Michaelmas 2012

Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. (John 1:51)

People are sometimes surprised to discover that the Bible says very little about Heaven and even less about angels.

God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit into human history to invite a select group of individuals to record their observations about the human condition. In that context, God the Holy Spirit helped those individuals discern the fundamental problem confronting humanity and the solution God the Father provides humanity.

The subject of the Bible is neither heaven nor angels. It is not even God. It is humanity. The Bible reveals God’s perspective on humanity through the experience and observation of people God chose to work with and to walk with.

The Bible only speaks of angels in the context of human experience. Angels are messengers whom God sends into our world to accomplish a very specific task. Angles come, fulfill their mission, then leave.

God certainly does not need angels to accomplish his task. He chooses to invite angels to participate in his plan of salvation for humanity.

The angels remind us that as vast as this universe is, there is an even greater reality called Heaven beyond this universe of matter, energy, time and space. Angels also remind us that there is an even more magnificent reality beyond Heaven.

It is important to clarify what the Bible says and does not say about angels.

God created angels before he created the material universe. As God created the angels before he created time and space, so God created Heaven to be the home of the angels. Angels are a separate order of creation from humans. Despite what you may have seen in the movies, human beings do not become angels. And, Heaven is not the true home of our species.

Students of the Bible discern nine distinct orders of angels: Seraphim Cherubim, Principalities, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Virtues, Archangels and Angels. St. Paul references three Heavenly Realms. Theologians speculate that each of these realms is further divided into three provinces- a separate province for each of the nine orders of angelic beings. Each realm is vaster and more complex than our universe. And each realm is organized in a hierarchy of increasing complexity, beauty and grace.

The Bible is clear that God created the angelic beings by love, through love and for love. The infinite and eternal love of God manifests the divine essence in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the superabundance of that infinite and eternal Triune Love, God created the multitude of angels and placed them in the nine realms of Heaven.

The number of angels is finite but innumerable. They each hold the image of divine love and the likeness of divine holiness in a unique fashion. As inhabitants of the heavenly realms they immerse themselves in divine love through the beauty of holiness in worship. Angels are agents of love. Angels proclaim the call to worship.

Angels remind us by their very nature that worship is the highest form of love. The account of Lucifer’s rebellion against God and war against the loyal angels is an account of the distortion of worship.

Lucifer was the brightest of the highest class of angels, the Seraph Class. He came to believe that all other angels were inferior to him and unworthy to worship God, to share God’s love. He told them: since I am like God in my intelligence and beauty you then must worship me. I will take your imperfect worship and purify it within my perfection and then I will offer it to God.

This example of how the Seraph Lucifer came to reject God’s love is the story of Original Choice. It reminds us that Lucifer came to view worship as an expression of perfect knowledge and supreme power. Lucifer took his eyes off God, compared himself to other angles, and then chose to exalt himself through the pride of self will. He used his pride to seduce one third of the angels to separate from God and worship him.

In the story of Lucifer’s choice to separate from God we see the pattern of separation, sin and death that has ensnared our species and each of us.

As Lucifer proclaimed “I am like God” the smallest and weakest of all the angels proclaimed “who is like God?” In Hebrew this question is a word: Mi Cha El – Michael. Michael’s name is the angelic affirmation that God alone is God. God alone is the source of life and light and worship.

The Bible records that these two competing views of worship resulted in a terrible war in the Heavenly realms. Much to his surprise, Lucifer could not impose his will on Michael. Lucifer and his followers fought Michael and the loyal angels. Lucifer lost that war and in losing the war lost his place in Heaven.

Michael cast Lucifer into our universe of matter, energy, time and space. Lucifer pulled his followers with him. In our universe, Lucifer is known as Satan (the Adversary) and his angelic followers are demons. Demons are the burnt out remnants of the rebel angels. They are diminished spirits defined by fear and by spite.

Satan still defines himself through pride and self-will. He has lost most of his intelligence, beauty and power. He still attempts to deceive and seduce all beings who have been created for love. He does this by inspiring fear to corrupt and distort the very reason and purpose of our existence. That reason and purpose is the threefold love of the Triune God.

Satan seeks to subvert and destroy worship, to substitute conflict for compassion and to hinder our personal growth in holiness. He cannot impose his will on anyone. He can design philosophies, religions and ideologies to separate us from God and from each other.

