11th Sunday after Pentecost 28.8.11 Healing the deaf
Why did Our Lord have to groan in the process of working this miracle? Healing deafness, if it were just a biological matter would be very easy for Our Lord. But the deafness that He really wants to heal is the obstinacy of the human heart, whereby people do not want to hear the truth.
All of us, who possess the Gospel, know the frustration of trying to convey the message to people who do not want to hear it. It could be a parent trying to tell children, or a teacher trying to tell students... if only you knew, if only you would listen... but often the resistance goes on.
Speak Lord Your servant is listening... as Samuel said to God, we must say in our time. That we be habitually attuned to the sound of His voice, in whatever form it might come. That we will be able instinctively to discern what is truly the word of God from what is false, from the voice of the world.
Before it demands anything of us, the word of God is Promise. He tells of His great love for us, and demonstrates through miracle that He is faithful to His people in every generation.
He instructs us that we can securely base our lives on His will; and if we do that He will bless us in abundance.
This is where one breakdown occurs. We do not believe the Promise. We launch into other lifestyles because we think that God is inactive or indifferent.
Then we come to the word of Command. God tells us to do certain things and avoid doing certain other things.
We fear this word too, because we fear the loss of freedom involved. We do not want to be restricted in our behaviour. We see the commands of God as a burden or a nuisance.
So we block out His word. We switch off the ears.
In all this God tries to heal us: to help us listen with the right attitude so that the words once again impact upon us. He heals us of the accumulated distortions of the years of our own lives and the centuries of the human race.
He wants to heal the abuse of the freedom, without taking away the freedom. To heal us of all the falsehood we have taken in over the years. False values, false logic.
For example, the arguments today over moral matters. People support euthanasia, or homosexual marriage.
They will say things like: a thing is ok if enough people think it is ok. So the newspapers hold a poll and if say 60% say yes to euthanasia then it must be alright. But where does that leave the voice of God? Or the objective value of human life which cannot be determined in a poll?
Or where, if they define homosexual behaviour as simply a preference does that leave the objective nature of man and woman – as written in out nature by God Himself?
So there is a lot of deafness around - false thinking - and it all compounds with one error paving the way for another.
Our Lord wants to heal our deafness. It requires unlearning all the errors we have picked up. It requires that we re-establish the basic principles involved.
We are here now with ears pinned back, wanting to hear the truth, willing to change anything.
First, may the Promise of the Lord sink deep within us: that we can be reassured of His unending love for us. We do not have to hide from Him.
Then, that we can hear His words of command, not as a burden but as a liberation. They are based on our true nature, so we will never feel more ourselves than when obeying this word from God.
Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment