It matters to Jesus that we recognize, appreciate, accept, and value the different ways the Holy Spirit works in and through people.

 

Save me, O God, by your name,
and vindicate me by your might.
Hear my prayer, O God;
give ear to the words of my mount. (Psalm 54)

Intimately united with the Father in the love of the Spirit, the words from the today’s first reading found their perfect fulfillment in Jesus: “God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.” Abiding in the Lord, we too can learn to deny ourselves, take up our cross, follow Him, and confidently profess: “Gracious is the Lord and just; I was brought low, and He saved me.”

 

There are two ways we need to understand today’s Gospel account. Firstly, Jesus, God the Son, did in fact restore the senses of hearing and speech to the man. Next, the account also has a deeper, spiritual meaning for each of us. Hence, let us pray: Lord, heal us of our spiritual deafness so we may hear You and then in turn, speak and share the beauty of the Gospel with all.

 

“Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a consequence, restores to him lost strength and increases his vitality. Spiritual food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself. Thus the effect proper to this Sacrament is the conversion of a man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him.” St. Thomas Aquinas