Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 8, 2024
Have you ever been so frightened that your body shuts down? When fear turns to panic, a deafening “woosh” clogs your ears as your pulse pounds, your fists clench, and you squeeze your eyes shut. Physical danger isn’t always the cause. Often, we emotionally shut down when faced with the unknown. Tunnel vision keeps us from seeing a reality too hard to accept. Pride binds our tongues from saying the necessary words. And we choose a paralyzing status quo over change.
To “those whose hearts are frightened” and racing with anxiety, Isaiah says, “Be strong, fear not.” But we should be ready when God responds to our pleas because when God acts, things change, and not always gently.
To change the world, change will be required of us first. For this, we must be open to the Spirit breaching the walls around our hearts and minds.
Streams burst, sands melt, and the parched ground cracks open. So too with the deaf man who could not speak plainly. Jesus’s healing method of fingers in ears and saliva on tongues was certainly far from non-invasive.
To change the world, change will be required of us first. For this, we must be open to the Spirit breaching the walls around our hearts and minds. But in God’s style of nearness, what we face is not something to fear but someone to love who has loved us first—Jesus. Being open is to be vulnerable to God’s love that will surely change us if we let it in.
Leave a Reply