It’s still exciting to think of this year’s Triple Crown winner, Justify. The three-year-old won every race he ran, including the big three: Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont.
And you’ve probably heard of Seabiscuit. The story eventually became a national best seller and film. Seabiscuit began his career with 16 losses. But a trainer saw a quality that convinced him Seabiscuit could be a winner. He persuaded someone to buy the horse. They hired a washed-up prizefighter as the jockey.
Somehow, these three saw in Seabiscuit the heart of a champion. And they worked with him. Despite absurd odds, Seabiscuit began to win and win and win, and he captivated a country in the midst of the 1930s depression.
The story is really a story of “ephphatha” (the Aramaic word in today’s gospel) -- an “openness” to greatness. That spirit is contagious.
God recognizes the possibilities for spiritual greatness. He has made us “living temples of God.” In the waters of Baptism, God breathes his Spirit into us and the power of the Spirit enables us to continue the work of Jesus: to be instruments of God’s compassion and generosity and love and forgiveness to the people around us.
Our challenge is to be our best selves. As Aristotle said, “Excellence is never an accident … choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
In the Gospel according to Mark. Jesus encounters a deaf man, makes time for him, and takes him to a quiet, safe place. Jesus then “puts his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.” Jesus doesn’t just cure the man with a fleeting word. By his touch, Jesus enters into this person’s life and brings hope and healing.
The Aramaic word “ephphatha” can mean “be open” or “be released.” Jesus “releases” the man not only from disability but also from isolation. It’s awful to feel isolated, isn’t it. I remember what Mother Teresa said – her feast day was September 5. She said, “The poverty in the West … is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality.”
Our prayer may be that we be released from our fears, released from a self-centeredness that makes us “deaf” to hearing God and “mute” in responding to someone in need. Let us also pray that we be open to the possibilities for spiritual greatness within ourselves and others.
The Letter of James speaks about our moral character and urges us to practice two fundamental principles. “Show no partiality”: treat every human being with the same respect, from the beginning of life to the end. And the second is God’s preferential option for the poor. Jesus says we will be judged by our response to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the prisoner. In other words, what we do to others, we do to Jesus.
The word of God urges us to have a heart. For within each of us is the heart of a champion.
