Isaiah proclaims: “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God He comes to save you!”

Saint James tells us that God chooses the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that He promised those whom He loves.

The Gospel says that the poor are those who can open their hearts to God. They are not enslaved to the things of this world, because they have nothing to offer Jesus but themselves.

Material things and constant busyness can contribute to a sense of alienation in the human person who is by nature social and relational. We only grow with other people, not in isolation.

But, we tend to build up walls that inhibit the opening of our hearts to God mainly because we fear that if Christ entered, He would change the comfortableness of our routine and our false sense of security.

Our transformation from alienation to relationship is the way Jesus saves the deaf man. Our ears help us to learn more about others. They help us to recognize another’s cry for righteousness. Our voice reveals our interior self; it lets people know who we are, allows them to peer into our souls, illumined by the Word of God.

Our voice in conversation and our ears in listening, reinforces God’s presence among us and our presence among people, they communicate a sense of our own human and divine mystery.

Accepting the challenge to be more authentically human, obeying the command of Christ to ‘be opened,’ helps establish a new world redeemed by Christ. “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.”