Discussion Questions

First Reading

Isaiah 35:4-7a

F1. Can it be that healing will abound, and that God will also transform all nature? What lines in the reading might indicate this? It is an ancient promise, but now in a new age. Is this age the coming of Christ? How can you prepare?

F2. Isaiah writes about the hope of deliverance from exile. Right now, from what sufferings do people “whose hearts are frightened” need to be liberated? Covid, climate change, government takeover (Afghanistan) earthquake (Haiti) racial injustice, immigration, trafficking?

What if everyone practiced “love your neighbor”? Could that be one of the ways God “comes to save you”?

Second Reading

James 2:1-5

S1. “Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith?” Do you show partiality? Do you give the same respect to people who have money and prestige as to those who don’t?

S2. The disabled receive the blessings in the First Reading and the poor are chosen heirs in the Second. What is the message for us here?

Gospel

Mark 7:31-37

G1. In the Gospel the people relate Jesus’ curing the deaf man to the prophet’s promise in the First Reading (“Then will … the ears of the deaf be cleared; … the tongue of the mute will sing … ”) What does it say to you about your Christian job of hearing the cries of the poor and speaking out for justice?

G2. What does Pope Francis say is the secret of the miracle recounted in today’s Gospel? How can we imitate it? How do we become an active participant in this kind of miracle? Do we have to be “open” to help others become “open”?

Jesus revealed to us the secret of a miracle that we too can imitate, becoming protagonists of “Ephphatha,” of that phrase ‘be opened’ with which he gave speech and hearing back to the deaf and dumb man. It means opening ourselves to the needs of our brothers and sisters who are suffering and in need of help, by shunning selfishness and hardheartedness.

It is precisely the heart, that is, the deep core of the person, that Jesus came to “open,” to free, in order to make us capable of fully living the relationship with God and with others. He became man so that man, rendered internally deaf and mute by sin, may hear the voice of God, the voice of Love that speaks to his heart, and thereby in turn, may learn to speak the language of love, transforming it into gestures of generosity and self-giving.

Pope Francis, Angelus, “Be opened” Sept 9, 2018

Anne Osdieck
 

**From Saint Louis University