Forget the grotesque images of Satan and the demons portrayed in art and in film. On the rare occasion demons appear to human beings they manifest as that which we most desire. They do this because they can only affect human beings through deceit. The Bible warns us that Satan can appear as an angel of light to seduce us into greater separation from God.

St. Paul teaches us to test the spirits by comparing what they tell us to what is written in the Bible. St. John teaches that any angelic being who does not acknowledge the Incarnation of the co-eternal Son of God in Jesus Christ is not from God.

On the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, the Church reminds us that we as human beings have been created for worship, service and holiness. The reality of Satan is the reality of a personal force of evil, of separation, that intentionally seeks to corrupt virtue and trivialize worship.

Satan hates what God loves. He lost his war against Michael. He has declared war on humanity. He believes he can win his war against humanity by deceit. He appeals to human pride and self-will to separate from God by redefining worship as an expression of superior religious knowledge or political power.

Satan flatters the prideful. He seduces the unwary. And, he attempts to intimidate the faithful through fear.

Our Heavenly Father has given the archangel Michael and the loyal angels two important tasks in the Plan of Salvation for humanity. The first task is to defend the faithful from Satan and the demons. The second task is to encourage the faithful to observe the seventh day of worship as the Day of Real Presence.

C.S. Lewis once commented that we are surrounded by spiritual warfare. This warfare is different from the wars human beings fight. The Satanic weapons in spiritual warfare are pride, arrogance, self-will, fear, anxiety, superstition, cynicism, blasphemy and self-indulgence. These weapons keep us in a state of separation from God and each other. Left unchecked, these weapons will leave us bitter, weak and lost in pride and despair.

The loyal angels defend us with spiritual weapons such as faith, hope, joy, humility, compassion, kindness and love. We can choose to ignore and reject the protection and guidance the loyal angels offer us. We can choose to accept their protection and guidance.

The loyal angels seek to protect us from the despair of superstition as well as the arrogance of materialism. They accomplish this task by inspiring us to make wise choices. Above all else, they encourage us to come to the altar of sacrifice to immerse our minds, hearts and wills in the Real Presence of Divine Love on the Day of Worship.

Satan seeks to detach us from God by redefining the meaning and purpose of worship. Michael and the loyal angels seek to encourage us to cultivate our relationship with God by making worship our first priority.

The Biblical stories of angels are not cleverly devised myths. They are the reports and observations of people who experienced an aspect of our world that most of us ignore or reject.

Most of us will never see or hear angels or demons. All of us will experience the reality of their presence as we choose to react to the world through fear, self-will and pride, or as we choose to respond to the world through faith, hope and love.

St. Michael defeated Lucifer by the power of Divine Love and Holiness. The ministry of angels in our midst is the ministry of encouragement. We need not fear any real or imagined supernatural entity. God assures us that the angels protect us.

We need not fear the uncertainties or unpredictable aspects of life. The angels inspire us to experience the highest form of love. That highest form of love is worship. The angels are present with us at the altar of Real Presence on the Day of Real Presence as Jesus reveals Himself to us sacramentally. In the blessed sacrament of the altar, Jesus is the great bridge, the pontifex maximus, uniting heaven and earth, divinity and humanity. It is Jesus who sends the messenger and guardian angles to Earth to assist us in our earthly pilgrimage in this world.

 Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

 

 

 

