Jesus is the one who makes us truly free.  He cannot but groan as he sees that we do not yet enjoy the freedom he wants us to have. 

Jesus heaves a groan as he heals a man who is deaf and cannot talk.  Such a groan may be a sign of his compassion.  It may also mean it upsets, angers and wearies him to see a man in such a bad shape.  So, he makes up his mind to do something about the man’s suffering, to fight it.

But be it as it may, Jesus does open the man’s ears and loosens his tongue.  The cure amazes, then, the man and those who have brought him.  They say of Jesus that he has done all things well; he makes the deaf hear and those who cannot talk speak.  In other words, they see in what Jesus has done the coming true of Isaiah’s prophecy.

And does not Jesus groan still?  We are not few, for sure, those of us who are deaf to his word.  And since we do not hear what he says, much less can we speak of it.  But for us not to hear his word means not to be true disciples, though we believe in him.  Hence, will we not know the truth and the truth will not set us free.

To groan while waiting to be free 

But if we hear his word and remain in it, we shall receive his Spirit.  And this Spirit will help us to grasp that we groan as we wait to be free.   As we wait for God to make us his adopted children and to set our bodies free.  The Spirit will also groan in prayer within us who are weak and do not know how to pray. 

Besides, to hear Jesus’ word and remain in it means to learn from him.  He shows us how to fulfill the law and the prophets freely and wholly.

For him and his true disciples, it counts more to have clean hearts than to have clean hands.  It is he who makes us see that the Sabbath was made for us and not we for the Sabbath.  That is to say, God’s commands are about love; love is above all rules (SV.EN X:478).

But love also asks us to go beyond the rules, beyond the call of duty.  For we are to be like our Teacher and make the ultimate sacrifice freely, giving up our bodies and shedding our blood.  We, too, should be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause (Rom 9, 3; Gal 3, 13; 2 Cor 5, 21).  And he tells us that it is not enough not to do evil.  For we must care not just for our own well-being, but also for that of others (Lk 12, 13-21; 16, 19-31)

Lord Jesus, while we groan as we wait for your coming in glory, let us be grounded in your word that does not fool us at all (CRCM II, 10).  Give us the tongue of those whom you teach and wake up our ear to hear your word as your true disciples do.  We shall thus speak of it to others, in particular to those who are weary, to those whom God chooses, those who are poor in the world.

8 September 2024
23º Domingo de T.O. (B)
Is 35, 4-7a; Jas 2, 1-5; Mk 7, 31-37