Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 128
Reading I
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.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The God of Jacob keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
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. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
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. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II
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?
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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 took 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.”
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Our faith can be enforced by the words of Isaiah the Prophet. He reminds us that our God comes forth with vindication and divine recompense. There is no fixed time or place when and where this happens. God is always here to help us, and He has the capability to right every wrong and to heal every wound that has been inflicted upon us. All we must do is ask; allowing Him to do the work that needs to be done so as to bring everything into balance. We tend to overthink things; making matters hopeless as we constantly run scenarios through our thoughts; making situations worse than they are. Even the smallest of situations are eventually blown out of proportion until they take on the characteristics of being a gargantuan crisis. So tragic and so hopeless we can convince ourselves that something is that we then tell ourselves that not even God can deliver us from it. What is being described is something that is at the root of our arrogance and pride: we deem ourselves so special that our dilemmas are also so special that not even God can figure out how to rescue us from what we have gotten ourselves into. This is a sign of weakness; a lack of faith which can ultimately destroy us if it is not corrected.
Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta had a very simple response to any crisis big or small: “Just pray.” Not only did she say this, but she also lived by it. Whenever she or someone she knew was confronted with a problem she immediately invited everyone around her into prayer. Prayer was always the first answer to the problem, and it was through prayer that solutions were presented either through a miracle or divine intercession. Through these displays of faith, she strengthened the faith of those around her and motivated them into action. Jesus Christ used her as an instrument, building up The Kingdom of God here on this earth:
The “problem” in this story is that Mother Teresa and another sister were invited to meet with Pope John Paul II in his private apartment. Msgr. Maasburg was not invited. No matter. Mother Teresa wanted him there. So what was the first thing she did? She prayed an express novena of the Memorare.
Mother Teresa sat in the passenger seat, and together we prayed the fifteen decades of the Rosary and a Quick Novena. This Quick Novena was, so to speak, Mother Teresa’s spiritual rapid-fire weapon. It consisted of ten Memorares — not nine, as you might expect from the word novena. Novenas lasting nine days were quite common among the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. But given the host of problems that were brought to Mother Teresa’s attention, not to mention the pace at which she traveled, it was often just not possible to allow nine days for an answer from Celestial Management. And so she invented the Quick Novena.
Here are the words of the Memorare:
Mother Teresa used this prayer constantly: for petitions for the cure of a sick child, before important discussions or when passports went missing, to request heavenly aid when the fuel supply was running short on a night-time mission and the destination was still far away in the darkness. The Quick Novena had one thing in common with nine-day and even nine-month novenas: confident pleading for heavenly assistance, as the apostles did for nine days in the upper room “with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the women” (Acts 1:14) while waiting for the promised help from the Holy Spirit.
The reason why Mother Teresa always prayed ten Memorares, though, is as follows: She took the collaboration of Heaven so much for granted that she always added a tenth Memorare immediately, in thanksgiving for the favor received. So it was on this occasion. We prayed the entire Rosary while we were waiting in the car. No sooner had we finished the Quick Novena than the Swiss guardsman knocked on the steamed-up windshield and said, “Mother Teresa, it’s time!” Mother Teresa and the Sister got out. To keep the guardsman from chasing me out of the beautiful courtyard, I called after Mother Teresa, “Mother, I’ll wait here for you until you come back down. Then I’ll take you home.” But it was to be otherwise.
For she turned around and called, “Quick, Father, you come with us!” Was it the Quick Novena that finally bring about this “Quick, Father…”? I had no time to reflect, for Mother Teresa was already on her way to the elevator; she swept aside the timid protest of the Swiss guardsman with a charming “Father is with us!” and a grateful twinkle of her eyes.
I thought I knew why the guardsman let me go along with no further objections. The rules were unequivocal: Only those who were on the list of announced guests could enter. And only the names of Mother Teresa and one other Sister were on that list. So it was probably just as clear to the guardsman as it was to me that I had no chance. Even in the company of a saint I would not get past the elevator attendant — much less the civil police in front of the entrance to the Holy Father’s apartment.
