06/09/2009 - 23rd. Sunday in Ordinary
Season
Ist. Reading Is 35,4-7 Psalm 145 IInd. Reading lettura Js 2,1-5 Gospel
Mk 7,31-37
"And forgive us our sins". Jesus calls sin by name. These are the
sins that have ruined us and our lives and by which we ruin also the same creation.
At this point of the prayer, the "we/us" is said twice: as we have
already said, this we/us can be said for the Church of which we are the members.
Even though we are disciples of Jesus, we are sinners, and therefore in continuous
need of that mercy and love that forgives and forgets. We are sinners, both
because everyone commits evil and disobeys God, and because, as a community
of faithful, we do not witness the perfection of his love. Therefore, we are
sinners not only because of our personal sins and the damage they do, but also
because of the unjust behavior of society that fail to show love, against which
we never react or even more, we follow. In this way the faith of the Church
becomes weak, without almost no effect whatsoever in the world: salt without
taste, hidden light, weak yeast. Those sins in which the Christians fall and
which they justify because they see them as common behavior, become, for many,
an obstacle to live according the teachings of Jesus. In such a way, the Gospel
won't be seen as Good News, but as something towards which one can remain indifferent
because it would be without effect. At this moment in history, amongst the sins
that are very common and justified by the mentality of today, even among the
same Christians, are those regarding human sexuality. The consequences of these
sins are truly many and create very many and grave sufferings that are destined
to be long and prolong in many years and centuries. One of the worst consequences
is the inability to live a proper family life, both to start one as to go into
it. Thus, the most beautiful creation of God, that is the communion of the couple,
that is then passed on to the children, is destroyed. Satan enjoys himself creating
sufferings with the permission of the same men and women who retains that their
sexual caprices are a good. He even succeeds to make pass laws that promotes
wrong sexual behaviors, move multinational societies to produce instruments
and products for the sexual industry so that persons, families, and the society
at large, loose the true good.
Mark presents us with Jesus who travels. He walks to far away pagan regions,
where he stopped to be in solitude with his disciples. Even here, there are
sufferings which don't find an easy answer: only he can give a hand. He is asked
in fact, to lay divine and creative hand on the head of a deaf and dumb man.
It is a very significant occasion, that we live every time the sacrament of
Baptism is celebrated. First and foremost we see that Jesus does not look for
popularity: he goes by himself as a man of sufferings, avoiding to make out
of his pain a curiosity. He takes care with a lot of love of that poor man,
to whom the possibility of a normal communication with others is forbidden.
Jesus uses his fingers, bringing to completion the Father's creation when he
created man. The fingers of Jesus enter into the ears of this man, to open them
so that he can first of all, hear his word that communicates only love; hence
his fingers, wet with saliva, touch the man that up to then was mute, and in
the silence created, resound the surprising word: "be open"! This
gestures are repeated, as I have said, at every Baptism. When we get immersed
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, our ears
are opened so that we can hear that Word of Truth given by the Spirit. Until
this happens, man is not yet complete! This sign is done to us every time we
come close to Jesus to be touched by him: he touches us in the sacraments of
the Church, real signs of his love for us.
The touch of Jesus using his fingers, is like an injection of courage and trust,
as Isaiah had already prophesied. This prophet had announced the coming of our
Lord Jesus, our God, as savior: the sign of his salvation is the opening of
the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, the jumping of the lame and
the shout of joy of the dumb. We can never stop proclaiming this to those whose
hearts have gone astray, so that they can be encouraged and filled with hope.
Believers are not to be discouraged or to loose trust. If we see injustices
and sufferings, if we meet with sorrow and failures, let us not think that "the
hand of God is short" (Num 11,23). This certainty stops us from preferring
one to another among men. The poor and the sick, the handicapped and the ignorant
are to be regarded as equal to the rich and the illiterate. James strongly exhorts
us to learn from God as how to behave with one another: he chose those "who
are poor in the eyes of the world" so that they can live their faith in
him and be on an example to all. Are we not to regard them as worthy of attention
and honor? The rich are the ones that make us suffer when they play with our
faith, our true richness. Let us like Jesus, who gave all attention to the deaf
and dumb man so that his ears could be open to hear the his Word!