Be Opened!

Dear Friend,

“Be opened!” said Jesus to the man with the hearing impairment in last week’s Gospel. It was a baptism of sorts for a person encountering Jesus and being brought into a profoundly new way of being. This week we get an echo of that story in the words of Isaiah - the Lord opens my ear that I may hear – along with a jolting look at Peter’s own hearing impairment.   

The hard words of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant offer a solid clue as to why in last week’s Gospel Jesus instructed the man he healed not to tell anyone about it. The man was simply not ready - nor were Peter and the other disciples - to embrace all that being opened by Jesus would bring. In the words of Mary McGlone “Jesus rooted his identity in his relationship with the Father, and thus he was in line for all the rejection that humanity directs to God.” Following Jesus will require surrendering to “thy will be done” (not mine), as we pray each Sunday in the Our Father. This is radical openness.  

Looking back on my own spiritual journey, I can see a pattern from early on of putting people on a pedestal of admiration that entailed a closing off from real engagement and love. Growing in my Franciscan vision, I hear a deeper call to find Jesus in and through others, not as a monument set apart but in front of me, and on a cross.  My life can begin each day only when I’m open and responsive to others, even if that means being wounded or injured, with strengths and weaknesses taken together. I have a long way to go, and I’m grateful, even when hesitant, to be headed not away from real life, but toward it. 

Gratefully,

Father Dan ofm