23rd Sunday - B

Have you any experience to be freed or to be liberated by Jesus? The story in today’s gospel is not only a story of healing, but a story of liberation. The man was under the shackles of Satan. He lived in darkness. It is a symbol of human agony under the pressure of slavery. Jesus came to make him free. Can you imagine how thankful he was …?
Are you a free? How do you understand your freedom?
I remember when I came to the US; I stayed about 2 months in St. Louis. Fr. John welcomed me saying, “You are in a free country now.” But one day while I was jogging in one sunny evening, there were two teenagers followed me and then suddenly one of them punched me in my cheek. Then they run away laughing. When I told this to Fr. John, he said that the neighborhood was not good. You will be killed only for one dollar, he said. He and other priest don’t go out walking in the street. It is not safe. If they want to do physical exercise they only walk in the Church. They don’t dare to go out. Then I answer him: How can you say that you have your freedom in this country, if you cannot go out for a walk?
Fear or anxiety can make us not free. Sometimes we can do nothing because of fear. If we want to go abroad by plane, but we are afraid if the plane will crash down or be hijacked by terrorist, then we can go nowhere. We cannot go to a mall, because of the fear of bomb attack. We cannot go out side of the house, because we are afraid there would be an accident. We cannot cook food, because we are afraid if it will burn the house … so what can we do unless just waiting for the funeral?
About this, there was someone who tried to count how many times that the Lord said “don’t be afraid” in the bible. You know, he found 365 times. It means that each day God says to us “don’t be afraid” for all the year. So the key is we believe in God; we have faith. Jesus doesn’t want us to live in fear. He wants to free us. Believe in Him and you will be free.
But the problem in today’s gospel is not about fear, but about blindness and deaf. This problem is more difficult than fear because in fact most of us can see and hear. We don’t realize that sometimes we are blind and deaf too.
Saint James in the second reading gives us an example. We are blind if we welcome people according to their appearance, according to their clothes, according to their credit card. We are deaf if we cannot hear the yearning of people around us … I remember a story of a husband who thought that his wife was already deaf. One day he called his wife from another room in the house. He heard no answer. Then he stepped forward at the door and called again. He still heard nothing. Finally he came closer behind his wife and called her again. This time he heard his wife saying, “Yes my dear, for the third time I answer you, what’s matter?” So who is deaf?
This kind of blindness and deafness also makes us not free. If we have criteria about who will be my guess, it means that our door is limited. We cannot accept every one; we limit or restrict ourselves so we are not free. If we cannot hear other people’s yearning, it means that we don’t care about others. We see nothing about others’ suffering; we live in our own world and usually it is not a big world but a narrow one, narrow minded, like in a cell. So we are not free.
On the contrary, if we are opened, we can accept every body, the poor and the rich, if we can talk to every one, we can be friend to all … so we can really enjoy our freedom. So also if we can hear the weakest yearning of the suffering, we have heart opened, we have compassion; we can leave our own life for others … this is a true freedom.
My brothers and sisters, you know it is easy for me to preach you about these things. But frankly I tell you that some times I have difficulties also to practice it in my life. For example when I was in Indonesia, people came to me many times to ask financial help or to consult their problems … and some times I felt full … but I had to hear them not only with my eras but also with my heart. So even though I am also still striving to be freed by Jesus, I am not in doubt to preach you these. Because there was a saint who said: let the preachers be taught by their preaching. So while preaching for you, I preach for myself too. That’s why I ask you, let us make a race: who will be freed most by Jesus, who will arrive at the finish line first, who will gain the crown of eternal life. Don’t be in haste. Life is struggle and challenge, but Jesus is always with us.