El Greco 1570
(23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B; This homily was given on September 6, 2015 at St. Rocco's Catholic Church in Johnston, R.I.; See Isaiah 35:4-7, James 2:1-5 and Mark 7:31-37)
There is a remarkable and beautiful short story written by
Walter Wangerin, Jr., called “The
Ragman” [Ragman: And Other Cries of
Faith, by Walter Wangerin, Jr., HarperCollins Publishers. This is an awesome book filled with great
stories of life in Christ]. The story
begins with a young man walking through the inner city, dragging behind him an
old cart filled with all kinds of new clothes.
He makes his way through the streets, calling out in a sonorous voice, “Rags!
New rags for old! I take your
tired rags! Rags!” He is strong, intelligent and vivacious, leaving
the narrator of the story ultimately perplexed as to why a person of such quality
would ever reduce himself to being a ragman in the inner city.
Suddenly the Ragman comes upon a woman sitting on her back
porch, hunched over and sobbing. Her
shoulders are shaking as she weeps into her handkerchief. The Ragman bends near her and says, with great
compassion, “Give me your rag…and I’ll
give you another.” She looks up,
surprised, not knowing what to say. The
Ragman places a bright, new handkerchief into her hands and takes her wet, worn
handkerchief away. He suddenly places it
against his own face, and the narrator is astonished to see the woman’s tears
completely dried up, while the ragman begins to weep!
Without hesitation he moves on, deeper into the city. Coming upon a woman with a bandaged head, he
likewise asks her for her old rag and offers her a beautiful yellow bonnet; with
loving concern he carefully removes her bandage and places it on his own
head! But the narrator notices a fresh
wound has opened up where the Ragman has fastened his bandage, and a little
trickle of blood begins to flow down his head!
As the story continues, the narrator follows the weeping,
bleeding Ragman, breathlessly, through the city. Eventually, after several similar adventures
and even greater ones, he comes to realize that the Ragman is the Christ, the
Son of God.
Jesus Christ is the redeemer who comes to take away the sins
of the world and to give us His own divine life. He takes on our sorrow, our own pain and
suffering, and brings it to the cross.
He is willing to suffer and die so that we can gain new and everlasting
life in Him! In all of our readings for
this weekend we see that amazing transformation that constitutes our new life
in Jesus Christ, what the Father’s of the Church called the “wonderful exchange.”
St. James, in our Second Reading this morning, warns us not
to show partiality to the wealthy at the expense of the poor. When someone enters your assembly, he
cautions them, be careful how you treat them!
He asks:
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?
—James 2:5
In other words, we were all poor! We were all impoverished by our sins and God
has made us now heirs of His kingdom. We
have become rich in Jesus Christ; our lives should reflect that great mystery,
not betray it.
In that beautiful passage from Isaiah, the prophet is describing
what will take place when the Messiah comes.
It is a breathtaking transformation that will affect everyone and
everything on earth:
Be strong, fear
not! Here is your God, he comes with
vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.
—Isaiah 35:4
Then Isaiah goes on to describe how the eyes of the blind
will be opened! The ears of the deaf
will be cleared and they will hear once again!
Those who are mute will begin to sing.
Even the created world will be transformed, as dry, arid deserts become
pools of water (Isaiah 35:4-7)!
That “wonderful exchange” is something that happens quite
literally in our Gospel this weekend. People
bring to Christ the deaf man with a speech impediment, and Jesus does the
strangest thing: He sticks His finger
in the man’s ear and then puts His
own saliva on that person’s tongue! Yet
with that odd, physical encounter the man is healed; his ears are opened and he
begins to speak once again. Why would
Jesus Christ, who can heal anyone, in whatever manner he chooses, heal a man
with such obvious and even unnerving physical signs?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that Christ, who
did that, and consistently reaches
out and touches those who are broken and the hurting in the Gospels, continues
to touch us in the sacraments in order to heal us (see CCC, #1504). He has come to take from us our brokenness,
our pain and sorrow, and to give us His own divine life. Every one of us needs to be healed, touched
by Christ and made well again. All of us
have failed to recognize Christ in the world around us and in our brothers and
sisters each and every day. We are the
reason that He became man and suffered and died on the cross. What He asks of us is that we open our hearts—Ephphatha!—to
receive this great gift.
This morning Jesus Christ comes to us here on
this altar, not the Ragman but the Christ.
He comes to give us not a handkerchief or a new bonnet but His own body
and blood in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. He comes to complete in us and in our community
that “wonderful exchange” that has the power to transform our lives and the
world around us. May we truly open our
hearts to Him, who continues to touch us in the sacraments of the Church in
order to heal us.