Pentecost 17 (Mark 9:30-37) “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” The Kingdom of God is counter intuitive to the Kingdom of this world. I remember vividly as a college student grappling with my religious beliefs. I was particularly agitated by portions of the Bible I found barbaric, incomprehensible or simply inconvenient. I still remember thinking: this can’t be the word of God. I don’t like this portion. I don’t agree with this portion. This portion is totally primitive and unscientific. As my thoughts analyzed, dissected and criticized Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles I heard a small whisper of a thought. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. It was, of course, a quote from the prophet Isaiah. I had never made any effort to read, study or memorize the Bible up to that point in my life. But, I am a cradle Episcopalian. I had heard the scriptures read at the liturgy all my life. Somewhere in my memory, God had stored up His word and was now bringing it to my conscious awareness. Then, somehow, I experienced a shift in perception. Suddenly, it occurred to me: if everything in the Bible agreed with my belief system as an 18 year old 20th century middle class American from Trenton, NJ, then I would be God. And if that were true, then we’d all be in trouble. The great challenge for the people in the first century who met Jesus personally was that he did not meet the expectations of their inherited beliefs. Jesus did indeed fulfill the teachings of Moses and the prophets. But, the religion of the day had so reworked and reinterpreted the Torah, the five books of Moses, and the prophets that they missed the obvious. The obvious is the principle God revealed to the prophet Isaiah: my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. The obvious is the principle God spoke verbally to Moses in the words: I am. There are several examples of this principle in the gospel reading today. These principles challenged the disciples, Jesus’ students, then. These principles challenge us today. The first principle is timing. The principle of timing is critical in reconciling what modern people identify as contradictions in the Bible. We hear how Jesus did not want the crowds to know where he was. This is not the first passage in which Jesus presents this message to us. Occasionally, Jesus would instruct someone he just healed not to tell anyone. Of course, the people would always do the opposite. Modern readers think Jesus was being passive aggressive, using reverse psychology. On other occasions Jesus instructed his followers to proclaim the prophetic message of repentance and preparation. There seems to be a contradiction when we read the accounts from our very limited cultural context. The reason is simple. God is who he is. He is real. He is personal. He is love. He is Jesus Christ. Depending on the circumstances of the situation, Jesus asked people not to proclaim his healing power and even withdrew from public life. The scriptures tell us why. He wanted to set aside time to train the future leaders of the church. He knew his time on earth was short. He knew their time on earth would be short. Jesus does not implement a rigid inflexible program. He engages with each of us personally according to the divine principles of love, compassion and holiness. Sometimes that means he asks us not to speak. Sometimes that means he asks us to proclaim boldly the Good News of God’s love. When Jesus offers teaching he expects our questions and delights in our questions. More often than not, Jesus’ students did not ask questions. They did not ask questions because of fear. A basic Biblical principle is that fear is a distortion of faith. That distortion proceeds from Pride. The disciples feared to ask questions for two basic reasons. They did not want to change their belief system. And, they thought God would punish them for asking questions. As I came to understand that God’s thoughts are not my thoughts and God’s ways are not my ways, I began to realize that belief can distort and subvert truth. Faith is personal but not individual. Faith invites us into a personal relationship and a process of transformation. If we are not careful, belief can subvert truth and take the place of fact. Sadly, people tend to confuse fact and belief as we assert the will to power to define God, other people and the world according to our own individual needs and desires. The disciples did not ask questions because what Jesus taught challenged their inherited beliefs about God, the messiah, humanity and the world. They reacted with fear. That fear paralyzed them and held them back from understanding. They were stuck in old beliefs and enslaved to old beliefs. The evidence of this is that they ignored Jesus’ teaching about our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation and focused on their own plan of salvation. That plan rejected the way of the cross and pursued the path of the sword. The disciples wanted a plan of salvation that brought them power and position through politics. And so, they argued among themselves about who would be Prime Minister and who would be Treasurer. They ignored Jesus’ invitation to grow in faith because they were stuck in the patterns of inherited belief. Those beliefs took bits and pieces of scripture and wove them into the political ideologies of the day to produce a religion of fear, self-will and pride. It was a religion of power for the righteous and a religion of bad news for everyone else. Jesus not only proclaims the Good News of universal love, He is the Good News of universal love. He uses the moment with his disciples to challenge their inherited beliefs in order to help them grow in faith. First: Jesus sets forth the principle in words. “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” The disciples wanted political power. Jesus explained to them that the Kingdom of God is about compassion. It is not about the ability to impose my will on other people. It is about my surrender to Divine Will by helping meet the physical and spiritual needs of other people. Moses taught that God chose Israel to serve in the three fold action of love: worship, compassion, personal holiness. The prophets called the people to repent of the arrogance of pride and self-will that subverted that great and wonderful call. Jesus embodied the call of God and personalized the call. By his words and deeds Jesus revealed how to be the chosen of God. The disciples were not there yet. They were stuck in the belief that God had chosen their nation and them individually to rule. Jesus said: you are chosen to serve. After Jesus speaks his teaching he demonstrates it. He invites a child from the crowd to come near. Children loved Jesus. The child embraced him and Jesus held him in his arms. Then, Jesus reveals another counterintuitive principle of the Kingdom of God. Whoever welcomes one such child welcomes me. Whoever welcomes me welcomes God. Why is this counterintuitive? From time to time as I am speaking with a child or a teen an adult will interrupt the conversation to tell me something or to ask me something. This happens less frequently if I am speaking with another adult. Certainly in the ancient world adults believed children should be seen but not heard. After all, children lack experience and knowledge to offer any meaningful contribution to a discussion or a program. They are at best students whom adults are preparing to die in battle or to pay taxes. Jesus not only valued children he honored them. He respected them. Of course, as the co-eternal Son of the Eternal Father, Jesus perceives all of us as children: charming, immature and sometimes temperamental. He welcomes all of us and each of us regardless of our age. He values each of us at every age and stage of personal development. He does not look at children and see future soldiers for a cause. He sees and values children (and adults) as unique manifestations of Divine love and holiness. One important aspect of children is that they are, for the most part, teachable. They have not yet fully absorbed the biases of their culture. They have not yet learned who to fear and who to hate. That is the message Jesus communicates as he embraces a child and says: as you welcome him so you welcome me. On another occasion Jesus says: how you treat the least powerful and the least respected in your society is how you treat me. And, how you treat me reveals your belief about God. The counterintuitive principle is that compassion is more important than power. Preserving the relationship is more important than being right. Do not seek to use whatever position of authority you may have to impose your will on others. Use that position to help others. Do not lock your mind into rigid inflexible uncompromising belief systems. Allow your mind to be transformed by the scriptures through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Continue to be open to fact. Continue to be teachable. Do not confuse inherited belief with living faith. Allow God to be God. Listen. Pray. Question. Grow in grace. Practice compassion to others. Grow in personal holiness to form your soul into a living chalice of grace. Jesus said: Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.

