My dear brothers and sisters,
It is not immediately apparent at first reading, but in the episode from the Gospel today, not all is as what it first appears. In this episode a man who is deaf and with a speech impediment is cured, and he speaks, but he is not the only one who speaks and proclaims. On the contrary, it is all the people who witness these, and other, miracles, who proclaim the glories of what they have seen, saying:
“He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
He has indeed done all things well, because the deaf who can now hear and the mute who can now speak, are also those who may not have thought themselves to have been deaf and dumb. They possessed the natural faculties of hearing and speech, but what they lacked were the supernatural faculties to hear the Good News and proclaim it. This was done, not by Jesus’s physically curing them, but by simply being in the presence of his great works.
Now the identity of the people who are proclaiming His wonders is also interesting. Listen to the first half of the Gospel, which tells us where this episode took place:
Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis.
The healing of the man takes place in the district of the Decapolis which is outside of the land of Israel, that is to say, this is pagan territory. Thus, the significance of those who have now gained the ability to hear and speak about the supernatural is increased. This can be said to be the auditory and vocal version of the prophesy from Isaiah (9:2) that we hear at Christmas time:
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
My dear brothers and sisters, until our ancestors were given the privilege of hearing the Christian message, they too lived in a land of deep darkness. When they heard the Gospel of Our Lord proclaimed, however, they saw the light, and then, like the pagans in the Gospel reading today, unable to do anything else, they began to proclaim the Good News to everyone. And they made this proclamation not just through their lives, but by actively becoming missionaries of Christ. The Goan people, and especially the priests and religious among our people, have been responsible for so many in India and other parts of Asia, and even Africa, becoming Catholic. This duty is not theirs alone, however; we too have this obligation to proclaim the Good News of Our Lord, the God who has done so many wonderful things for us.
Today we also celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, and she too was unable to contain Herself once the Good News of the coming of Our Lord was announced to Her. The moment the angel of the annunciation left her, she left to the hill country to her cousin Elizabeth (Lk 1:39), and the joy she felt in her heart was captured by the words of the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-48):
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
My dear brothers and sister, we who are lowly, are healed every week through the Most Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, we are healed even before we consume these most precious gifts, for, as the acclamation of the Gospel says:
Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
Merely by hearing the Gospel, our hearts, our lips, and our ears are cleansed of all supernatural diseases, so that with our hearts strengthened we can be the light among the nations, and bring all people to Christ.
May Mary our Mother support us in this task!
(A version of this homily was first preached in Concanim to the faithful of the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda on 8 Sept 2024.
Image reference: 'Jesus Heals the Deaf and Mute', Ottheinrich Bible, 1425-30, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.)
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