A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus,
and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.
Jesus has the power to free our speech to bless God. We need him to do so because we tend to use our speech to curse, although we don't think of it that way. We speak as though God is powerless, as though the limitations of the physical world are concrete and unchangeable, as though he is unable to change the problems in the world and in ourselves. We speak negatively even of ourselves and our own limitations as though we aren't valuable, forgetting that we are made by God, willed and sustained in existence by divine love. We tend to forecast negative guesses about the future, prophesying doom rather than speaking aloud our hope in God. Jesus wants to silence this subtle demonic speech and open our mouths in a chorus of praise. Of course such a positive attitude can be grating for some and we may be criticized for being ignorant or naïve.
But the Pharisees said,
"He drives out demons by the prince of demons."
The Pharisees could not abide the freedom Jesus came to offer. They desired to be the center of attention, but could not compete with what Jesus had to offer. They offered the regulations of the law, as though a fastidious adherence to their teachings was the solution that everyone needed. But they couldn't offer the joy of genuinely coming to know the love of God through the compassionate heart of Jesus. Through the lens they provided God seemed cold and disinterested, or even like a harsh tyrant rather than a loving Father. This was because they projected, knowingly or unknowingly, their own image on God. To avoid this peril took a humility which they often seemed not to possess.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Many of the Pharisees were motivated by pride and the desire to control. They used law, and language in general, to tear down, to restrict those who heard them, keeping them from finding anything in which they might truly place their hope. But sometimes we too act as Pharisees, not only to others, but also to ourselves. We cast aspersions on the hope Jesus offered as something seemingly too good to be true and instead impose a law of negativity and doubt. The only way to silence our inner Pharisee is to introduce him to the compassionate heart of the Jesus, the good shepherd. Only he can heal our hearts with his Gospel of the Kingdom. Only he can cure that which most deeply afflicts us.
Then he said to his disciples,
"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
The harvest is abundant. Listen to Jesus speaking positivity and hope rather than negativity and doubt. Looking around in his day it may well not have seemed so abundant to some. And in our own day it may not often seem thus. But Jesus saw more deeply what the hearts of those around him most needed and desired, more deeply even than they themselves. He calls us to share in that same perspective and concern for his sheep.
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest."
The laborers are those who allow their hearts to be transformed by Jesus to be compassionate like his and who walk in unwavering hope as he did. In praying for laborers for the harvest we are doing more than praying for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, although we are and ought to do that as well. We are above all praying for the inner transformation that will allow us to be laborers together with Jesus, to speak and act in agreement with the plans of his heart for the world. After all, he told his disciples to pray for these laborers and then he himself called them to go out and become the answer to their own prayers (see Matthew 10:1-7).
We may find that we sometimes stubbornly cling to ideas about the world that are not those of Jesus, and that negativity continues to influence our mindset. The transformation to which we are called may not come immediately and all at once. But if we cling to God and refuse to let go as Jacob did we will eventually and inexorably receive his blessing. We may well be wounded by love in the process. We may not walk quite the same way by the end of it. But we will discover a new identity rooted in God that we would not trade for anything.
But Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me."
The man asked, "What is your name?"
He answered, "Jacob."
Then the man said,
"You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel,
because you have contended with divine and human beings
and have prevailed."
No comments:
Post a Comment