Homily for 23rd
Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 6, 2015
Closed Ears,
Closed Hearts
St.
Dominic Savio, the young saint from Italy who died at the age of fourteen, was
known to be selective in his close friends. Although he was kind and patient
with everyone, he only became close friends with boys whom he knew to be
virtuous. One time, at the boarding school where he lived, there was a new
student, a young man who looked pale and weak. Dominic quickly introduced
himself to the boy, and they began a discussion. At one point, the new boy told
Dominic that he was sick with a very serious illness.
St.
Dominic asked him, “Do you wish to get well?”
The boy
replied, “I don’t wish to get well. I just want to do the will of God, whatever
He wants.”
From
that moment, St. Dominic immediately became friends with the boy – he could see
that although his body was sick, his soul was quite healthy. They remained fast
friends until the new boy died some years later from his illness.
Today’s
Gospel features two miracles from the Lord – granting hearing to a deaf man…but
even greater than that, bringing that man to faith in Christ. Jesus opened his
physical ears, and by doing so, opened his soul to faith.
It is
quite possible to be healthy in body and sick in spirit, just as it is quite
possible to be sick in body but healthy in spirit. A healthy soul is one that
is living in the state of grace, seeking holiness, having a personal
relationship with Jesus.
But just
as the body can be sick and deaf, the soul can also be sick and deaf. In what
ways?
First, pride. Pride weakens our soul to the
point of spiritual death. Pride is when we say to ourselves, “I don’t need God,
I can live my life just fine without Him.” Pride also says, “I disagree with
Church teaching – I’m going to decide for myself what’s right and wrong.” In
both cases, our ears are closed to hearing the teaching of the Lord.
Second, obstinate sin. If there is a sin in our
lives that we enjoy, then we will not want to hear the Lord’s call to
repentance. Our hearts will be hardened and deaf.
Third, lack of prayer life. If we do not spend
time in silence – substantial time, like ten or fifteen minutes per day - then
we will never hear the Lord because all of the noise of everyday life will
drown out His still, small voice.
Fourth, being surrounded by bad influences. If
we are the only one among our friends who is serious about following Christ, it’ll
be very difficult to follow Him. If the music we listen to, the movies we
watch, and the magazines we read are filled with messages such as “Money is the
point of life,” “Have as much pleasure as you possibly can”, “This life is all
there is, so anything goes,” – if these are the messages we constantly hear,
our hearts will become deaf to the Truth. There are many competing voices in
the world which can drown out the words of Christ.
So, the
antidote to all of this is humility, repentance, prayer, and seeking the Lord
in Scripture, prayer, and spiritual reading.
I’d like
to close with a spiritual exercise: one powerful way to open our ears to listen
to the Lord is to do the following meditation. Imagine that you are sitting at
a table across from Jesus. First, tell Him how much you love Him. Tell Him any
worries you have, any sins that you want to repent of, anything you wish to
thank Him for. Then, be silent – what is He saying in response to you?
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