Sunday, April 8, 2007

Sounded Silence

Growing up, I never paid much attention to the miracles of Jesus involving the healing of mutes. If I did, it was only to suppose the tale seemed somehow out of place among the others. Healing the crippled, the blind, the deaf, I thought, made so much more sense. What wonderful signs of the power of God they were! But healing the mute? It never seemed so great a feat.

In learning a little more of language, though, it should have made more sense. A mute, after all, sees the entire world of created things, at least as much as he chooses. The sweetest songs and most sudden calls for help can be heard, if only the mute decides to listen. Anything and everything that happens can be taken in, up to the noblest signs of God and man. Yet nothing comes out.

And in healing such a person, Christ sent out a message across time and space that even this overwhelming hindrance is subject to divine mercy. It is as if Christ knew that followers to come would carry the same burden—more than able to see the face of God and hear the words from almighty lips, yet unable to pour that blessing of truth into a dying world. So Christ healed. In a world in desperate need, and for it, Christ healed. It is a shame so few people understand the act completely, or that so few who do share it.

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