5th Week in Ordinary Time : Friday 14th February 2020

During his public ministry, Jesus performed many miracles, healed many people. However, this was not the most critical part of Jesus’ mission. His sole purpose was to preach the Kingdom of God. All of these miraculous events were the only means of this preaching.

Today’s gospel describes an exceptional event – the healing of a deaf man. It is unusual because Jesus healed not only his inability to hear and speak. He did not only make some changes in his body so that his senses were able to work correctly. He asked the man ‘be opened’. What does that mean?

The point is, this healed man was able to hear, but he was not able to listen. He was able to speak, but he was not able to preach. Although Jesus ordered him to tell no one about it, he completely ignored Jesus’ command. Jesus took the first step and healed the man’s body, but this man did not take the second step: he did open himself. He became a shallow follower of Jesus, one who focused on this small event, losing sight of the bigger picture — The Kingdom of God.

Lord Jesus, open our eyes, open our mind, open our heart and show us the sense and the meaning of Your mission.