Jesus comes to personally open ourselves up to God, if we allow it
Scripture Reflections for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year B, Lectionary 128
If we are poor in worldly possessions then we are more able to be open to receive God's kingdom. If not, we can cloud our mind from hearing God's word. And by being closed into our ego we can feel isolated and unheard but Jesus comes to us personally to provide spiritual and personal healing.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Assumption • Attitude • Aware • Baptism • Blessing • Care • Change • Compassion • Crowd • Deaf • Disability • Encounter • Environment • Ephphatha • Equality • Evangelize • Faith • Fear • Freedom • Grateful • Heal • Healing • Hear • Impartiality • Inclusion • Interconnected • Journey • Joy • Judgment • Justice • Kindness • Listen • Love • Miracle • Mute • Open • Partiality • Personal • Poverty • Praise • Proclaim • Prophecy • Punishment • Receive • Repent • Restore • Revelation • Risk • Sacrament • Salvation • Secret • Sight • Silence • Speak • Touch • Vocation • Works •
“The most beautiful thing you can see in this world are those whom God has made in God's own image and likeness”
“He doesn't want to just heal that one aspect of our life. He wants to heal us through and through.”
“Who is the Messiah to you? Is the Messiah the weapon you use against your enemies?...Is the Messiah a spare tire that you only remember when all other options are no longer working?”
“Well, mindful of the deaf people, have we ever asked their thoughts and feelings about this narrative or have we included them in the gospel conversation?”
“Apart from the grace of God we are all deaf to God’s word. May the Lord truly open our ears that we can be attentive to his word. May he break open our deafness so that we can truly be attentive to those whom he has placed in our lives.”
“Jesus and the crowd gain a new interpretation for care rather than cure, for appreciation rather than disrespect, and for love of all others who have been heavily burdened, bowed low and oppressed for too long”
“We are invited to welcome the whole of people's identities, to open our hearts and encounter the whole of their lives. Today we are invited to encounter the image of God alive in one another.”
“Lord, let me realize that you are always listening to me. Help me always to hush and listen to you.”
“For those of us baptized into Christ there cannot be any judgment of worthiness of another to be in our company, to be part of our communities of faith. Our call and our behavior is to be open to all.”
“How many times don't we want to hear God's word, especially when it's messing with our own lifestyle or our own personality or our own prides and prejudices? But God wants to heal it. God wants to open our ears.”
“So what is Jesus doing? This is so crucial. Jesus is deliberately enacting in his own person the miracles that Isaiah said God would perform at the time of the new Exodus.”
“The miracle is not so much about the physical healing of a man who was deaf, rather it's about the opening of a person's ears so that he may be able to hear the word of God and the loosening of his tongue so that he may be able to profess faith in Jesus”
“And as we reflect on this call to discipleship we remember that there are two things that can stand in the way of discipleship, they are the inability to listen and the inability to speak”
“The transformative opening to which Jesus invites the deaf man and in this moment all of us, is not just an experience of conversational exchange. We are being called to truly hear, to listen deeply.”
“That was God coming to us up close and personal. God wants to do that to you and me today. All we have to do is listen because God in Jesus Christ, with all of his healing powers coming to us right here, right now and saying to us all 'Ephphatha'”
