23rd Sunday of Year

9-9-12 B

SPN/HC

In 2009, the Washington Post newspaper conducted an experiment; it involved Joshua Bell, one of the world's greatest violinists. Joshua was commissioned to play his $4 million dollar Stradivarius violin in a subway station in Washington, D.C. So, he dressed like a street performer looking for tips and sat playing for 45 minutes. The Washington Post had a hidden camera to video the whole event. Out of the 1,097 people who passed by, only seven stopped to listen. He received just $32.17 in tips. Those 1,097 people probably all had good hearing, but their listening ability wasn't very well developed.
In the gospel, Jesus speaks one word to heal a deaf man: "Ephphatha," which means "be opened." Now the man is able to speak and hear, to listen and communicate. Now, he is open to discovering a whole new world around him. He can enter into human relationships on a level impossible before. Now he can respond to what people say to him; he can speak plainly. But, there's a deeper meaning to this and all of the cures Jesus performed. He was calling people to not just physical healing, but spiritual transformation as well. To be open means to be receptive and ready to accept something new and different. "Be opened" is an invitation to unlock all of our senses: our eyes and ears and our hearts and minds to perceive in a new way...like the deaf man. These words open us to all the ways God is present in our daily lives---in our relationships and in the created world. In the first reading, we hear the prophecy of Isaiah foretelling the coming of Jesus: "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then the lame will leap like a deer, then the tongue of the dumb will sing." Jesus came to make us whole in body and spirit. But, we already see and hear and speak; we already believe our hearts have been opened. So, what more? That's the danger; we may be satisfied and complacent with how we see, hear and speak. The religious leaders Jesus encountered thought their hearts were already open to God. But, the ways in which we perceive and the level on which we understand has to be constantly changing throughout our lives. As a priest, I've

read and preached these same readings for 35 years. But, I still gain new insights; the process is never finished. As St. Paul says, "When I was a child, I thought like a child and acted like a child." Each day our faith is calling us to "be opened" to a new way of seeing and hearing. That requires a receptive spirit, a heart that says, "I trust in you, Lord. I put it all into your hands. Do with me as you will." Sometimes life is like a violinist in a subway station; we may pass by and hear the tune of music playing somewhere on the street. But, we may not really "be open" to listen to the beauty of the melody, to notice the skill of the musician, to recognize the quality of the instrument, or to be touched in our inner spirit and thus be renewed, transformed and changed in a way that makes us more vibrant, alive, and whole. The music is always playing, but are we committed to listen?