Sermon, 11th Sunday after Pentecost, August 28, 2011

11th Sunday after Pentecost – August 28, 2011

(Mark 7: 31-37)

     Last Sunday we heard of the humility of the publican and the pride of the Pharisee. The Pharisee in his pride departs the temple in humiliation. The publican, in his humility, laments his sin, draws nearer to God and returns home justified. In his Epistle today, St. Paul places that same humility before us to copy as he says, “For I am the least of the apostles, whom am not worthy to be called an apostle.” This humility keeps us from being puffed up one against the other, and allows us to pray in today’s Introit that God makes men abide together in His house as though they were all one soul. As we said last Sunday, the way to Jesus, Who is Truth, is through humility.

            Jesus spoke of humility also when He said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19: 13-15) A child’s faith is without a single doubt or reservation, and so they give themselves over to love of parents and love of God with complete humility. Children don’t start with logic and arrive at such a love. To start with logic is to place the logic of our mind above God – in essence to worship ourselves. In Matthew 19 Jesus is urging us to do what children do, “for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.”

In today’s Gospel our Lord took aside the man who couldn’t hear or speak, to perform a miracle away from the crowd, thus teaching us that more miracles are wrought through humility and modesty than through the vanity and pride of public performance. He could have cured the man with a simple word alone, but instead, put His fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue to show that our Lord’s Body is united to His Divinity. He looked up to Heaven and groaned like a man in prayer might do, and then with a single word, “Ephpheta,” healed the man.

The Redeemer’s fingers represent the gifts of the Holy Ghost. On another occasion, after casting out a devil, He said, “But if I by the finger of God cast out devils; doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you.” (Luke 11: 20) This same event is recorded with a different phrase by Matthew: “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.” (Matthew 12: 28) When we compare the two Gospels, we learn that the terms “finger of God” and “Spirit of God” have the same meaning. Therefore, for our Lord to put His fingers into the ears of this man means to open the mind of the deaf person to obedience by means of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God.

We were not unlike this man who was deaf and dumb before we received the gift of faith and the sacraments. These gifts healed our souls just as our Lord’s gift of a miracle healed this man’s ears and tongue. If we are truly thankful for our gifts we should tell others about them, just as the deaf and dumb man told others about the Lord after his cure. We would not have received the gifts of faith and the sacraments unless our Lord thought we were worthy of them. And we would be foolish indeed if we threw these gifts away rather than sharing them with others.

At our Baptism the priest touched our ears and also said, “Ephpheta, be thou opened,” that is, be thou opened to the Word of God. In an earlier time, God spoke similar words to the Prophet Ezechiel: “And he said to me: Son of man, receive in thy heart and hear with thy ears all the words that I speak to thee. . . And go . . . to the children of thy people, and thou shalt speak to them, and shalt say to them; Thus saith the Lord. . .” (Ezechiel 3: 10) In telling us of the miracle of the deaf and dumb man Mark confirms the words of Ezechiel.

            One sentence in today’s reading is: “And the sting of his tongue was loosed; and he spoke right.” (Mark 7: 35) We would hope that we always speak right, but in speaking about our neighbor, do we not often speak wrong?  Do we not often detract our neighbor in criticizing, censuring and denouncing our neighbor’s acts? Of all bad habits, this is the most common and also the most vicious and most harmful. The harm caused by detracting another is so great that the Curé of Ars has said that it is the cause of most of the souls that go to hell.

Detraction consists of making known a defect or fault of another unnecessarily, and in such a way as to cause injury to his good name or otherwise. If we tell something bad about our neighbor that is not true, that he did not do, it is calumny. When we detract someone, do we not invariably add something to the story to make it worse, to make it more interesting? That is calumny, a more serious sin than detraction. St. Francis de Sales warns against calling someone a sinner because he once sinned. When Simon saw Mary Magdalen weeping at our Lord’s feet he thought that if Jesus were indeed a prophet he would know that she is a sinner.  (Luke 7:  37) But Simon was wrong, because Magdalen’s sins  had already been forgiven. In last week’s Gospel the Pharisee in the temple condemned the Publican in the back of church as being a sinner, but at that very moment the Publican through his humility was justified before God. We deceive ourselves when we think badly of our neighbor even if we have good reason for our opinion. St. Francis de Sales, again, said that since God can forgive the worst of sins in a moment of time. How dare we say that the person who yesterday was a sinner is the same sinner today.

We know we aren’t to condemn anyone, we aren’t to judge anyone, so what is our best defense against detraction and calumny? It’s to keep our mouths shut. Do not spread tales, whether true or not. And how do we confess this sin? It is not enough to say we have slandered someone. We have to say whether it was in humor, from hatred or revenge, or whether we wanted to injure someone’s good name. We must tell who we spoke against, our superiors, our family, persons consecrated to God, and whether we spoke against one person or many. All of this is required to make a good confession. Remember; when we detract someone there is always injury to that person, whether the injury is slight or serious. If someone detracts another person to you, do not participate in the conversation. Excuse yourself and go pray for him and for the person he detracted. It has been said that “God hates six things; but the seventh he abhors, and that is ‘tale-bearing.’” When we die we will be asking God for mercy. So while we are alive, let us show mercy to our neighbors by not speaking evil of them. +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass