My dear people,

I would like to share Deacon Pashley's homie from Sunday September 8th with you.

There is a temptation to wonder if Jesus can heal a man who’s deaf, and he can perform all of the other miraculous healings we know he did, then why didn’t he heal everybody.
 
We may be tempted to wonder why he didn’t heal all the lame, all the blind, all the deaf, all the mute, All the lepers. Why didn’t he raise everyone from the dead?
 
While Jesus was dying on his cross one of the people executed next to him kind of asked him that question. He mocked Jesus and asked why he doesn’t get himself and them down from their crosses.
 
The tendency is to make Jesus as small as we are – or as small as we can be. The smallest we can be is focused on this moment, right here, right now. This smallness. This tiny thing that I want now – just give me that. Give me what I think it is I need from you Jesus. That will do. That’s enough. That’s what I want.
 
Jesus’s mission – his plan for us is bigger than what we need now – even if what we need now is important – like the ability to hear or speak. Isaiah hints at the enormity of Jesus’s mission. We see that God is coming with vindication – and even better – with salvation. He’s coming to heal – the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute – but so much more. The lame won’t just walk – they’ll leap like a stag. The mute won’t just talk – they’ll sing.
 
God’s saving power extends beyond our expectations – rivers won’t just flow they’ll burst forth in the desert.
 
God’s saving power is responsive to our needs, but offers us what St. John might call not just life, but life in abundance.
 
In our smallness, we may focus on the thing that ails us. Or, we may focus on the thing that ails our loved ones. These readings challenge us or remind us to think bigger. Think bigger. Not just walking but leaping. Not just talking, but singing.
Not just life, but life in abundance. Not just life, but eternal life. Not just eternal life – because remember there is the possibility of eternal life outside the presence of God – so not just eternal life – but eternal life in the presence of God. That is life in abundance. That’s salvation.
 
This psalm from today is Psalm 146. There are 150 Psalms, and the last five make a sort of crescendo – a final burst of praise and thanks to God, which culminate in praise of God forever in heaven.
 
This is one of those Psalms – and as things build toward a crescendo of praise – we’re reminded about thinking too small. It’s presented here as placing our trust in Princes – in a person in the here and now who seems to be of some importance – but through whom there is no real help and certainly no salvation.
 
This Psalm speaks to the smallness of our desire for satisfaction right now and warns us that placing our trust in things that pass away – what ever those are – placing our trust in things that pass away - leads to death.
 
“When his breath departs he returns to his earth; on that very day his plans perish.”
 
You have to wonder what the people were thinking when they brought their blind and their lame, and their deaf to Jesus for healing. What were they thinking?
 
The time hadn’t come for him to fully reveal himself. These people – the people in the story today were from outside Israel – they were pagans – they were unfamiliar the law, the prophets, the Psalms. They wanted their loved one healed today. They’d heard that Jesus could do it.
 
Understandable, but small. There was more waiting for them. More than they could have imagined. They were pleased enough to tell people of Jesus’s healing power. And for the shortsighted – that was good enough – for the shortsighted that’s still good enough.
 
We though, know the rest of the story. We know that Jesus didn’t just come as a healer. We know that his healing miracles point us to something else. We know this story isn’t just about giving a person back his hearing and his voice – it is about giving him his freedom, his life, his salvation.
 
Jesus healed him. He could hear. But what good is hearing if we can’t hear the gospel proclaimed?
 
Jesus healed him. He could speak. What good is the ability to speak if you can’t share the message of the gospel with someone – with everyone?
 
The good news – that Jesus suffered, died and is risen. And that if you repent and believe – you’ll share in his resurrection. That you won’t just have life – but life in abundance.
 
The healing miracles are always visible signs of invisible reality – of invisible grace.
The healing miracles point to something more. It is never about walking and speaking – it’s about leaping and singing.
 
As Jesus hung on the cross – one of the men thought it was about walking and speaking. “Get us down from here.” The other man, realized it was about something else. He came to Jesus’s defense. He worked out for himself an understanding. And, in a way, he had his own private conversation with Jesus – a little like the man in the Gospel today.

In a way, even though they were both nailed to Crosses, it was as if Jesus took the man aside privately – and as the man confessed to Jesus – as the man appealed to Jesus in repentance – Jesus promised something bigger. Not just walking and talking, but leaping and singing.
 
Not just life, but life in abundance. He called it paradise.
 
Which one are we?
 
Do we realize that as the Gospel is proclaimed, Jesus is taking us aside in – almost in private - and offering us his healing strength? Not just for now, but for eternity.
 
When we hear the Gospel proclaimed, Jesus is speaking to us – each of us. He’s close enough to touch our ears, our tongues.  Part of our deafness is our inability to hear these stories as new – proclaimed to our ears right now. Part of our speech impediment is our inability to confess our sins to the only person who can save us. Part of our speech impediment is our inability to express to someone else the reason for our faith.
 
Jesus didn’t come just to heal the deaf, the mute, the lame – but to save them – to save all of us.
 
Prepare yourselves to come forward to receive the one who came not just to heal you – but to save you – so that you may not only have life – but life in abundance.

Padre