09 Feb 2024 – Friday of Week 5

09 Feb 2024 – Friday of Week 5

1st Reading: 1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19

The prophet Ahijah announces the breakup of David’s kingdom

When Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Ahijah had clothed himself with a new garment. The two of them were alone in the open country when Ahijah laid hold of the new garment he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. He then said to Jeroboam: Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “See, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes. One tribe will remain his, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.” So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

Responsorial: Psalm 81

R./: I am the Lord your God; listen to my voice.

Let there be no foreign god among you,
no worship of an alien god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you from the land of Egypt. (R./)

But my people did not heed my voice
and Israel would not obey,
so I left them in their stubbornness of heart (R./)
to follow their own designs.

O that my people would heed me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
At once I would subdue their foes,
turn my hand against their enemies. (R./)

Gospel: Mark 7:31-37

Jesus cures a man who was deaf and dumb, and the people are amazed as his power

Jesus returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Paradise Lost and Found

If the Book of Kings tells of the land of Israel being rent apart, the healing power of Jesus shows how harmong may be restored. The healing of the deaf and dumb man is very physical, tangible. Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears and touched his tongue with saliva, and looked up to heaven with a groan.

In a sense, this poor man was being restored to all that he could be. That Mark intends this scene to indicate the start of the final age, of paradise restored, is hinted later in the text. The phrase, “he makes the deaf hear and the mute speak” is from Isaiah, who adds that “those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy.” The healings of Jesus give a foretaste of universal salvation, as already hinted in the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman. Full of spontaneous joy, the cured man forgets the non-disclosure ban, and tells everyone what Jesus has done for him.

Before that we heard the tragic story of how the kingdom of David was torn apart, and ten of the twelve tribes transferred allegiance to Jeroboam rather than to David’s grandson. The northern tribes rebelled against the excesses of Solomon and his son Roboam, but they would be instrumental in preserving important Mosaic traditions and for the development of prophecy. From the north would emerge the first two of the classical, writing prophets, Amos and Hosea, and the paradise references in Isaiah 35 are from a northern influence.

Even an unwelcome rupture can hide a future blessing. Those who at first seem outsiders can bring a rich insight into the ways of God which we would otherwise overlook.