23rd Sunday 2024
Isaiah 35:4-7; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37
I am not going to talk about my first Sunday, as a newly minted priest, the oil still wet on my hands, as a member of staff at Upholland College, which occupied the equivalent Sunday to this in 1976, because I have spoken of it before, and one or two of you may even remember it. Instead, it seems a good idea to reflect on Jesus’ role as the fulfilment of the prophecies and the inaugurator of the Kingdom.
Notice first, though, the initial word of Isaiah’s prophecy, which is “Courage!”, allegedly a favourite word of Pope St. John XXIII. Courage, the root of which is the Latin word for heart, is something we all need. In everybody’s life, there will be times when courage seems in short supply. At some point, probably at several points, everybody will face obstacles, which may seem insuperable, overwhelming. At those points, we need to remember that word “courage” and to be aware of its basis.
That basis is the gift of God, for courage, like all good gifts, comes from God. Why does Isaiah call the people of Israel to have courage? It is because “God is coming….He is coming to save you”. Devotees of Doctor Who will recall the Fifth Doctor’s frequent rallying cry to his companion Tegan “Brave heart, Tegan!” recognising the relationship between the words “courage” and “heart”, though not perhaps noticing that God is the origin of that courage. All of us need courage at times: all of us can rely on that courage, since it is a gift from God, indeed the presence of God within us.
Signs of God’s coming, according to Isaiah, include the opening of the eyes of the blind, the unsealing of the ears of the deaf, the singing for joy of the tongues of the dumb. In the Gospel, Our Lord gives the people two of those signs, as He cures the man of his deafness and of his speech impediment.
Those who witness this healing recognise the power and the goodness of Jesus, but apparently fail to realise that this is the fulfilment of the prophecies. They praise Jesus, but praise is not what He wants. Jesus does not proclaim Himself: instead, He proclaims the Kingdom, and His miracles are signs of the Kingdom.
What do we mean by “the Kingdom”? Scripture scholars tell us that a better translation would be “the reign” of God, the fulfilment of God’s intention for creation, when all will be reconciled in Him, and He will be all in all.
Has that Kingdom or reign come? “Certainly not!” you may reply. “If it had, we would not still be praying for it, saying each day ‘Thy Kingdom come’. In any case, all you have to do is to look around the world to see what a mess it is—famines, droughts, global warming, the degradation of the planet, war and violence everywhere, between nations, within nations, even within families. Even the poverty, and still worse, the discrimination about which St. James writes can still be seen, even within the Church. How could we say that God’s will is being done, that He is reigning?”
There is a great deal of truth in that assessment. Evil and suffering are prevalent throughout the world: does that mean that the Kingdom or reign of God is absent, to be realised only in some unimaginable future?
Look again at what Jesus did. He cured some deaf people, some dumb people. some who were blind, some who were lame, and He proclaimed the Kingdom. The vast majority of deaf, dumb, lame or blind people were not cured. Yet Jesus declared “The Kingdom of God is entos humon—“within” or “among” you: probably both.
Clearly, God does not yet reign on earth, and yet His Kingdom is within us and among us. It is within us because the Holy Spirit has been given to us, and the Father and Son have, Jesus promised, made their home within us. It is among us because God has dwelt on earth in the person of Jesus, and remains with us in His word, and in the sacrament and sacrifice of His Body and Blood.
It is among us too wherever good is done, whether people recognise God’s hand at work or not. It is present when there are advances in medicine, in agriculture, and in knowledge generally, when people feed the hungry, serve the poor, and give them the means to develop their own gifts, to feed themselves, to build their own dignity. It is present when communities come together to repair the damage done by rioters, to guard vulnerable people and vulnerable places, to say “Stop!” in the face of violence, injustice, and discrimination.
Has the Kingdom, the reign of God, come? Not in its fullness, clearly; but in embryo it is here, because it was inaugurated by the Incarnation, by Jesus’ life and His miracles, by His death and resurrection, and by His sending of the Spirit. The Kingdom is to come, and it is here. We pray for its fulfilment, and, like Isaiah, we say to ourselves and to others “Courage!” (Brave Heart!)
