Thus says the Lord:
Say to those whose hearts are frightened:
Be strong! Fear Not.
Here is your God.
With Divine recompense, your God comes to save you!
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
The ears of the deaf be cleared;
Then will the lame leap like a stag,
Then the tongue of the mute will sing.
Streams will burst forth in the desert and rivers in the steppe.
The burning sands will become pools and the thirsty ground springs of
water.
Isaiah 35: 4-7a
These words were spoken by the prophet Isaiah to the Hebrew
people during their time of captivity in Babylon. (587-539 BCE)
The kingdom of Jerusalem had been conquered by the Babylonians and
the royalty, religious leaders and people of significant trade and skill were
deported to Babylon
where they lived as prisoners in exile.
This was a time of great despair to the Hebrew people. Isaiah's words were meant to encourage and to
remind them that God had not forsaken them.
The beauty of Isaiah's message is that these words of
encouragement are not limited to the Hebrews in exile, but hold great meaning
for us today. What would happen if we
read these words, not as an invitation of what is to come, but a reminder of
what is already here?
To the Hebrew people, the fear that consumed them during the
time of the exile was that God had abandoned them. This left them feeling despair and
hopelessness and tempted them to look outside themselves for new gods to
replace the one that had forsaken them.
The truth was that God had not abandoned them, they just forgot to open
their eyes and their ears to the Divine at work in their very midst. In effect, they had become deaf and blind
and had lost their enthusiasm for life.
Applying this to our own lives, we are invited to ask
ourselves the questions:
Where have I closed
my eyes to the presence of God in my life?
Where have I turned a
deaf ear to the voice of God?
Where have I
neglected to embrace the joy in my everyday life?
Where have I forgotten
to nurture, cultivate and share my gifts freely and openly?
In all these places, we are invited to be open - open to the
Presence, Action and the Love of God that is always here, always present and
never absent! In this invitation, Jesus
has given us a great tool. In Mark's
gospel, there is told a story of Jesus healing a deaf man. As part of the ritual of healing, Jesus
utters the Aramaic word, "Ephphatha!"
Ephphatha means literally, "Be opened".
Let this be our continual intention and prayer, that we be opened to
hearing, seeing, knowing, feeling, experiencing, BEING, the Presence and Action
of Divine Love in the world!
Thus says the Lord:
Be strong, fear not.
I am your God.
I am here!
You are saved!
Your eyes are opened
You ears are cleared
You are filled with an enthusiasm that causes you to leap like a stag
You feel compelled to sing out in joy
Streams spring forth where your inner desert used to reside
Your inner thirst has been quenched in your knowledge of
the love of the Divine within.
Ephphatha!
