General

Ephphatha, Be strong, fear not!

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
08 SEPTEMBER 2024

Dear friends today the Word of God comes to us in our different exiles to bring us hope and wholeness. Like the chosen nation we are strengthened today by the word of God in our weakness because God is coming to save us! The Lord will make us see again since exile has made us blind to the truth of who He is and who we are as human beings. This blindness takes many different forms. Yet all these forms blind us from see God in our daily lives, they blind us from seeing Him in the wonder of creation. We sin because we do not see God anymore in the blessings we enjoy like good health, success, promotions etc we only see our hard work. We have become blind to see the beauty and wonder of our being that we now relate with ourselves no longer as the image and likeness of God. We thus treat ourselves as things, we indulge in what demeans us and because exiled in so many addictions. We cannot see ourselves as the image of God thus we fail to speak to others and ourselves as thus. This is the blindness that the Lord is coming to heal.

God is coming to you and me to give us sight, that we may see as He sees. That we may see ourselves as He sees us, his beloved children and that we may see others as He sees them, his beloved children. The evidence of our blindness is seen in the evils of racism, tribalism, segregation on basis of wealth, treading on the poor, women, the aged and all the vulnerable members of our society and church. We also shall be healed of deafness and our tongues loosened. We have become so deaf to kind words and our ears are now gossip-magnetic. We want the Lord to heal us that we may never be afraid to say sorry and thank you. For most of us have become mute to kind words and blissful expressions that bless others. In reflection we can ask ourselves when was the last time I saw, thought, and said something good about my brother, sister, pastor, parishioner, neighbours, people of other faiths or religion, political persuasions, tribes, races, countries and fellow human? Where do we get the kind words that bless? We find them in the Word of God, the bible which we honour and celebrate this month.

To be a Church also means participating in the Messianic ministry of Christ, that is, healing the world and making it a better place, as we pray bringing the Kingdom of God to the earth.

While the task might seem a mammoth, the Prophet Isaiah assures us that it’s not us, but God will come and do for us through us. All we need is to open and welcome the Lord. These graces are bestowed upon all of us through baptism. For in baptism, we become one with Christ and in Christ. As prophets our word should be the word of God, let us be mouthpieces of God, that is, good. Speaking well and appreciatively as this blesses our children and neighbours. As priests in Christ let us offer ourselves for our neighbours especially the poor, weak and vulnerable, let us share our lives with them joyfully. As members of the Royal family let us endow everyone with the royal dignity of Christ in all situations. And this begins by accepting the love of God and accepting that I am His beloved child, I stop trusting in myself and believe in Him, see Him in all people and become the healing of my marriage, vocation, family, community, Church, country and the world. In this way we will not show any partiality in the treatment of people in Church and in society.

Dear friends the Lord has healed you so that you go and proclaim the good that the Lord has done for you. Be a witness because you have been healed and you are empowered to be the healing of your community.

Ephphatha and Be strong, fear not because God is with us!