A man who lives in silence, “a deaf man who has a speech impediment,” is brought to Jesus. His friends “beg Jesus to lay his hand on him” and heal him. Jesus does so by “putting his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.” Jesus then says, “Be opened!” – and immediately the man’s ears were opened… and he spoke plainly.”
Silence can be its own beautiful experience. This is especially true in our world of almost constant noise; from traffic and talk radio to household appliances, T.V.’s, and phones. In this world of noise are we conditioned toward a discomfort with silence, perhaps a mistrust or even a fear of silence. When we embrace silence we give ourselves to deep listening and therefore deep intimacy. We open our heart and resound with love. We open our soul and resonate with awe. We rest in the beauty of Presence. It is possible this is the silence in which the man in the Gospel lived. It is also possible the man’s experience of silence was not always beautiful. Silence is not always a choice but sometimes an action done to us. At its worst, we have ideas to speak but we are muzzled. We long to give voice to our dreams but we have been shut up. We have a story to tell of our people but it is suppressed. We live in silence but it is not beautiful because it lacks love and awe, for our Presence is not received. We yearn to speak. So many people yearn to speak. Who will listen? In Holy Listening, spiritual guide Margaret Guenther, writes of listeners as “midwives.” A listener or “midwife is present to another in a time of vulnerability;” helping “the person give birth.” A midwife is present, in love and in awe, to a new person coming into being. Creative listening, listening someone into a vital new expression means “there is no going back, no return to the original state.” We are different once we have been listened into birth. We who are differently abled, who are poor, women, indigenous, once we have been listened into birth, we are different. We who are marginalized and silenced from too little love or awe or care for our Presence, are acting as midwives with one another. We are listening our new selves into birth and we are speaking plainly.
Speaking plainly is the brother of Hassan and Yehia who survived the Saudi/U.S. bombing of his school bus that killed his two brothers and 38 other children; also 4 year old Omran Daqneesh speaking from an ambulance in Aleppo, Syria, and 12 year old Phan Thị Kim Phúc, called the ‘napalm girl’ speaking plainly from Vietnam. All speak plainly, eternally so through their iconic images as children who have war forced upon them and thus no love, no awe, no care for their Presence. Who will be their listeners? Who will be their midwives? A world of War Lords make silent collateral damage of these children and all children who are screaming in pain from the War Lords’ endless warmaking. At the same time the War Lords offer loud praise as they eulogize own of their own, John McCain. Speaking plainly about all this is Colin Kaepernick from his bent knee. He speaks of those given little love or awe or care for their Presence – 0ppressed “black people and people of color. …There are bodies in the street and (police) getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” Too many are silenced by a white supremacist law enforcement establishment and its War Lords on the home front still brutalizing people of color who are screaming and yet are silenced by endless local warmaking.
Prayer: Spirit, guide us in speaking plain truths.
Question: With whom can I be a holy listener, a midwife helping birth both their beautiful silence and their beautiful speech?
September 9, 2018 Gospel Mark 7:31-37 Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time