23rd Sunday "Jesus is the Messiah"

The point of today’s readings and Gospel is this: Jesus is the Messiah, because He fulfilled all Old Testament prophecies.

In the first reading, Isaiah prophesied the coming of the Messiah: “The eyes of the blind be opened, the ear of the deaf be unstopped; then will the lame will leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing.”

In the Gospel today, some people brought a man to Jesus, who had a speech impediment, and begged Him to lay hands on the man. Jesus touched the man’s ears and then placed saliva on the man’s tongue and suddenly the man is healed to the astonishment of the people.

Most Jews believed when the messiah would come, he would open the eyes of the blind; cause the paralyzed to walk; the deaf would be able to hear; and those who could not speak, would talk. After the fall of Adam and Eve, the Messiah prophesied would restore mankind back to God. The Jews believed the Messiah would be a king anointed from the house David and his kingdom is without end. However, they erroneously thought the Messiah would conquer the enemies of Israel such as the Romans.

When Jesus began His public ministry, in the synagogue at Nazareth, He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,…” Then He sat down and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The Jews knew this scripture referred to the Messiah and so when Jesus proclaimed Himself the Messiah, they wanted to kill Him.

Bishop Fulton Sheen said there are 3 ways we can know Jesus is the Messiah. The first way is what we see in the today’s Gospel. The Messiah will be able to work miracles of physical healing (healing the blind, cleansing lepers, the deaf to hear).

The second way we know Jesus is the Messiah, is that the morality Jesus declares does not contradict human reason. In another words the Messiah would never say abortion or contraception is acceptable under certain circumstances. It contradicts human reason to kill an innocent baby.

The third way we know Jesus is the Messiah is He fulfills all the prophecies of the Old Testament. During the time of Jesus, there were 456 prophecies the Messiah was expected to fulfill. For example: It was predicted by the prophet Micah the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.”

Another example, Psalm 22 prophesies Our Lord’s crucifixion, “they have pierced my hands and feet and numbered all my bones.” and its states, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” So when Jesus was crucified, He was quoting Psalm 22 that would help the Jews to know He was fulfilling the prophecy as He was being crucified.

Jesus predicted He would die in Jerusalem, be crucified and rise from the dead. As Matthew 16:21 states, “From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Fulton Sheen said, “What is the probability of anyone fulfilling all 456 prophecies of the Old Testament that refer to the Messiah? To fulfill 4 of the 456 prophecies is 1 in 100,000. However, Jesus fulfills all 456 prophecies. Bishop Fulton Sheen said, the chance of fulfilling all 456 prophecies 1 with 184 zeros.” There are 12 zeros in a trillion, but Bishop Sheen it would be 184 zeros which is incalculable.

Nobody, except God, can predict the place of His birth, the manner of His death and predict He would rise from the dead. Did Muhammed or Buddha or Confucius predict in advance where they would be born or how they would die? No. Only Jesus, who is the true Messiah predicted all these things in Sacred Scripture. Only Jesus invited everyone to have an intimate and personal relationship with Him. He said, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.” No one, but Jesus has ever asked that we eat His flesh and drink His blood. No one has ever revealed the depths of His love by dying for us on the Cross.

Some saints say, the antichrist (the false messiah) will someday appear to work miracles, but they will not be true miracles. He will claim to raise the dead, but the dead will not actually be dead. The antichrist will claim to be the Messiah, but he will not be able to predict the city he is to be born or the city he will die. Or the manner in which he will die nor fulfill all the prophecies of the Old Testament because only Jesus, the real Messiah, who is God can fulfill all of them.

Some believe a false prophet will prepare the way for the antichrist by helping set up a false counter Church to the Catholic Church, with doctrines that conflict with Christianity and many of the elect will be fooled.

Fulton Sheen says this about the antichrist (the false messiah). He said, “the antichrist will not be called the antichrist or no one would follow him. He will be disguised as a humanitarian (to help the poor), one who will talk peace, prosperity, and plenty, not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves. He will write books on the new idea of God to suit the way people live. He will identify tolerance with indifference to right and wrong. He will even speak of Christ and say that he was the greatest man who ever lived, (but not speak of Him as God). He will explain guilt away psychologically. He will foster more divorces under the disguise that another partner is “vital.”

The Catechism tells us, “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when She will follow Her Lord in His death and resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, not by a historic triumph of the Church…but by only God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil.” The Catechism is saying we should not expect a historic triumph of the Church.

Is it possible the Church is going through her passion in the time in which we are living? And if so, will we be like John and stand at the foot of Cross with Mary and watch and pray as the mystical body of Christ is crucified or will we abandon our Lord and our Church like the other apostles. Only 1 in 12 endured the crisis in which the Church was born.

Unless we are deeply rooted in our faith, go to confession frequently, attend Mass regularly, have a deep prayer life with Jesus, stay close to Our Lord in the Eucharist, the true and only Messiah, we may be led astray.

Like the early Christians we are to undergo suffering and persecution, with our eyes and heart on heaven as our home. So no matter what happens around us, we are prepared for heaven because we have Jesus. When Our Lord comes on the clouds of heaven, only He will bring about a lasting peace, when the world will be transformed and made new, sin and evil will be destroyed and all will receive a resurrected body.

Until that day, we keep our eyes on Jesus, we come to Him asking Him to heal the blindness of our hearts, to open our ears that we may hear His word and touch our lips so we may proclaim Him to the world. No matter our sufferings, no matter our persecutions, no matter the trials or crisis, we know the Good Shepherd is at our side. He walks with us through dark valleys and we fear no evil. Only Jesus, the true Messiah, will guide us to the restful waters of heaven.

Let us pray, O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Messiah, pray for us, help us to have a personal and intimate relationship with your Son, who loved us so much, He laid down His life for us, that we may have life with Him in heaven.