They brought
to Jesus a deaf person with a speech impediment. The poor guy had a speech impediment. Hmmm.
The man was deaf, and something impeded his speech.
I feel sorry
for this guy because I can kind of identify with him. Many of us, I think, can because from time to
time we suffer from a speech impediment.
Sometimes it
is as simple as taking someone for granted and so forgetting to say “Thank
you.” That failure to say “thanks” is a
type of speech impediment: speech impeded by laziness or thoughtlessness or
routine.
Perhaps we are
too embarrassed or too proud to ask for the help that we need. We continue to be hurt and hurt others rather
than dump our pride, admit our weakness, and ask for help. That is a speech impediment. The first thing at 12 step programs is to
stand up and say, “my name is Chuck and I am an alcoholic, or an overeater, or
whatever it is”. Speech is the first
step back to recovery.
At times we
might be too shy, or self-conscious to speak up and make our concerns heard, to
voice our opinion, to share our thoughts.
That is impeded speech.
Or we might be
too uncomfortable saying to someone we care about, that I really like you, I
really appreciate you, I love you. We
may be afraid of turning red; afraid of our own feelings; afraid especially of
being rejected. That is a speech
impediment when we can’t speak what is in our heart. Who as a teenager hasn’t been tongue-tied and
dumb in this kind of situation? And
even when older we still are impeded but we get better at faking it.
Perhaps we are
afraid to speak up when others might disagree with us, or afraid to tell the
boss something she or he doesn’t want to hear, or to speak a truth that is
unpleasant and unwelcome, afraid of what others will think or do in reaction,
and so out of fear we keep quiet. That
is a big speech impediment.
Perhaps we
don’t pray because we are too busy, too distracted, too occupied with a zillion
things and many electronic gadgets. Then
our speech with God is impeded. For many
of us our speech is impeded because we don’t praise and glorify and thank God
nearly enough. We are too busy, to
pre-occupied, too centered on our own little stuff to stop and say “Thank You,
Thank You, Thank You,” which we should be doing all the time. And that is impeded speech.
Some of us
have a very hard time apologizing, of asking for forgiveness, of even admitting
a mistake and saying we were wrong. That
is a big speech impediment, but I am sure no one here has that impediment.
There are
many, many ways to suffer a speech impediment.
Not all of them are silent.
Sometimes we gossip, and then sometimes we lie, and we gossip, we
criticize severely, we gossip, we spread rumors, we gossip, we taunt and call
names, we gossip, we tell secrets, we gossip, we curse and swear, and of
course, we gossip. All of these are
mal-formed, broken, crooked, wrong uses of speech. And that is also a type of speech
impediment.
In a recent
weekday homily Pope Francis declared: “To make gossip
is terrorism. … Whoever gossips is like
a terrorist that throws a bomb and it goes off, destroys; destroys with the
tongue, doesn’t make peace,” said the pope.
So, they
brought to Jesus a deaf person with a speech impediment. Anybody here ever have a speech
impediment? Of course.
Do you want to
be healed?? The man in the Gospel got
healed. If you want to be healed of your
speech impediment than do what he did.
He went to Jesus. Go to Jesus.
Because you
see Jesus is the Word of
God. God spoke God’s self so perfectly,
so completely, so totally that the Word God speaks is God. As St. John
tells us at the beginning of His Gospel: “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Who better to
heal a speech impediment than the very Word of God? So the man goes to Jesus.
Notice that
the man is deaf. He doesn’t hear the
Word of God. He doesn’t hear the Gospel.
How can he speak the praises and glory of God if he has never heard the
Good News of the Gospel? You have to
hear the Good News of God’s love for you and for all of us in Jesus Christ before
you can proclaim the praises and glory of God!
So first Jesus
touches the man’s ears. The Gospel says “He took him
off by himself away from the crowd. Jesus put his finger into the man’s ears…”
Jesus opens the man’s ears. You have to open your ears, not the ones on
the side of your head but rather the ears of your heart. Open your heart to let the light of God shine
into your heart. Even if it is only a
little crack, the light will get in. And
the more you open yourself the more God’s light will shine into you, the more
you will hear God’s love for you, the more you will hear the good news of the
Gospel.
Then
having heard the man could speak. Not about
recent trends in politics or sports or late night TV hosts. Not all the endless blabber about Donald
Trump. No. Rather he could speak truth, he could speak
words of comfort and forgiveness, words of mercy and tenderness, words of
justice and righteousness, words of witness and proclamation of what God had
done for him, words of praise, words of love.
Brothers
and sisters Jesus wants to heal us too; heal our deafness, heal our muteness, heal
our blindness, heal our lameness, and especially heal our sin. He wants to heal us of everything that keeps
us from speaking, acting, loving, and living as children of God. For He is the only-begotten Son of the
Father. And He wants us to be His
sisters and brothers. He bet His life on
it.
And that is something to shout
about. God bless. 
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