Help me to see where I am not open: The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024

Help me to see where I am not open:

The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024

September 8, 2024

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Isaiah 35:4-7; Psalm 146; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37

 

This Gospel passage outlines a proper attitude and posture for discipleship – a disposition of openness. Watch the sequence of events in this interaction of Jesus with a deaf-mute man. He orders the man to be opened, and then he opens his ears first so he can hear and listen. The mind follows when we learn to listen, so that is the first step. After he put his fingers into his ears, he touched his tongue because we can only speak rightly after we learn to listen well. The man spoke plainly.

 

Most of us think that we are rather open-minded and that we have processed information wisely. We try to read the right sources and get our news from the proper channels so that we can be informed. We do our homework and because we have been successful in certain areas, we believe our experience brought us to a place of openness, and yet, we are often blind to our shortcomings and sins. We do not see them as clearly as we see the faults in others. We always need counsel and caring words from loved ones to help us see where we have failed to bother to grow. In other words, we cannot see those areas where we are closed. Others may use words like stubborn, strong-willed, or opinionated. Those words mean we are closed to receiving new information.

 

In our faith, we must expand our capacity to understand what God wants for us, and to hold the suffering of the work in our consciousness. If we are set in our viewpoints and perspectives, then we must practice how to be open. If we have relationships that are unreconciled, then we must open ourselves to deeper understanding of the pain we caused one another. In our prayer, if we are not satisfied that we have a deepening relationship with the Lord, then we must seek new ways that will enhance this friendship.

 

We humans can be peculiar at times. We do not like when change happens (unless we initiate it), and we like the status quo even less, and yet, as we grow in relationship with God, we are called to change because the world around us changes. We are dynamic beings in an ever-changing church and world, and we are called to evolve. We need the practice of discernment to choose rightly in accord with church teachings and the Spirit of Christ in the midst of the world today. Discernment is often reading the signs of the times, making informed judgments with little information, and deciding what’s right based upon our experiential knowledge and what happens in our prayer. The practice of getting a spiritual director helps us form our ability to choose daily.

 

Making choices always means leaving something behind. The deaf man had to leave his disability behind. He relied upon an extensive support system to bring him to place he was, and now, as an adult, he has to learn new skills to support himself. When he spoke, I’m sure he knew he had to speak judiciously and well. Otherwise, this gift of God was wasted. We have to leave behind those parts of our lives that weigh us down but are comfortable and secure so we can step out into an unknown. Whenever we go forward into the unknown, our fears and unwillingness to take risks rise up inside us. We must continually test ourselves to determine if we are truly open. If we are not, we are to beg Christ to command us to be open, Ephphatha! Then we will know we are truly following Christ’s way of life. May your prayer today be one of Ephphatha for those places within yourself that you do not realize are not open. I continually pray that for myself.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (1 Corinthians 5) It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans–a man living with his father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful?

 

Tuesday: (1 Corinthians 6) How can any one of you with a case against another dare to bring it to the unjust for judgment instead of to the holy ones? Do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you unqualified for the lowest law courts?

 

Wednesday: (1 Corinthians 3) In regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. So this is what I think best because of the present distress: that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.

 

Thursday: (1 Corinthians 8) Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone supposes he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him.

 

Friday (1 Corinthians 9) If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it! If I do so willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

 

Saturday (Numbers 21) With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water?

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 6) The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up and stand before us."

 

Tuesday: (Luke 6) A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.

 

Wednesday (Luke 6) But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.

 

Thursday (Luke 6) To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.

 

Friday (Luke 6) Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,' when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?

 

Saturday (John 3) Jesus said to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

 

Saints of the Week

 

September 8: The Birth of Mary was originally (like all good feasts) celebrated first in the Eastern Church. The Roman church began its devotion in the fifth century. Her birth celebrates her role as the mother of Jesus. Some traditions have her born in Nazareth while others say she hails from outside of Jerusalem.

 

September 9: Peter Claver, S.J. (1580-1654) became a Jesuit in 1600 and was sent to the mission in Cartegena, Colombia, a center of slave trade. For forty years, Claver ministered to the newly arrived Africans by giving them food, water, and medical care. Unfortunately, he died ostracized by his Jesuit community because he insisted on continuing the unpopular act of treating the slaves humanely.

 

September 10: Francis Garate, S.J. (1857-1929) was a Basque who entered the Jesuits and became a doorkeeper at the Univeristy of Deusto in Bilbao. He modeled his ministry after Alphonsus Rodriguez and became known for his innate goodness, humility, and prayerfulness. 

 

September 12: The Name of Mary was given to the child in the octave that follow her birth on September 8th. Mary (Miriam) was a popular name for a girl because it means "beloved." 

 

September 13: John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor (347-407) was a gifted homilist and was called "Golden Mouth" because his words inspired many. He was raised in Antioch and joined a community of austere hermits but the lifestyle damaged his health. He became the archbishop of Constantinople where he introduced many conservative and unpopular reforms. He fled to escape an uprising from the people and on the way to exile he died.

 

September 14: The Triumph of the Holy Cross remembers the finding of the true cross by the Emperor Constantine's mother, Helen in early 4th century. Two churches were dedicated in the name of the cross on this day in the 4th century. Therefore, the feast was applied to this day. In the 7th century, the feast was renamed, "The Triumph." The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 335 was also dedicated on this day.

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• September 8, 1600. Fr. Matteo Ricci set out on his journey to Peking (Beijing). He experienced enormous difficulties in reaching the royal city, being stopped on his way by one of the powerful mandarins.
• September 9, 1773. At Lisbon, Carvalho, acting in the king's name, ordered public prayers for the deliverance of the world from the "pestilence of Jesuitism." 
• September 10, 1622. The martyrdom at Nagaski, Japan, of Charles Spinola and his companions. 
• September 11, 1681. At Antwerp, the death of Fr. Geoffry Henschen (Henschenius). A man of extraordinary learning, he was Fr. Jan von Bolland's assistant in compiling the Acts of the Saints. 
• September 12, 1744. Benedict XIV's second Bull, Omnium Sollicitudinum, forbade the Chinese Rites. Persecution followed in China. 
• September 13, 1773. Frederick II of Prussia informed the pope that the Jesuits would not be suppressed in Prussia and invited Jesuits to come. 
• September 14, 1596. The death of Cardinal Francis Toledo, the first of the Society to be raised to the purple. He died at age 63, a cardinal for three years.