Imagine standing in a crowd while Jesus cures a man who is mute by casting out a demon that had caused the malady. The men next to you at once begin to shout, “he drives out demons by the power of the prince of demons.” Jesus reasons with the hecklers pointing out that the evil one wanted this man to suffer; Jesus reversed this condition, and the man spoke. If Jesus were “in league with the devil” would he do good? He would not; he could not. Jesus healed in the name of God. “The kingdom of God is upon you,” he said. He added, “whoever is not with me is against me.” By extension, whoever is not with the evil one is against the evil one.

Miracles continue to occur in our times. We often “harden our hearts” and let the anxieties caused by our environment to prevail. We will not even be open to the works of God that are so clearly revealed to us. I ask myself, how I would react if I were in a crowd that saw Jesus curing a person? Would I at once jump into the fray on the negative side of the argument? People were on edge and anxious. Would I shout “hoax, a trick, the work of the evil one!” at Jesus? Crowds, once moving in a negative direction, tend to draw by standers along. Crowds have not changed too much in our time.

During lent, I have considered how God moves in my life. On reflection, I find that I do not wait for a miracle to “force” me to notice God. I believe that God surrounds all of us with miracles; I thank God for them. I am certain that God is reflected in miraculous ways in all things. I have become increasingly aware that the limitless scope and complexity of our surroundings provide a path to the divine. If we consider that life itself exists in any being, we are aware of something miraculous.

The focus of the Gospel for today is the cure of a man who was mute. St. Luke, who seems to have been a physician, was aware that there was not a cure for the man’s condition. He tells us that Jesus cured the man by casting out a demon; the man then spoke. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, could cure miraculously. He encountered a manifest state of chaos and imposed order. He removed suffering and brought peace to the afflicted. Why did the crowd react with taunts and jeers? Were they (and are we) unwilling to be aware of God’s gifts and our inherent debt to Him? Are we willing to attribute more power to the devil than to God? I feel and see the majesty of God in our wondrous surroundings, and in each other. Listen and observe and we will hear the voice of our God even in the stillness and the seeming emptiness of deep prayer. Harden not your hearts, for He is our God.