Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, February 9,2007

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-8. Psalm 32:1-7. Mark 7:31-37:

What a powerful and physical healing! Jesus heals a man who is deaf and
has a speech impediment due to his deafness. Jesus groans, puts his finger
in the man's ears, and shouts out in his native Aramaic, Ephathah, "Be
Opened!" At the end of the scene the Markan messianic secret or hush about
who Jesus is does not prevent the people from realizing he is someone very
special and they are amazed. My reflection upon this miracle led me to
think of how at our Baptism we are prayed over and our ears are touched so
that they may be open to God and God's words in the Sacred Scripture. That
experience keeps developing in our life as we grow and become adults.
Today most of the vowed people and many of the lay people take up the daily
Scriptures and use them for their prayer. I do it everyday and so do the
nine other vowed people I live with; we also share our reflections at many
of the Eucharists we have in common. I try to be attentive to what I hear
and what I read and to have a listening heart when it comes to meditating
upon the word of God in the Bible. This is not an exercise in logic or
history or an exegetical study of the texts. Jesus is speaking to me in
what the texts relate to me both while listening to them or reading them.
Often what I have not directly prepared for sharing is interrupted with a
new insight at the time of our common sharing of the Scriptures. That
reminds me of the word "Be Opened" in Jesus' mother tongue...Ephathah. A
disciple is a learner and a learner has to be a sensitive listener. This is
the way our Teacher, Jesus, leads us into discipleship and the mission of
an apostle today. After learning from the words of Jesus, we are then sent
on mission to bring peace, to comfort those in sorrow, to work for justice,
and to educate others in values that will lead to peace in this troubled
world. This week we are also asked to listen to the stories of Genesis
about the origins of the human race. Though couched in ancient myths
borrowed from other religions, the inspired writer has given us a theology
of creation that makes sense without going against what we know from
science. Today the story which is again from the more down to earth or
anthropomorphic narrative of the Yahwist, we discover Adam and Eve in the
Garden where God has given them a commandment about the tree of knowledge
that opens up what is good, what is evil. The serpent is the deceiver and
trickster and both fall into his scheme. As a result they are afraid and
try to hide from Yahweh (God their Creator). For me the message is clear.
Temptations, especially those connected with the senses are always under
the guise of being very good for us. That is where the temptation is a
deception for it caters to selfishness and control. This results in giving
in to the serpents of our day---alas there are so many! God's and Jesus'
words are true and so are their commandments. I pray the petition of the
Lord's Prayer as I meditate on these texts, " And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen."