Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes

 Lectionary: 333

he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)
And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. 

The Book of Deuteronomy provides a clear and simple test of a prophet's fraudulence: 

...if a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the word does not come true, it is a word the LORD did not speak. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not fear him. (Deut 18:22

In that same eighteenth chapter, verse 15, Moses promised, 

"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kindred; that is the one to whom you shall listen."

When we hear the Lord Jesus groan the Aramaic Ephphatha and see the man's ears opened and his speech impediment removed, we know he is from God. (It's also, by the way, a clear sign the Word of God may speak to us in any human language.)

But the Word of God is not always the news we expect. In today's first reading the upstart Jeroboam was very happy to hear the word and see the sign of the Prophet Ahijah the Shilonite. The kingdom David had built was torn in two by the misrule of Solomon and his son, Rehoboam. The charismatic Jeroboam took advantage of the people's discontent and Ahijah's words and created a separate, larger, wealthier nation of Israel from David's kingdom. 

Everyone had expected God's promise to David meant Judah with its capital Jerusalem would always be a unified nation. But our God cannot be contained by our expectations; and the Spirit of God interprets God's word, often in the light of unexpected developments. As the wealth went north, Judah suffered diminishment at the loss of Israel; but, unexpectedly, not the loss of God's favor. The impoverished nation was, in effect, punished for the sins of David's heirs but the LORD remained in Jerusalem and her temple, insofar as a building could contain the Creator of heaven and earth. To this day, when the Church recalls our history as God's people, we count the tribe and nation of Judah and not the lost tribes of Israel.   

Is there a sign in that ancient story? Especially as we celebrate Our Lady of Lourdes? 

Mary is the purity of the Church which, we are often reminded, is the always sinful and eternally repentant people of God. Innocent as she is, she goes with us to suffer the disciplines of God's mercy. Whether they come as spiritual aridity; horror as we comprehend our sins; widespread suffering under economic depression, inflation, and supply change shortages; epidemics; or war -- the Virgin remains embedded in this world's suffering. 

Especially in the more recent, private revelations of Lourdes, Fatima, LaSalle, and Knock we encounter the sorrowing Mother who calls her children to penance. 

We hear of that suffering also in today's gospel Jesus's groan, Ephphatha. The Lord reached deep into his compassion for deaf and mute humanity as he freed the man to hear, speak, sing, and celebrate God's Word. 

To go with Mary and Jesus we go into our poverty of spirit. In the wilderness with the Lord we know the aridity that fails to plead for the healing waters of prayer, penance, and atonement. Preoccupied with time wasting preoccupations, we do not hear anguish, grief, and sadness all around us. Listening even for a moment seems unbearable and we shut the doors of our hearts. 

Our Lady of Lourdes remains with us. She invites us to prayer and healing. As millions visit her shrines in France and around the world, the rifts of Judah and Israel, Protestant and Catholic, Republican and Democrat, , wealth and poverty are healed. We have only to Behold our Mother.