Holy Cross Day

Holy Cross Day 2012 (John12: 31-36)
“I, if I be lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”

The great scandal of the Christian faith is the cross.

For ancient peoples, the cross was the symbol of a shameful and terrible death. The cross is execution by slow torture. It is designed to inflict maximum pain for maximum duration before the body expires. The pain of crucifixion is insidious. The victim inflicts torment on himself as he struggles to stave off suffocation by lifting himself up on the nails that pierce his wrists and ankles.

The suffering is physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual as the victim struggles to stave off death with the certain knowledge that his survival only inflicts more pain and will eventually weaken him to the point where he will collapse, suffocate and die.

The Romans used crucifixion to show the people of the Empire that anyone who challenged the authority of the State would suffer unimaginable pain. The Romans also considered crucifixion to be a demonstration to the gods of the ancient world that Rome would maintain order at all costs. Crucifixion was a threat to the people designed to inspire fear. It was also a pledge to the gods designed to insure divine support in their mutual battle against chaos.

Someone once asked me why the crucifixion of Jesus was so important. After all, the Persians, Greeks and Romans had killed tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people by crucifixion. The victims were sometimes thieves and murders and sometimes rebels guilty of treason. Why is this one man, Jesus, so special?
It is a very good question. Jesus addresses the question in the scripture today. Of all the thousands of people who died the horrible death of crucifixion in the ancient world we remember the name of only one: Jesus.

Jesus knew that his death on the cross would draw the attention of the entire human species. He also knew that his death would draw all people to him to make a real choice to receive the gift his heavenly Father offers to the human race through him.
The gift of God in Jesus Christ is reunification with God.

The accusation that led the religious court to condemn Jesus was blasphemy. As in many parts of the world today, blasphemy was a capital offense. People believed that if you insulted the realm of the Divine that realm would bring wrath to the entire community. The only way to avoid divine wrath was to execute the blasphemer.

As today so then, blasphemy was a convenient way to eliminate someone you didn’t like. It is virtually impossible to prove you did not commit blasphemy when someone is willing to perjure themselves in court. The accusation against Jesus was that he claimed to be God. The witnesses against Jesus contradicted themselves in their testimony but the contradictions were meaningless to the religious court. They had already decided to condemn Jesus. The facts of the case were irrelevant.

Of course, Jesus did indeed claim to be God. The apostle John records Jesus’ claim in a series of “I am” statements. God the Father spoke audibly on two occasions to affirm the truth of Jesus’ statement. Jesus’ miracles offer physical evidence to support this truth. And, Jesus never violated the Law of Moses.