Mother assured the hesitant elevator attendant no less charmingly, but at the same time quite decisively. “We can start now. Father is with us.” Rather than contradict such a clear instruction from Mother Teresa, the elevator attendant obviously preferred to leave it to the civil police to put an end to my intrusion into the papal chambers. As we got out of the elevator it seemed as though that was what he was thinking as he waved to the policeman.
I had already tried again and again to explain to Mother Teresa in the elevator that it is not only unusual but absolutely impossible to make your way into the Pope’s quarters unannounced. But even my resistance was useless: She repeated, “No, Father, you are with us.” Well, since I could not sink into the floor, there was nothing left for me to do but prepare myself for the final “Out!” just before we reached the desired destination. In my mind I could already hear the elevator attendant and the guardsman whispering: “We told you so,” when I crawled back to the car. Would they at least let me wait in the courtyard?
There is a long corridor on the third floor of the Palazzo Apostolico, leading from the elevator to the first great reception hall of the papal apartments. Not long enough, however, to convince Mother Teresa that it would be better for me to turn around immediately. I would not mind at all, I tried to explain timidly.
“You come with us!” she replied firmly. So nothing could be done. Some people called this holy woman a “benevolent dictator”. And I was slowly beginning to understand why.
The walls of the corridor that we were now walking along in silence were lined with splendid paintings and studded with ornamentation. The view out of the large windows was simply breathtaking: At our feet, in the light morning mist, lay the Cortile San Damaso, St. Peter’s Square, the Gianicolo Hill with the Pontifical Urbaniana University and the North American College, and finally, a seemingly endless ocean of roofs: the Eternal City. I had little time, however, to absorb these impressions. Mother Teresa, the Sister and I were coming closer and closer to the door to the papal apartments. In front of it stood two tall policemen in civilian clothes — would this be the definite end of my morning excursion to see the pope? I was sure of it.
The expected “Out” was finally delivered in a very friendly and professional tone. The older of the two policemen greeted the foundress of a religious order courteously: “Mother Teresa, good morning! Please come this way. The Padre is not announced. He cannot come in.” He stepped aside for Mother Teresa, whereas I had stopped walking. She gestured to me, however, that I should keep going, and explained to the policeman, “Father is with us.”
But this time even the supernatural charm of a holy woman did not prevail over a Vatican security official who was faithfully following orders. The papal policeman now stepped into Mother Teresa’s path and repeated his instruction kindly but definitely, so that there could be no remaining doubt as to who set the rules in this part of the palace: “Mother, your Padre has no permission; therefore he cannot come with you!” Given such courteous yet unassailable authority, it was quite clear to me what my next step was: make my retreat now and as quickly as possible!
In such situations the difference between success and failure becomes clear: To Mother Teresa the solution to this problem appeared altogether different from the way it appeared to me. She stood there calmly and asked the policeman in a patient tone of voice, “And who can give the priest permission?”
The good man was obviously not prepared for this question. With a helpless shrug of his shoulder he said, “Well, maybe the Pope himself. Or Monsignor Dziwisz….”
“Good, then wait here!” was the prompt reply. And Mother Teresa was already weaseling her way beneath the shrugged shoulders of the policeman and heading for the papal chambers. “I will go and ask the Holy Father!”
The poor policeman! After all, one of his most important duties was to safeguard the peace and tranquility of the Pope. And now — it was quite clear to him — this little nun was going to burst into the chapel, snatch the Pope away from his deep prayer, and bother him with a request to admit a simple priest. No, that must not happen! And it was up to him to prevent it!
“Per amor di Dio! For God’s sake, Mother Teresa!”
A short pause, then Italian-Vatican common sense prevailed and Mother Teresa had won, “Then the Padre had better just go with you!”
Turning to me, he said, “Go. Go now!”
An order is an order, and so the “benevolent dictator”, for whom I had ever greater esteem, the Sister and I went past the policeman and into the Holy Father’s reception hall.
