23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - B 2024

In today's Gospel, we witness Jesus heal a man who is both deaf and unable to speak.  This isn't the first time Jesus has performed such miracles—He's healed the blind, the mute, and many others.  But this particular healing stands out.  It's not the typical "say the word" or "lay hands" kind of miracle.  Instead, it's a startlingly graphic scene: Jesus puts His fingers into the man’s ears, spits, and touches his tongue.  What’s going on here?  Honestly, it sounds a little gross.  Why did Jesus choose this manner to heal?

I like to imagine Jesus thinking to Himself, “Just wait till people try to figure this one out 2,000 years from now.”  But of course, He wasn’t just pulling a prank on future theologians who would struggle to decipher the meaning of this miracle.  There’s something deeper happening here.   Jesus is trying to teach us something.

First, notice that Jesus takes the man away from the crowd.  This miracle isn’t meant to be a public spectacle.  Instead, it’s a deeply personal moment.  Jesus often healed in public, but in this instance, He wants to create an intimate encounter, away from the eyes of others.  The physicality of the healing highlights the personal nature of what Jesus is doing.  He doesn't simply want to restore the man’s hearing and speech—He wants to personally connect with him.  The details of the miracle invite us to reflect on the way God operates in our own lives, often in quiet, deeply personal ways, beyond the sight of the crowds.

Second, this healing emphasizes touch.  Elsewhere in the Gospels, people knew that just being near Jesus or touching His cloak could bring healing.  We think of the woman with the hemorrhage who was healed just by touching the hem of His garment.  In today’s passage, this truth is driven home in a vivid way: Jesus heals through the direct, physical touch of His hands.

Ultimately, this Gospel reveals that God desires to heal us personally, often through a very tangible, human encounter.  Just as Jesus used touch to heal the man, God continues to use touch to bring about healing and grace in our lives.   And He does this through the Sacraments.

We need to remember that out of love for us, God became man.  He took on a human body, walked the earth, and experienced life with all five senses.  Sometimes, we can fall into thinking of God as distant, untouchable.  But the Incarnation—the mystery of God becoming man—changed that.  Through Jesus, the gap between God and humanity was bridged.  St.  Ephrem writes

“That power which may not be handled came down and clothed itself in members that may be touched, that the desperate may draw near to him, that in touching his humanity they may discern his divinity.  For that speechless man the Lord healed with the fingers of his body.  He put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue.  At that moment with fingers that may be touched, he touched the Godhead that may not be touched.  Immediately this loosed the string of his tongue, and opened the clogged doors of his ears.  For the very architect of the body itself and artificer of all flesh had come personally to him, and with his gentle voice tenderly opened up his obstructed ears.  The One who immediately had given to Adam speech without teaching gave speech to him so that he could speak easily a language that is only learned with difficulty.” (Homily on Our Lord, 10)

In other words, God became one of us so we could encounter Him, not just in spirit, but in a way that engages our senses—seeing, hearing, and even touching Him.  No other religion teaches this; only Christianity proclaims a God who loves us so much that He became touchable.

One might think, “That’s great, but Jesus lived 2,000 years ago.  What about today?”  As I said, God continues to come to us in tangible ways—through the Sacraments.  These are the ways in which we still touch the divinity of God.  When the priest says, “I absolve you from your sins,” in Confession, we are hearing God’s words of forgiveness.  When we receive the Eucharist, we are physically touching the Body and Blood of Christ.  The Sacraments are God’s way of making Himself present to us, here and now, in ways that we can experience with our senses.

Think about the Sacraments for a moment.  They aren’t just rituals we go through for the sake of tradition.  They’re real encounters with the living God, designed to engage our whole being—body, mind, and soul.  When we are baptized, it’s not just a symbolic washing but a true cleansing of original sin, marked by the physical pouring of water.  When we receive the Eucharist, it’s not just a spiritual connection but the physical reality of Christ’s Body and Blood entering our very being.  These Sacraments are bridges, allowing us to touch the divine in a way that’s accessible to our humanity.

God has given us an incredible gift in becoming man.  The Sacraments are the means by which we can still touch, see, and hear God’s presence, even though their realities are veiled and only perceived by faith.  Just as Jesus healed the deaf man privately, in a deeply personal way, He desires a personal encounter with each of us through the Sacraments.

Maybe sometimes we come to Mass without really paying attention to the profound reality at hand.  We might be more focused on our surroundings than on the fact that God is truly present, desiring to meet us in the Eucharist.  Or maybe we avoid Confession because it feels uncomfortable to confess our sins.  But no matter the nature of our hesitations, God desires that we encounter Him in these personal, tangible ways.

If we find ourselves neglecting the Sacraments, let’s ask for an increase in faith and zeal.  May we remember that through the Sacraments, we touch the same God who created the universe, conquered death, and promises us eternal life.  May we never lose sight of this tremendous gift.