Our gospel today tells us a beautiful story of a healing of a deaf-mute by Jesus Christ. It is something that had hit me so close during our Mass this morning when one of the young people near our altar is a deaf-mute too. He has been coming to our Eucharistic celebrations for about a year with his parents and elder sister. I recently had a chance to talk to him when they came early for the Mass, inviting him to be an altar server when his parents interjected and told me about his condition. I felt his sadness as he looked at his parents telling me his condition; and to cheer him up, I tried using hand signals to ask him if he might still want to become a sacristan as we are willing to make necessary adjustments for him. During our Mass this morning when I saw him, I used some sign languages while delivering my homily so he could follow our reflections. And I felt so blessed when I saw him smiled, as if telling me, he had understood my homily even a little.
Unlike the blind, people with hearing disabilities are often left unnoticed if not ignored unless we are told or we discover their condition. For our Sunday music, we pray for those with hearing disabilities as we thank God for the gift of hearing. Here is Scottish singer-songwriter Ali Thomson with his 1980 hit “Take a Little Rhythm”, a feel good music, inviting us like Jesus in the gospel to be opened especially to those with hearing disabilities.Fr.NicanorF.LalogII,ParokyaNgSanJuanApostolAtEbanghelista, Gov.F.HaliliAve.,Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan. (Photo by author, Mines View Park, Baguio City, 17 January 2018.)
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