Nevertheless, the religious court was determined to find Jesus guilty despite the evidence. They did have one problem. Under Roman law they could not execute a prisoner. And, under Roman Law, blasphemy was not a capital offense. The Romans were largely indifferent to religious disputes. The offense the Romans were most concerned about was treason.

And so, the religious authorities accused Jesus of treason. The Roman governor, Pontus Pilate, knew this was not true. He also knew the Emperor had given him the responsibility to maintain order. The prospect that the religious authorities would start a riot and then accuse Pilate of refusing to execute a threat to the Emperor led Pilate to wash his hands (literally) of the matter and order Jesus to be executed.

Jesus was innocent of the charges brought against him. That fact is critical in understanding his death on the cross. Jesus died as the one pure perfect and final sacrifice for sin. Where Jesus was innocent of blasphemy and treason, human beings are not. Lest we miss the reality of that statement we need only review the Ten Commandments. Lest we gloss over the standard of attitude and action in the Ten Commandments, the prophets clarify for us how we violate those standards. And, lest we miss the message of Moses and the Prophets Jesus gives us a simple standard. How you treat the weakest, most vulnerable and the most marginal people in your society reveals how you would treat God himself were He in your midst.

The bad news of crucifixion is that the crimes for which Jesus died were not his own but ours. The Good News in crucifixion is that Jesus took every sin of omission or commission of every human being and accepted the consequence of those sins. As the scriptures teach: he who knew no sin became sin. He did this willingly. And it inflicted unimaginable pain and suffering on him. He was only able to do this because He is the Love of God in human flesh.

The great scandal of the cross is that human beings collectively and individually chose to reject torture and kill the co-eternal Son of God. We did this because he came in the fullness of love and compassion.

Our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation recognizes the will to power of a species lost in willful separation. God folds that will to power into His perfect plan of Love and Holiness through His son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God deals with sin by embracing sin and transforming sin back into its original virtue through love.
In Jesus, God embraces the ultimate consequence of sin, death, and then transforms death back into life through love.

Because the love of God In Jesus is infinite and eternal, the love of Jesus transforms the sin and death of every human being who has ever lived and will ever live. Because the love of Jesus is infinite and eternal the life of Jesus is eternal.

The scandal of crucifixion is that human beings exercise our will to power to remain separate from God, separate from each other, separate from the image of God imprinted on our souls. The scandal of the cross is that God himself resolves the human created problems of sin and death. The scandal of the cross is that eternal life is a gift God offers to all people everywhere in Jesus Christ.

There is nothing you can do to earn God’s love. There is nothing you can do to lose God’s love. God’s love is real. God’s love is personal. God’s love is Jesus Christ. The enduring universal symbol of Divine Love is the cross.

Pentecost 15

Pentecost 15 (Mark 7:24-37) “Be opened!”

Jesus specializes in opening up hearts, minds and wills.

If you think you have life, the universe and everything figured out, then Jesus will surprise you. He will not only surprise you- he will astonish you.

Jesus certainly surprised, astonished and aggravated the people of his time. He healed everyone who came to him including those whom the religious authorities had written off as unworthy. His power to heal surprised even his students. His universal and unconditional healing aggravated the religious and political elites.

Certainly, the Syro Phoenician woman knew the religious people despised and rejected her. Under ordinary circumstances, she would never have come to a Rabbi for help. Under ordinary circumstances, a Rabbi of any sect would not have spoken with her.
These were not ordinary circumstances. Jesus was not an ordinary Rabbi. The woman was desperate. Her daughter was possessed by a demon. Demon possession is very rare. It does happen. It always results in madness and death. There is nothing casual or magical about exorcism- the removal of a demon. The more you fight a demon the stronger it becomes. It feeds on fear, anger, and pride. It flees only from the Real Presence of unconditional love.

Jesus understood all of this. He lived in a religious society that had structured itself in the distortions of fear, pride and the will to power. He lived in a xenophobic culture that despised strangers despite the clear and unambiguous teaching of Moses to welcome the stranger.

Jesus used this opportunity to teach a fundamental lesson about God, human nature and individual responsibility.

Jesus started the lesson from where people were. This is an important principle. The very presence of Jesus in the world initiates a process of revelation and self-discovery.

The first revelation Jesus manifested in this passage is the problem. The problem is three fold. The first aspect of the problem is that people believed God favored some people over others. The categories the people used to identify this favor were: race, religion and righteousness.

