Returning from the district of Tyre,
Jesus went by way of Sidon towards the sea of Galilee,
Right through the Decapolis region.
And they brought him a dead man who had an impediment in his speech.
They asked him to lay his hand on him.
He took him aside and put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue with swivel.
Then,
Looking up to heaven,
He sighed and said to him,
Ephphatha,
That is,
Be opened.
And his ears were opened and the ligament of his tongue was loosened.
When he spoke clearly,
Jesus ordered them to tell no one about it.
But the more he insisted,
The more widely they published it,
The admirers were unbounded.
He has done all things well,
They said.
He makes the dead hear and the dark speak.
The Gospel of the Lord.
See how we don't listen to the Lord.
He gives us what we ask for,
What we pray for in abundance.
And we see in our Gospel reading how we ask some people,
Please don't shame.
Do this to yourselves.
This wonderful thing that we had done,
Making somebody who had been dead hear,
Giving them the ability to speak again.
He asks one thing.
What did they do?
They do become the darkest.
How often do we not find ourselves in a position where we are asked to follow the one commandment that Jesus gave us,
Love.
Love for another.
It's one thing.
Show each other respect.
Where do we see that in the world these days?
Show each other compassion.
It's easy to turn around and say,
Yes,
But others don't show me compassion.
Others don't respect me.
And that leads us to the second reading,
Just as much as we judge people in what way,
We judge people in how they act,
We judge people on so many things.
Who they are.
Color of their skin.
Who they love.
What they do towards us.
How they act towards us.
Are we any better than those people who judge us?
I don't know.
Is it for us to say?
Maybe not.
I don't think it is for us to say.
And it is easy to go on a theological journey on love,
Forgiveness,
Then we have a cheek and have a balance with our everyday life.
Should we just keep quiet?
When others react to us,
When others judge us.
When others create an image of us that they share with the world.
I think it is important that we still stand up for ourselves.
That when something is wrong,
We have the courage to open our mouths and say this is not what the Lord says.
This is not the way to treat other people.
I think that an important thing that we need to mention is where we come from when we do assert ourselves.
Should we do it from a point of anger or a point of hurt?
From a point of retribution?
We hope in our responseorial song that the Lord walks the way of the wicked.
How does he do that?
Maybe he does it through people like you and me and the Lord uses us as his instruments.
But that is only possible,
I believe,
That the Lord can use us as his instruments.
God's instrument,
If we allow that to happen through love.
We use the word righteous anger loosely.
I think it is up to us to be angry.
Yes,
Anger is such a powerful,
Powerful embedded emotion,
But what if I can feel the anger but not let myself be consumed by it?
What if I can just take that step back and I can say,
Lord,
Thy will be done.
If thy will is,
Then I stand up against injustice,
Then make me the best proponent of that.
Make me the best proponent of your love.
Who's standing up?
I think there's a big misunderstanding in Christianity that we are all supposed to be docile.
We are all supposed to just walk around and let the world happen to us.
Apart from that,
We are here to be co-creators of our own lives.
Is that not why God gave us the freedom of choice?
We are not here to merely have life happen to us.
We choose our own adventure,
Just like those choose your own adventure books that we had ten or twenty years ago that was quite popular at the time.
God creates life with us.
God does not let life happen to us.
Otherwise there would be no reason to go through this process,
To go through our mundane and our earthly inclinations.
The Lord does everything well.
I think that is something that we can also aspire to.
We are not hurt.
It is easy for us to act out of anger and out of hurt.
Let's try and in this coming week,
Let's try and focus on those times that we react,
Those times that we need to be assertive.
And we ask ourselves the question,
Am I being assertive out of a place of anger or out of a place of love?
Because that is very possible to stand up for ourselves in love.
And when we do that,
We stand up for ourselves with the power of the Almighty God right behind us.
We can stand against that.
Amen.
