In understanding the role of the physical world in human life, we have seen two extremes in human history. One perspective is materialistic hedonism, which sees the overindulgent enjoyment of the physical as the goal of life, with no reference to a higher cause or state of being. On the other extreme, we see schools of thought like Gnosticism, which view the material world as inherently evil and consider the goal of life to be the escape from the physical toward the spiritual. Catholicism rejects both of these perspectives.
The Church teaches that the material world was created inherently good. The physical world has been marred by the consequence of sin, but the physical is not evil. We are allowed to enjoy the goodness of the physical world, as long as we have the right perspective. We must always remember that the material world is God’s creation. The physical is never an end in and of itself, but something that speaks of the glory of God, the creator of the universe. Thus, if we approach the world correctly, our engagement with the physical will always lift our soul to God. In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, we see the curing of a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment. As soon as he is cured, he can hear the words of Jesus. He is also able to speak of Jesus to others. His situation is an image of how the physical can lift us up to the spiritual.
The scene depicted in the Gospel passage for this Sunday is also remembered in a rite of the Church, called the Ephphatha Rite, which is performed for adults preparing for baptism. In the rite, the priest prays over the catechumens (as those preparing for baptism are called) and touches their eyes and ears, so that they may be able to hear the Gospel and proclaim it with their lives. On a symbolic level, the rite shows that only when we focus our lives on Christ do we truly see and only when our words are aligned with the Good News of Christ do we truly speak meaningfully.
The healing, especially of the blind and the mute, was also one of the signs of the coming of the Messiah in biblical times. As Jesus healed more and more people, his contemporaries recognized him as the one who was to come, who would set them free. The initial expectation of the Messiah was that he would liberate Isreal from political oppression by foreign powers, ushering in a new golden age of glory and prosperity. But Christ came not to give temporal freedom to one group of people, but to liberate humanity from our spiritual bondage to sin.
The coming of Christ also ushers in the beginning of a new phase of the divine plan for creation, the remaking of the world. As Catholics, we believe that when Christ returns, he will resurrect humanity, giving us incorruptible bodies, which will be free of the marring of the physical world by sin. Christ will also remake all creation, giving us a New Heaven and a New Earth, a world of perfection, which will no longer be bound by the temporal forces that cause suffering in our lives today. After the resurrection of the dead, we will have perfect bodies united in perfect harmony with our souls, existing in a perfect world centered entirely on and imbued completely by the love of Christ.
The healing of the deaf man is a sign pointing toward the heavenly reality that ultimately awaits us if we remain in the grace of Christ. The second reading, taken from the Letter of James, exhorts us to make the anticipated heavenly reality more and more present in our world today. The human society in which we live is, needless to say, full of petty politicking, the seeking of power and status at the expense of others. But those of us who follow Christ are not to live like that. In Heaven, all people will have equal dignity before the throne of Christ. We are to treat each other accordingly. In our Christian community, we should not favor a wealthy or influential person over those who are poor or are on the margins of society.
Ancient Mediterranean society was organized according to what has been described as the client-patron system. The patron was a powerful man who held sway in the community. Others would seek to be his clients, receiving protection and various forms of favor from him. In exchange, they showed their patron respect, submitting to his social authority. Most men sought to ingratiate themselves with a patron in order to advance their standing in the world.
But throughout the Gospels, Jesus decries such social maneuvering. Instead, we are to have one patron and one patron only – Christ himself. Our efforts should not go into being in the good graces of a human who can help us advance in life, but into being in perfect harmony with the will of God, allowing God to be the Lord of our lives, in ever aspect of our lives. Only then, will we find true joy, true fulfillment.
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The readings for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B are:
Is 35:4-7a
Ps 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10
Jas 2:1-5
Mk 7:31-37
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Lady Bird Johnson Trail in the Redwood Forest in California (c) 2013 by Zoltan Abraham.