From a door on the opposite side of the hall, a figure approached us: Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope’s private secretary, who today is Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow. Shaking Mother Teresa’s hand warmly, he looked inquisitively at the Padre who so unexpectedly enlarged the group. Mother Teresa saw no need at all to give him an explanation. Instead her words of greeting were: “Monsignor, the Padre will concelebrate Holy Mass with the Holy Father!” She did not ask, “Could he?” or “Would it be possible?” No, she said, “The Padre will…!” Clearly Monsignor Dziwisz already knew the “benevolent dictator” better than I did. After examining me with a brief critical glance, he smiled, took my hand and led me into the sacristy, where he explained to me the customs of the house for concelebrating morning Mass with Pope John Paul II. He laughed heartily at the way in which I had intruded into the papal chambers.
This is only one small story about the power of prayer, but it was a common one in the life of Saint Mother Theresa. Whenever she was confronted with a problem, she prayed to God for a solution, invoking the intersessions of The Blessed Mother and The Saints also. The response to her prayers was always an assumption. She lived out her faith in her words and actions. We are reminded to do the same. If we do not, we are actually belittling God and minimizing His presence in our lives. If we are actually people of faith, then these actions should be viewed as illogical with every attempt to avoid them. In other words, if we discover our faith is weak, thus our relationship with God, then we should take measures to correct our spiritual illness.
When we view something as impossible or beyond any help, this should be a starting point where we surrender to God. There is no further need to examine the problem or try to correct it ourselves. This is where we ask for God’s help with the expectation that we will receive deliverance from what ails us. The answer will come in many different forms, but it will come. God has promised this. We must live with this promise foremost in our minds. As difficult as this may be, the alternative can be deadly: a lack of faith and a life full of fear and anxiety. God wants to relieve us from our burdens, and he further wants to strengthen us in preparation for the future challenges that will confront us. As Christians we have a life rooted in suffering, but it is a suffering which brings about perseverance and victory over all that oppose us. The key is to embrace the suffering so that it may be endured and eventually overcome. In our humanness we might want it removed completely but, an understanding that a longing for removal is a sign of weakness while endurance through it brings us to a better place, can form us into a better person thus it should be the preferred way. What we are lacking can be provided by God through prayer.
Putting our relationship with God first and allowing Him to rescue us from our seemingly hopeless situation makes us poor in this world. With God first in our lives, it means that we put anything that this world offers in a material sense last. Nothing can compare to God and to act accordingly puts us in right relationship with Him. This also means that there is not first or last among us including all those we interrelate with. All are equal in the eyes of God and to those who walk with Him. We are not in a popularity contest. God shows no partiality. We should show none. In the example of Jesus Christ, we should have empathy for all of those who are suffering and are in need. These individuals are Jesus Christ personified and should be treated as such. Those of us who have shown a better way are mandated to follow this path to deepen our relationship with God and to immerse ourselves in The Christ-Experience.
The Gospel Reading today emphasizes this point. The deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to Jesus and he was healed. There was no precondition for him to be healed. The people came forward knowing that Jesus would heal him. Through their faith and knowing the truth the man’s imperfections were brought to perfection. He came forward broken, just as we are, and was made complete. This is the power of faith and the power of knowing who God is. We all are encouraged to live our lives with the confidence of people who know who God is, who have embraced the Revelation of Our Lord Jesus Christ. There should be no duplicity within us. We need to strive to say what we mean and live by what we say. When we are overwhelmed by the difficulty of this task then we should follow the example of the saints. “Just pray,” comes to mind.
As God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah, “Say to those whose hearts are frightened. Be strong, fear not!” We have no need to be frightened. We have no need to be paralyzed by stress and anxiety. All that plaques us cannot hurt us. All that threatens us have no power over us. The only way that which we confront can be victorious over us is when we let it have power over us. Instead we are encouraged to give the power over to God. When we do this our hearts will no longer be frightened.
Deacon Tom
“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your clemency hear and answer me. Amen.”
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