God is Hope

Isaiah 35:4-7a
Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
James 2:1-5
Mark 7:31-37

One of the top stories in my newspaper today is that 2 out of 5 Californians of employment age is out of a job. For all of you mathematicians out there, that’s 40%!!!! (I thank God that no one in my immediate household is part of the 40%). Add that to a world full of war, drugs, and a complete disrespect for the sanctity and dignity of human life, and you have the recipe for despair. And still, with today’s readings, God holds out hope.

In the first reading, Isaiah tells us that life will spring forth from the desert. It will bloom with fresh beauty, and the pools and springs will again overflow with refreshing water. What do we need to do? God tells us to strengthen our weak hands, and make firm our feeble knees. Good advice! Furthermore, we are to encourage one another with words like Be brave! Fear not! In other words, we are to rebuild the "ground zeros" in our lives left barren of hope and courage.

Fear can paralyze, causing our hearts to wither, and our souls to selfishly clutch our possessions to ourselves, not sharing with those who are poor and destitute. In Isaiah and in James, we are warned of God's punishment on narrow and exclusive behavior. If we "kowtow" to the rich and powerful, and ignore and insult the poor man, God will exclude us from the kingdom.

In the Gospel, Jesus shows us the way to openness in sharing. Traveling into non-Jewish territory and, much to the astonishment of His disciples, people bring to Jesus a man who has hearing loss and an inability to communicate through sound-words. This man’s friends ask Jesus to lay hands on him, which He does by putting His own fingers into the man’s ears while praying “groanfully”. He then prays, “Be open”. The crowd sees that Jesus has done all things well by fulfilling the expectations of what a Messiah should be doing.

Through our prayers this week we need to beg Christ to open our eyes and ears to His message: “Be brave. Be courageous, be impartial in sharing your possessions, especially the Good News." God is Hope.