Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 8, 2024

by Fr. Michael Bruno  |  09/08/2024  |  Weekly Reflection

In the Rite of Baptism, the priest or deacon prays over the newly baptized child in the very manner in which our Lord heals in today’s Gospel. Touching the ears and mouth of the child, he prays the following words: “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the mute speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.”

The invocation after Baptism of this miraculous encounter in Mark’s Gospel is a reminder how the Lord Jesus has individually called and claimed each one of us, just as he called the man in today’s Gospel to come aside and move away from the crowds. In Baptism, He has opened our ears to the Gospel of salvation, which we hear proclaimed within His Church, allowing us to grow in knowledge and love of Him. He has opened our mouths and called us to herald His saving presence in the world by “speaking plainly,” drawing others to Him through our words and in the manner of our lives. As St. James explains in today’s epistle, God has chosen “those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom . . .” The Church, therefore, finds in the miraculous healing of today’s Gospel an image of how each one of us has been healed by Christ and sent forth as His disciples and witnesses in the world. We have been rendered sons and daughters of the Father made whole in Christ. Already foreshadowed in today’s Gospel is the moment when the Lord Jesus will again look to heaven and groan, but this time it will be from the cross, as He offers Himself completely and totally to the Father for the healing and salvation of all the world.

The reaction of the crowds to this miracle is noted as “astonishment.” The Lord’s miraculous works are signs of God’s salvation fulfilling the prophetic promises made to the people of Israel in exile. As we hear in Isaiah’s prophecy, the coming of the Lord will be marked with the vindication and recompense of God, which will be manifested in the restoration of sight, hearing, movement, and speech. The coming of the Lord will, therefore, be a moment of renewal and restoration, a “re-creation” brought about in the promised Savior. No surprise, therefore, that our Lord is met with astonishment, as His miracles and wondrous works fulfill the prophet’s words and manifest God’s salvation both for the man who is healed and, indeed, for all humanity.

Today’s Gospel, therefore, bids us to consider our own lives as disciples and witnesses of Christ. Asking today for the Lord’s healing once again, we seek His mercy for the ways we have been blind to His presence and His workings in our life. We ask forgiveness for the moments when we failed to hear and heed His word in our own words and deeds. Approaching the Lord Jesus this Sunday in the Eucharist, we marvel in astonishment, as He calls us uniquely and personally to healing and wholeness in Him. As we receive Him, He again opens our eyes and ears, sending us forth into the world to proclaim the good news of salvation. For with awe and thanksgiving for His marvelous works, we too proclaim with all our hearts how truly “He has done all things well!"