December 15, 2019
DEAF, DUMB, AND
BLIND
INTRODUCTION
The
title of my homily for this 3rd Sunday in Advent [A] is,
“Deaf, Dumb and Blind.”
THE
READINGS
Like
you – when I come to Mass - I read the readings – say a prayer – for example, “Lord,
give me a message for today – starting with myself!” – and then hopefully –
something hits me - something challenges
me.
Today’s
first reading – Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10 and today’s gospel – Matthew 11:2-11 talks about the blind, the lame, the weak,
the deaf, the dumb – those who can’t speak – and those with leprosy.
I
narrowed it down to 3: deaf, dumb and blind – but I’m moving them to metaphors
- otherwise we might not look or start
with ourselves.
We
might be blind and think only think of Stevie Wonder – instead of the wonder
called me – the wonder called seeing.
In
other words, I can be deaf, dumb and blind to today’s words from Isaiah and from Jesus in Matthew
for today.
How
many times in life have we heard someone say to us?
·
“What
are you blind?”
·
“Are
you deaf?”
·
“Don’t
be so dumb!”
And
we have our lame excuses for our poverty. There are three more issues in
today’s readings: being lame, being poor
and having bad or thick skin. But let me stick with just 3: deaf, dumb and
blind.
Want
to give a great Christmas present to our family, to our relationships, to our
places of work: Listen, See, and Speak
Up, Communicate!
Want
a great morning prayer: Go to a mirror – each morning - put our finger on your
lips and ask the Lord that we use our
gift of speech today only for good, for building people up. Touch our ears and
ask the Lord that we listen well
today. Touch our eyes and ask the Lord
that we see the people whom we’ll be with today – that we really see them and
look them in the eye – EYE and I - I.
Want
to look for a great Christmas gift: Find the 3 monkeys who see no evil, hear no
evil, speak no evil – in a statue or a T-Shirt. If you can’t find the 3 monkeys use your
bathroom mirror. Practice 5 times each morning: Hands over eyes, hands over
ears, and hands over mouth.
The
3 Monkeys are ecumenical: we find them in Confucian, Buddhist and Hindi thought
and if we swing around and monkey around, we can find them in Christian and
Jewish thought as well.
And
notice I’m pushing them in both negative and positive ways: using our mouth,
our ears and our eyes for positive interaction with each other - as well as avoiding hurting each other as
well – with our look, with our hearing dirt, gossip, etc. or with our words.
CONCLUSION
Could
everyone put your hands on your eyes, your ears and your lips. Amen.
