Did you know that all three readings on any given weekend have a common theme? Sometimes it’s difficult to see what that theme is and other times it’s blatantly obvious. This weekend’s theme is a bit obscure, but upon some additional scrutiny, I think that the central theme of today’s readings is an invitation to us to become humble. Humility is a word that has a bad rap in our society. Most people think of humility as a “weakness.” Nothing could be further from the truth. A person of true humility is a very strong person who honestly recognizes his/her strengths and weaknesses and KNOWS full well that every strength comes from a loving God. In our journey to become humble followers of Jesus, we are invited in the readings to open our ears to hear the word of God and to not hold back from speaking the good news of God’s love and salvation to others. In the Gospel passage, Jesus heals the man unable to speak. This miracle has great relevance to us because any of us can have perfect hearing, and yet not hear the word of God…have perfect speech, and yet be unable to speak the truth! Some of us may find it hard to speak to God in prayer and harder still to hear Him speaking to us through the Gospel. This may be because many of us are still of the opinion that once you “make” your Confirmation, there’s nothing more to be learned about our faith…we kind of go on “cruise control” when it comes to our faith. We’re satisfied with what we have learned in “religion classes” about the 7 sacraments, the 10 commandments of God…etc. We don’t want to hear more about our faith through further study of the Bible or the homilies each weekend. Think about it…there are many “Catholics” who are highly qualified in their professions but are basically illiterate in their faith. How sad is this! So, let us imitate the dumb man in today’s Gospel passage by seeking out Jesus, following him away from the crowd, and spending more of our time in coming to know Him better and better as we keep our ears open to the Holy Gospel. Our growing awareness of the healing presence of Jesus in our lives will open our ears and loosen our tongues. Now that’s a great thought!!! An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor, and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%. The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again." The gentleman replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times!" Gospel Question of the Week: Are your ears…or better yet, your heart…open to hearing the Word of God?