September 5, 2021 – Proper 18 (15th Sunday after Pentecost)

In our Gospel reading today, ­Jesus cures a deaf mute and arouses astonishment in the crowd. We Christians tend to think that the healing of people was the main goal in Jesus’ life. But after this Sunday there are only four more healings by Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Why? Earlier (in the first seven chapters) he had worked so many cures that people were mobbing him.

But that was the trouble. Jesus was in danger of becoming famous as a mere wonder-worker. People were constantly stopping him, thinking that he would solve all their problems—if only he gave their health back, or if only he took away their poverty and death, or if only—well, you name it. He was in danger of enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame, and only that.

But would fame really reveal God’s love for the world and its peoples? Jesus thought not. The Jesus of Mark’s Gospel stopped the miracles and began a new phase of his mission.

He turned his face toward Jerusalem. And the cross.

This change of direction will come to our readings next week. Suddenly and without warning Jesus will say to the disciples, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise” (Mk 9:31). What more shocking statement could this supposedly invincible leader and healer make to them?

How could death go together with healing?

So many times, we hear of the death of someone’s child, regardless of how hard the child’s parents had prayed for their healing. Their prayers were not answered, it’s said. Yet somehow, many times those parents discover that God had been present throughout the dying, that God had been immersed in their child’s life and death, and that this intimate presence was enough, more than enough. The parents’ sorrow was immersed in love, and their child was safe in God’s arms.

Friends, a human person is made to be loved by God, not merely to have good health, riches or reputation. Real life consists of love exchanged with God and with others, not just in seeming to be a leader or a success. There is a greater good than these, a relationship with the divine being, a seeking of the one who is already close. Such an intimate relationship sends us out to help give God’s love to the world. Miracle cures help for a while, but pretty soon the suffering world has to be faced in its full suffering self.

As a result, Jesus moves toward the events that will show God’s solidarity with us in our anguish, our rejections, and in that famous event which each and every one of us will face sooner or later: death. Beyond cures, which are wonderful yet partial, God gives us companionship within each instant of our life.

And so today, let us ask ourselves whether the intimate presence of God is part of what we desire in our own lives. Do we know that Christ is deeply involved with us? Do we let Christ’s love flow into us and through us to others, or must it just fight its way through?

Let us pray to hear, as the deaf man finally could:

Jesus, open our ears so that we can hear you in the pleading of the poor, the cry of the environment, the war-torn, the immigrant, the hungry. Open our ears so we can hear you in the crash of waves, the sound of children laughing, the call of a friend, in music by Puccini. We want to know you well; wherever you are—and in all things. Open our deaf ears and loosen our tongues. Let us hear and speak your love to all the world.