautiful everyday ways.
The Letter from James also reminds us to be inclusive, and celebrate people no matter where they are from, or how wealthy or well-dressed they are. Everyone who loves Him is welcome in the Kingdom of God. Every time we meet someone and treat them with kindness, respect and love, we heal a little of their brokenness.
The healing in today’s Gospel represents a liberation from the captivity of sin, and the people witnessing the miracle would have understood it as such. It is a reference to the reading from the book of Book of Isaiah, a prophecy of Salvation and an expression of the abundant love we find in the Lord.
Readings today: Isaiah 35:4-7 Psalm 145 James 2:1-5 Mark 7:31-37
Photo credit: Gorodenkoff Adobe Stock
Source: Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
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