In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“God is never blind to our tears, never deaf to our prayers, never silent to our pain. He sees. He hears and He touches our lives.”
Today’s Gospel lesson speaks about one of the lesser-known miracles of the Bible. On this one particular day, Jesus and His disciples had grown tired from a day filled with preaching to enormous crowds, all seeking cures for their ailments, but for some reason this Gospel chose to tell us not about the crowds gathered that day but only one person in the crowd who came seeking the healing touch of Jesus.
It says “…and they brought to Him a man who was deaf and unable to speak and they asked Him to lay His hand upon him.” And the Bible says that Jesus took the man and his friends aside. He prayed for him and He touched him “and his ears were opened, his tongue was released and he spoke plainly for the first time in his life. He commanded them not to tell anyone but the more He did so, the more they spread the news.” They were excited.
They were overwhelmed with amazement saying, “…He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Now, we have to ask, “Why was this man’s story singled out so that today, so many years later, we are reading about it? Jesus instructed the man He cured and his friends to tell no one what He did for them, but they were so overwhelmed with joy that they told everyone they saw of the healing they received. They gave hope to others to strengthen their own faith.
There is a reason this story was recorded in the Bible and the reason is this. People don’t speak enough about their faith or share with others how faith has enhanced their lives. This story was recorded in the Gospels to remind us that sharing our faith with others is doing the work of God in this world.
We know that the Touch of Christ can heal not only the physical ailments of life but our emotional and spiritual ones as well. That has been a truth handed down for generations. That has been a truth family members have passed down since the time Christianity first entered the land of our ancestors.
It is our placer to speak about our faith and share the beauty of our faith with others. We know that the Touch of Christ can comfort the grieving among us. We know that He can be present to the person who is lonely and that He accepts people no matter what they have done. We know these things and we have believed them through the generations. Our God’s Touch enables us to overcome the difficulties of life. It is God’s Touch that enables us to continue on when we feel like giving up and to pray when we are at a loss for words. It is God’s Touch that enables us to love even though our heart has been broken by grief. It is God’s Touch that enables us to sit peacefully when we are frustrated and to take the next step when we feel like giving up; to be understanding when nothing seems to make sense and to listen when we don’t want to hear what is being said. That is God’s Touch.
We are called to share how God has touched our lives and share how His Touch can better our lives. Jesus “touched” people verbally and physically, regardless of who they were or from where they came. He “touched” people young or old, rich and poor, known or unknown, saint and sinner. He “touched” a homemaker, an outcast with leprosy, a sick woman, a traitor and a blind beggar. He “touched” a powerful king and a poor widow. He even “touched” a man who doubted Him and an enemy who hated Him. No person is beyond the “touch” of Jesus Christ and He seeks to touch our lives today.
“God is never blind to our tears, never deaf to our prayers, never silent to our pain. He sees. He hears and He touches our lives.” A beautiful quote I read this week.
May God’s Touch be upon us all.
Amen.