Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures of the need for all of us to follow the Lord faithfully in our lives and distance ourselves from sin, which can lead us astray and lead us down the path to ruin if we are not careful about it. This is why we are all reminded of the dangers of sin and the harm that can be caused by us indulging in our worldly pleasures and desires, which can prevent us from realising that we have not been living our lives well and worthily in the manner that the Lord has called each and every one of us to do in His own purposes and distinct ways. All of us are reminded that after all, as Christians, we must always be full of love for God and also for our fellow mankind at all times.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard about the story of Jeroboam, a man from the tribe of Ephraim who was a superintendent working under King Solomon. Through the revelation given to him as we heard from the prophet Ahijah and through his own discovery of the growing discontent of the people of Israel against the increasingly oppressive and exploitative reign of Solomon, Jeroboam eventually took up plans to rebel against Solomon, and later on when this was found out by Solomon, Jeroboam had to hide in Egypt until Solomon has passed away. Back then, Solomon in the later years of his reign has become lax in his ways and obedience to God, allowing himself to be swayed by worldly ambitions and other temptations which led to the downfall of the kingdom.

One of such actions that Solomon had done was to tax his people heavily and to exact lots of demands from them such as manpower for his armies and the labours needed for his many magnificent building projects, of palaces, fortresses and other infrastructure buildings, which although all those things seemed to benefit the kingdom as a whole, later on in Solomon’s reign, this became a sign of megalomania and obsession with power and glory that Solomon had grown accustomed to as he grew further in might, stature and wealth among the other nations. Essentially, his ego and pride, his desires and ambitions became his undoing in preventing him from truly obeying the Lord and acting responsibly and faithfully as his father David had done.

That was why the Lord was angry at Solomon and wanted to teach him and his descendants a lesson by breaking up all the glory and majesty that was the golden age of ancient Israel, Solomon’s glorious and wealthy Kingdom. It is not because Solomon had many wives or all sorts of that, but because first and foremost, he had forgotten to put the Lord first and foremost in his life, and instead indulging in seeking more wealth and glory, and at the same time, he also caused misery and hardships for those whom the Lord had put in his care and entrusted under his rulership as king. That was why the Lord was angry against Solomon, because he had misplaced the trust that the Lord has entrusted to him, and committed grievous sins against not just Him but the people of God as well.

Then, our Gospel passage today speaks about the moment when the Lord Jesus encountered a deaf and mute man at the region of Decapolis, and He took pity on the man, opening his ears and mouth with the famous word, ‘Ephphata!’ which means ‘Be opened!’ and thus the man could speak and hear once again. In that instance we saw how God rescued His beloved people who had been suffering and enduring difficulties, showing them His constant caring love and compassion, which He has never ceased showing unto each and every one of us, each and every moments, wanting us to be freed and liberated from all the darkness surrounding us, which has kept us all separated from Him and His love.

I am referring to the condition which we all also share, a condition which caused us all to be also in a sense ‘blind’, ‘mute’ and ‘deaf’, that is our sins. The man suffering from the physical muteness and deafness was healed by the Lord, and he could hear and speak once again, and in the same way, the Lord also has the power to heal us from our sins. In fact, it is only the Lord alone Who can do this, as He is the only One Who can forgive us all our sins and therefore make us truly whole again, in body, spirit and in all of our whole beings. That is why even when we may be physically very fit and without any defects unlike that man who was deaf and mute, but we are all suffering from this spiritual affliction of sin which is even more dangerous.

At our baptism, traditionally this ‘Ephphata’ rite was carried out by the celebrant and officiant of the baptism, where the same actions of the Lord was done by the priest upon the person to be baptised, to show symbolically that the person that embraced the Lord through his or her baptism had indeed been brought from their past of sins and wickedness into a new life where their senses and whole bodies are no longer afflicted, blinded, impeded by sins. And all of us have received the wonderful love and grace of God, in which we have been equipped and strengthened amidst all these darkness with the light of God’s Hope and Love, calling upon all of us to follow Him ever more wholeheartedly from now on.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore do our very best to live our lives ever more faithfully in the manner that the Lord has called and shown us to do. Let us not allow ourselves to be swayed and deluded by the temptations of worldly glory and ambitions as Solomon had fallen into and as many of our predecessors had done. Let us instead embrace the Lord wholeheartedly and do our very best to be good examples and inspirations to one another in faith. May the Lord bless us all and may He strengthen each and every one of us always in the faith, now and always, forevermore. Amen.