The logic went like this:
God called one individual, Abraham into a unique contract. The contract stipulates that God will bless Abraham and his legitimate descendants in exchange for their obedience to God’s commands.
The legitimate descendants of Abraham come through the line of Isaac and Jacob.
The Law comes through Moses.
The proper interpretation of the Law comes from the sectarian insights of those religious leader whom God favors.
And so, God favors only one specific group of people of one race in one nation who properly understand the Law and keeps the Law. God rejects and punishes everyone else.

The Syro Phoenician woman did not fit into the “favored” category. She had no claim on God’s blessing. She did not deserve God’s blessing. Even Jesus’ disciples held this point of view. And, certainly the woman understood this aspect of her intrusion into the conversation of who God will bless and who God will curse.
Nevertheless, she asked. Against all logic and against all probability she asked Jesus for help. And, everyone around Jesus, his friends and enemies alike, expected Jesus to reject the woman and send her away. That is the context of Jesus’ seemingly harsh statement to the woman.

The immediate issue is the division among people. Human beings divide ourselves and separate ourselves from each other in every way possible. Race, ethnicity, language, accent, class and so much more becomes the occasion for separation, division, conflict and war.

The religious people of Jesus’ day equated religion with politics, politics with partisanship and partisanship with pride. That pride empowered a very small group of people in one faction of one sectarian group of one tribe of one nation to assert their will to dominate all other people in their nation and all other nations. They were just waiting for the right leader to make it happen.

That is where they were in terms of religion and culture. That is where Jesus met them. That is not where Jesus left them. He invited them to take a journey in faith. He invited them to consider certain facts that did not conform to their strongly held beliefs.

The invitation was in the woman herself. Her gracious and humble response to Jesus’ harsh and uncompromising statement was the open door for the people to understand a reality they had been educated to reject.

The door is humility. The reality is unconditional love.

Jesus never argued or debated within the narrow inflexible uncompromising ideologies of his enemies or his friends. He did use their uncompromising beliefs to help them experience unconditional love.

The unnamed pagan woman walked right into the center of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. The Plan of Salvation is personal. Jesus is the personal reality of the infinite and eternal God.

Jesus led the woman into a process of self-discovery and divine revelation that scandalized those who considered themselves the righteous. The woman discovered her humility. The religious leaders discovered their fatal pride. Everyone discovered something about God that they had failed to recognize.

Jesus makes manifest the reality that God just doesn’t have love. God is love. That love is unconditional, universal, compassionate and holy.

Because our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation is personal there is no room for individual pride. Jesus will meet us where we are. But, He will not leave us where we are. If he comes to us and discovers we are lost in pride he will bring people and circumstances into our lives to reveal that pride to us. He will send the Holy Spirit to convict us of the fatal consequence of pride in the way we live life here and now.

There is no condemnation in Jesus. Sickness is never a punishment for sin. In certain situations, disease or injury may be a consequence of particular sins, but never a punishment.

Jesus uses all events in our lives to help us make the real choice to accept the gift of reunification with God in the waters of baptism. Jesus uses all circumstances in our lives to help us identify those sins of thought, word and deed, of omission and commission that need to be transformed back into their original virtue.

Jesus surprised the crowd, annoyed the righteous and astonished the pagan woman by reversing everyone’s expectations and beliefs about God. The righteous are proved to be lost in fatal pride. The friends of Jesus are convicted of their own rigid inflexible inherited belief. The pagan woman receives the unconditional love of God just as she feels the moment slipping away from her.

And, everyone receives the invitation to question their beliefs in order to grow into faith.

The healing of the deaf man seems simple by comparison. Mark uses the word Jesus used in that healing to comment about the prior event. “be opened”.

The words set the deaf man free from his physical affliction. The words are also given to set us all free from our spiritual affliction.

“Be open!” God is performing miracles in our lives every day. Jesus is asking us to identify where pride solidifies inherited belief and subverts faith that manifests compassion.

Be open to hear the word of God from the one who is the incarnate Word of God. Open your ears to hear Jesus speak in the Bible. Open you hearts to feel Jesus present in human need. Open your minds to ask Jesus to transform your inherited beliefs by grace through faith. Open your souls to experience the Real Presence of the Divine on the Day of Real Presence at the altar of Real Presence.