The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to live in the tension between people who alternate between ignoring the Word of God and seeking to be open to Divine guidance even as we live in the time and space of relating to God as material beings with a timeless connection to cosmic events.
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| Connections to earth and cosmos |
In the reading from the First Book of Kings, Ahijah announces Jeroboam’s kingship in Israel.
* [11:26–43] The last major unit of the Solomon story tells how the prophet Ahijah announces the divine intention to take the larger part of Solomon’s kingdom from his control and give it to Jeroboam, Solomon’s servant. This counterbalances the first unit of the story, 1:1–2:12a, where another prophet, Nathan, managed to influence the royal succession and obtain the throne for Solomon. The unit is also the first part of the story of Jeroboam (11:26–14:20). It thus acts as a literary hinge connecting the two stories. Chronicles contains a death notice for Solomon in 2 Chr 9:29–31.1
In Psalm 81, the people hear a divine word they refused to obey. If Israel repents, God will be with them once again, bestowing protection and fertility.
* [Psalm 81] At a pilgrimage feast, probably harvest in the fall, the people assemble in the Temple in accord with the Sinai ordinances (Ps 81:2–6). They hear a divine word (mediated by a Temple speaker) telling how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Ps 81:7–9), gave them the fundamental commandment of fidelity (Ps 81:9–11), which would bring punishment if they refused to obey (Ps 81:12–13). But if Israel repents, God will be with them once again, bestowing protection and fertility (Ps 81:14–16).2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus cures a deaf man in pagan territory.
* [7:24–37] The withdrawal of Jesus to the district of Tyre may have been for a respite (Mk 7:24), but he soon moved onward to Sidon and, by way of the Sea of Galilee, to the Decapolis. These districts provided a Gentile setting for the extension of his ministry of healing because the people there acknowledged his power (Mk 7:29, 37). The actions attributed to Jesus (Mk 7:33–35) were also used by healers of the time.3
Jay Carney comments that today’s gospel introduces another bizarre one-on-one encounter on a dusty road: Jesus and the deaf man. Again, the bodily materiality is striking – earwax, tongues, saliva, groaning. We even hear a rare word of Aramaic, Jesus’ mother tongue. If one ever doubted the humanity of Jesus – or the corporeality of the people he heals – this is the reading to clear things up. We are earthen vessels, not made of stone.
Both Jesus and Ahijah stand in the biblical prophetic tradition, using powerful gestures to effect what they announce. The Catholic sacramental tradition is premised on a similar idea – namely that signs can effect what they symbolize, and God’s divine grace is always at work within our material creation. It’s easy to teach this, and every Catholic Mass witnesses to this sacramental principle. But I struggle at times to retain this sacramental imagination in my daily life. Perhaps it’s because I’m expecting “grace building on nature” to be smooth and predictable, when the reality is often much messier – and not according to my expectations.
Ephphatha! May God open our ears to hear, open our eyes to see, and open our mouths to proclaim the strange, earthy goodness of the Lord.4
Don Schwager quotes “The touch of the Lord,” by Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 AD).
"That power which may not be handled came down and clothed itself in members that may be touched, that the desperate may draw near to him, that in touching his humanity they may discern his divinity. For that speechless man the Lord healed with the fingers of his body. He put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue. At that moment with fingers that may be touched, he touched the Godhead that may not be touched. Immediately this loosed the string of his tongue (Mark 7:32-37), and opened the clogged doors of his ears. For the very architect of the body itself and artificer of all flesh had come personally to him, and with his gentle voice tenderly opened up his obstructed ears. Then his mouth which had been so closed up that it could not give birth to a word, gave birth to praise him who made its barrenness fruitful. The One who immediately had given to Adam speech without teaching, gave speech to him so that he could speak easily a language that is learned only with difficulty (Genesis 1:27-28). (excerpt from HOMILY ON OUR LORD 10.3)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Psalm 81:10-15 connects to today’s first reading as it reminds us that God respects the free will he gave us, but he also respects the consequences that our acts of free will—both good and evil—bring about. That doesn’t mean he just leaves us to our own devices. No, God continued to watch over Israel and to work out his plan for them.
There’s no such thing as undoing God’s plans or thwarting his goodness, not even through our sins. He is still faithful to his promises. He is still the Lord of history. The failures of human leaders—and us individually—clearly have real-world consequences, just as all sins do. But no matter what happens, we can still trust that God will not abandon us. We can trust that he will continue to call us back to himself—and to pave a way for us to follow.
God is always offering his people second chances—and third and fourth and fifth chances. After the kingdom of Israel split, he sent prophets to call his people back to him. Eventually, the people learned that security was not to be found in military strength or political intrigue. They needed to turn back to God. They needed a Messiah. And God came through by becoming their Messiah himself.6
Friar Jude Winkler fleshes out the history of the son of Solomon, Rehoboam, and poor policy toward taxing the people. The bodily ritual to “be opened” is an important part of Christian baptism. Friar Jude underlines that the ears are opened to learn the Word of God from Baptist witnesses.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that in her book Race and the Cosmos, Dr. Barbara Holmes presents a new way for us to address oppression by recognizing who we are and the commonality we share as members of the human race. When we encounter other ways of knowing, we may find ourselves discomforted and even distressed by the pain that our nation, our church, or even we ourselves have caused others. Today, Fr. Richard wants to offer a perspective that can lead to healing and wholeness, instead of our too ready defensiveness. Holmes writes:
Perhaps the language of science, cosmology, and physics can help us to see our plight and our opportunity. . . . [With] chaos in our social systems, we are in such dire need of vision, imagination, and love of neighbor that this rhetorical experiment is worth a try. Currently, we are using language to disguise our commonalities and exacerbate our differences. Narratives about people of color often emphasize inherent inferiority and criminality, when the truth is that all of us embody stardust and a divine spark with cosmic origins.
We come from mystery and return to it at the end of the life journey. What a gift to be on earth during an era when the universe is making itself known to and through the human race. We are part of an unfolding that is ongoing, yet, around the planet, people and systems are in crisis and we don’t seem to know what to do. . . . Perhaps the first steps require that we free ourselves from negative stereotypes and recognize our common cosmic origins.7
Our journey to truth, beauty, and goodness is undertaken in an imperfect earthen vessel that changes course to our passions in our materiality, yet is called to glorify God in our actions as we are open to the Spirit.
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