Friday, February 14, 2020
5th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1 King 11: 20-32; 12=19
Gospel: Mk 7:31–37
Again Jesus set out; from the country of Tyre, passed through Sidon and, skirting the sea of Galilee, he came to the territory of Decapolis. There a deaf man who also had difficulty in speaking was brought to him. They asked Jesus to lay his hand upon him.
Jesus took him apart from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle. Then, looking up to heaven, he groaned and said to him, “Ephphetha,” that is, “Be opened.”
And his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly. Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone, but the more he insisted on this, the more they proclaimed it. The people were completely astonished and said, “He has done all things well; he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
In today’s Gospel reading, after restoring speech and hearing to a deaf and dumb man, people exclaimed: “He (Jesus) has done all things well.” The same summarizes all human exclamations about God’s intervention. When God intervenes he does it well. Recall those experiences when you thought you were heading towards destruction but by God’s intervention the looming crises turned into surprises. Like a sculptor that can bring out the figure of an angel from a crude piece of rock, God can draw grace from disgrace. When God intervenes, he does it well.
But those who are open to God’s intervention are decreasing in number. Jesus has the answer but nobody asks him the question. Jesus is the solution but nobody accepts that he has the problem.
The only explanation we can think of is that people are comfortable with the answers that the world gives. Yet we know that the world’s answers are of the quick-fix type. It offers power but not respectable influence, prestige but not dignity, fame but not honor, money but not wealth, and happiness but not joy.
God’s intervention has few takers because it involves self-denial. “If you want to follow me you must deny yourselves, take up your cross and follow in my footsteps” (Luke 9:23-24). But if we want worthwhile intervention, one that takes us to a level higher than the finite, we must seek the right answers from Jesus. The way of the world is easy but it ends nowhere, for the world cannot soar higher than itself. Being finite it can only take us to finite levels. The way of Jesus is arduous, tough and onerous yet he alone can take us to eternity. In matters of salvation he alone does things well! – (Atty.) Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles Jr., JD, DM, MAPM, MMExM, LPT, REB
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