Be Open to Thrive

Michiel Peeters - Friends — I call you “friends” even if you are here for the first time, because the reason that brings ushere, makes us friends. For if we are here, it is because each of us has a profound desire for happiness, and, at the same time, more or less consciously, has experienced that Jesus Christ, a man of 2,000 years ago, has to do with this desire of ours.

At the start of this new academic year, maybe of your stay in Tilburg, we hear: “Thus says the Lord: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, […] he comes to saveyou. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leaplike a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.” God—the Mystery that makes the stars and that makes us in this moment—wants us, humans, his children, to thrive, our humanity to flourish: our “eyes[to] be opened, [our] ears [to] be cleared; [our feet to] leap like a stag, [our] tongue [to] sing”. God wants us to thrive, in all we are.

How does He realize this? We have heard it in the Gospel. Jesus of Nazareth, a man like us, born in Bethlehem, grown up in Nazareth, went about, and because of what they had heard or seen of Him, people bring Him their problems, what they need. “[They] brought to him a deaf [and mute] man … and begged him to lay his hand on him…. He … touched [him] and said…, “Ephphatha!”—that is, “Be opened!”—and … the man’s ears were opened [and] his speech impediment was removed.” Those around were astounded: “He has done all things well”.

How can Jesus touch us and speak to us today, how can He broaden our view, enhance our freedom and other capacities today? The way he continues his “healing” of our humanity, the way he continuesto say to us, “Ephphatha!”—be opened, heart, be opened, reason, be opened, affection, be opened, expressivity, be opened, creativity, be opened, humanity—is through the company, the “touch” and the“word” of those whom He has already profoundly touched. Staying inthis company, we can verify His capacity to “open us” today, to permit us to become ourselves today, to make our humanity thrive today, here and now.

Let’s heed Paul’s warning, in the second reading: “If a man with … fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes [someone you don’t know yet, who doesn’t strike youimmediately, who is different from what you tend to appreciate] and you pay [only] attention to the one wearing the fine clothes [the one you know, who is according to your idea] and say [to him], “Sit here, please”, while [you won’t pay attention to the other one], have you not … become judges withevil designs [have you not become people who aren’t looking for the truth anymore]? … Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?”

If this company of ours wouldn’t welcome the new, the other, the latest arrived,it would lose its raison d’être, and, in time, stop to interest us. If, instead, we want the kingdom, thetruth of our existence, our destiny, our happiness, let’s pay attention to those whom He (not we!) has chosen to be rich in faith, that is: those who show, with their coming here, that they recognize—maybe more than us who come here by habit—that here, among us, is One who can make us thrive!
20240908 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time B (Is 35:4-7a; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37)(Homily by Fr Michiel Peeters, Tilburg University Chaplaincy)
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