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 indicate this? How might this ancient promise of hope work for all people today?

F2. Isaiah writes in hope about deliverance from exile. Today, from what sufferings do people need to be liberated: those “whose hearts are frightened”? Climate change, war (Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan), gang wars (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 give the same respect to people who have money and prestige as to those who don’t? Do you show partiality?

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. Will we come to the assistance of those who are suffering and in need if our hearts are deaf? What does Pope Francis say is the cure for “deafness of the heart”?

We all have ears, but very often we are not able to hear. Why is this? Brothers and sisters, there is an interior deafness that we can ask Jesus to touch and heal today. It is interior deafness, which is worse than physical deafness, because it is the deafness of the heart. Taken up with haste, by so many things to say and do, we do not find time to stop and listen to those who speak to us. We run the risk of becoming impervious to everything and not making room for those who need to be heard. I am thinking about children, young people, the elderly, the many who do not really need words and sermons, but to be heard. … Let us ask ourselves: how is my capacity to listen going? Do I let myself be touched by people’s lives? …

But if we dedicate time to the Gospel, we will find the secret for our spiritual health. This is the medicine: every day a little silence and listening, Today, as on the day of our Baptism, we hear the words of Jesus addressed to us: “Ephphatha, be opened!” Open our ears. Jesus, I want to open myself to your Word; Jesus, open me to listening to you; Jesus, heal my heart from being closed. …

Pope Francis Angelus for the 23rd Sun Ord B
Sept 5th, 2021

Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University