HOMILIES

Dear Audience,
For better understanding of the spiritual message behind this homily I kindly remind you to first read and contemplate the biblical texts before reading or listening to my preaching - a human reflection on the Word of God!

Twenty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Sep 8, 2024

80769

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First Reading

A reading from the Book of Prophet Isaiah (35:4-7a)

Thus says the Lord: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, He comes with vindication; with divine recompense He comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing; Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.

(P) The word of the Lord.
(R) Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms of David (146:7, 8-9, 9-10)

(R) Praise the Lord, my soul!

The God of Jacob keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets captives free. (R)

The Lord gives sight to the blind; the Lord raises up those who were bowed down. The Lord loves the just; the Lord protects strangers. (R)

The fatherless and the widow the Lord sustains, but the way of the wicked He thwarts. The Lord shall reign forever; your God, O Zion, through all generations Alleluia. (R)

Second Reading

A reading from the Letter of Saint James (2:1-5)

My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Sit here, please", while you say to the poor one, "Stand there", or "Sit at my feet", have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that He promised to those who love Him?

(P) The word of the Lord.
(R) Thanks be to God.

Gospel

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (7:31-37)

Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He told him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" - that is, "Be opened!" And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, "He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

(P) The Gospel of the Lord.
(R) Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily

One day a little boy returned home from school looking upset. His mother asked him, "My son, is everything alright?" He said, "Well, I think so mom. But you know mom, my friend Bill came to school today and told the class that his Dad passed away three days ago and he had been crying inconsolably since then. He looked very sad. His mother asked him, "Well, what did you do?" He replied, "I just put my head on my desk and cried with him!" This is the kind of heart that Jesus had, a heart of compassion while He walked on this earth. The word "compassion" literally means "to suffer with". Compassion involves feeling another person's pain and wanting to ease their suffering in some way.

The Bible often tells us that God is compassionate, and He manifested His compassion in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus' whole ministry was led by acts of compassion transcending all social, cultural, and religious barriers and showing a new way for inclusivity and love. Wherever He went, people with various illnesses and diseases came to Him, or other people brought them to Him, and He healed them all physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Today's gospel recounts one such story; Jesus' healing of a deaf-mute man in a non-Jewish area.

After the ascension of Jesus, His saving mission continued first through His own apostles and disciples, and then by His Body, the Church which consists of bishops, priests, deacons, men and women belonging to religious orders and lay people. The Gospels and the Book of Acts tell us that Jesus Himself explicitly entrusted His disciples with the task of preaching His gospel and granted them authority over unclean spirits, empowering them to bring about physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. However, while Jesus' mission was confined to a relatively small area: Galilee, Judea and the surrounding regions; the disciples were to spread His mission all around the world. Thus, both the preaching and healing ministry of Jesus continued and is continuing, by the Spirit, through the Church.

While all Christians are called to make the message of Jesus Christ known to everybody and everywhere, the mission is undertaken outside the geographically defined parishes and dioceses by religious missionary congregations, such as The Society of the Divine Word, also known as Divine Word Missionaries or SVD to which I too belong. The SVD was founded on September 8, 1875 in Holland by Arnold Janssen, a German diocesan priest and today, it has grown into one of the largest international missionary congregations in the Catholic Church with almost 6,000 priests and brothers from 76 countries and working in 80 countries. They work primarily where the gospel has not been preached, or preached insufficiently and are engaged in a variety of other apostolates in the service of the people of God and the Church, such as education, parish-based ministries, health care, mass media communication, inter-religious dialogue, socio-economic development, chaplaincies like the chaplaincy to seafarers, and other pastoral ministries. Arnold also founded two religious missionary congregations for women: One is active - Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, who became popularly known as The Holy Spirit Sisters or the Blue Sisters and the other is contemplative - Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration, commonly called the Pink Sisters because of their rose-coloured habit.

Just around the time Arnold established the society and was trying to find priests to bring the gospel to China, another diocesan priest by the name of Joseph Freinademetz from the Dolomites in the Alps of northern Italy in South Tyrol was contemplating to become a missionary. It is said that Joseph had a recurring dream. In the dream he saw some children in a far-off land with their hands stretched out to him and begging for bread. Joseph understood that the bread symbolized God's Word and that the spiritually hungry children were longing for it. Soon he joined the new order and was one of the first two missionaries sent by Arnold to China in 1879. After working in Hong Kong for some time in 1881 he moved to South Shandong, which had been assigned to the SVD. At that time there were only 158 Catholics among a population of 12 million. Joseph never returned to his homeland again. He died of typhus while attending and caring for typhoid victims in 1908. One of the quotes attributed to him is, "The language that all people can understand is love". Arnold Janssen and Joseph Freinademetz were canonized on 5th October, 2003 by Pope John Paul II.

Today, as the Society of the Divine Word begins a yearlong celebration of the 150th anniversary of its founding with the theme, "Witnessing to the Light from everywhere for everyone", we invite all the faithful to join us in thanking God for His goodness and for all His blessings over us, and in praying for God's continued guidance and wisdom so that we may share the gospel with anyone and everyone, with the transformative power of compassion and the healing touch of Christ. Please pray with us as we offer up this, 150th anniversary prayer:

See the 150 Anniversary Prayer here.

(P) Amen.

God Bless You!

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