Saved from the Sinkhole

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Readings: Isaiah 35: 4-7; Psalm 145 (146): 7-10; James 2: 1-5; Mark 7: 31-37

Picture: cc horslips5 on Flickr

My dear friends, did you hear about that sinkhole, which appeared suddenly in Kuala Lumpur about a fortnight ago, and swallowed up a tourist walking along the pavement? How did the news make you feel? To be honest, I was very surprised, not just that a sinkhole should open up out of nowhere in the middle of a modern city, but also that despite an intense search lasting nine days, involving sniffer dogs and scuba divers, the unfortunate tourist still could not be found. I had naively thought that rescuing her would simply be a matter of lowering someone into the hole and lifting her out. Which just goes to show that a sinkhole is far more complex than I had imagined. And the same can also be said about what we find in our scriptures today.

The psalm tells us that the Lord is just to the oppressed, and raises up those who are bowed down. But what does oppression really look like? How does it feel to be bowed down? At first glance, each of our readings offers a simple enough answer. But upon deeper reflection, we find a far more complex reality. In the first reading, oppression comes in the form of a conquering foreign army, which both swallows up the nation, and carries off its people to a far-off land. Seems simple enough. And yet, the political sinkhole of conquest and exile has complex spiritual depths. For before being overrun by foreign armies, the people and their leaders had worshipped pagan gods. They had also oppressed the poor and vulnerable among them. And their idolatry and injustice have made them spiritually blind, deaf, and dumb. They have lost their ability to recognise the providential actions, to hear the loving communications, and to sing the joyful praises of the one true God. So more than simply releasing them from exile, rescue from oppression will have to involve somehow reopening their hearts to God.

Although the word oppression doesn’t appear in the second reading, the reality can be clearly seen in the discrimination suffered by the hypothetical poor person, who visits a synagogue and is treated as shabbily as he is dressed. At first glance, the remedy seems simple enough. Rebuke or replace the biased official. But the reading takes pains to point out that, although the official may play a part in it, the oppression doesn’t originate from him. It can be traced back to the double standards that he applies. Standards of the world, which are opposed to the standards of God. While the world favours the rich and powerful, God chooses those who are poor… to be rich in faith… and heirs of the kingdom… So it’s not just the one who is discriminated against who is oppressed, but also the one doing the discriminating. Again, as in the first reading, rescue will require a complex operation to help the oppressed become more open to God.

Finally, in the gospel too, what at first seems simple is actually more complex. At first glance, the deaf-mute is obviously oppressed by his own disability. And by healing him, Jesus seems to be performing a simple enough rescue operation. But the Lord’s words and actions before, during, and after the healing make it clear that something more complex is going on. Before healing the man, the Lord takes him aside in private, away from the crowd. Could this need for privacy be an indication that the man’s affliction is somehow related to the influences of the society in which he lives? Next, during the healing, Jesus says Ephphatha, Be opened. Could this command have not only a physical meaning, but also a spiritual one? Restoring the man’s ability to hear God’s word, and to sing God’s praises? Then, after the healing, the crowds persist in publicising it enthusiastically, even though Jesus had ordered them to keep it secret. Ironically, although the Lord succeeds in restoring the deaf man’s hearing, he fails to get the crowd to listen to his instruction. For they still do not understand who he really is. They remain closed. In Mark’s gospel, it is only when the Lord’s body hangs broken and lifeless on the cross that someone will finally be open enough to say, Truly this man was God’s Son! (Mk 15:39).

And what about us? What comes to our minds when we hear the word oppression? In this Season of Creation, we may rightly think first of our ailing planet… Or perhaps of the pitiful Palestinians in Gaza… Or the roaming Rohingya of Myanmar… Or the late Ms Piang Ngaih Don, that poor domestic helper, cruelly beaten and starved to death by her employers, back in 2016, right here in our own shiny city… Or all those struggling to cope with the changing face of work, and the rising costs of living… And how can we forget the current cohort of students and their parents, desperately preparing for that annual trial that we call the PSLE?…

Sisters and brothers, how might the Lord be seeking to rescue us from different sinkholes of oppression, as well as recruiting us to help rescue others today?