Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared…
the ears of the deaf be cleared…
How does the Lord transform us?
The first part of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is written during the Babylonian captivity, a time of great distress during which the people’s hearts are frightened; they look to God for reassurance that one day their exile will end. And God promises to do what human beings cannot: God will come to save them, Isaiah tells them, opening the eyes of the blind, clearing the ears of the deaf. This will be a time of great transformation when all that occurs will be beyond remarkable: the lame will leap, the mute will sing, and more. The people of Israel read this as God’s future vindication of God’s people: God will transform the world as they know it. The people had lost hope, but Isaiah’s message restores that hope as they experience a shift in how they understand their own journey. They will one day be able to praise the Lord, as in Psalm 146, for the Lord keeps faith forever, fulfilling his every promise.
So much of what we hope for is not within our abilities but is within God’s. When, in Mark's Gospel, Jesus heals the deaf man who has a speech impediment, he orders witnesses not to tell anyone, yet the more he orders them not to, the more they proclaim it. They are moved by God’s activity, by the hand of God at work in Jesus, who fulfills the promises of the Prophet Isaiah, and so they want to make it known that God is in their midst, that God is with them. It is the natural human response to God’s love to proclaim it. Jesus creates a moment of intimacy with the deaf man: he puts his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touches his tongue. It is through intimacy that Christ transforms us: by entering into us, into our selves, into our very lives, whether we are clean and tidy or not. Only God can take sin and transform it; we have to be open to that transformation, and let go of any impediment in the way. We must relinquish control and surrender; we must let go of what we think defines us, so that his love can. Such surrender is at the core of the Letter of James, which encourages his audience to show no partiality. To do so, the people must see as God sees; they must allow God to transform them, to transform their vision, to open their blind eyes, that they might recognize the poor in the world as those most like Christ and move ever closer toward that perfect union in love with the Lord to which they are called. Our call to transformation is no different.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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