Efficacy is a curious consideration. When we say that something is efficacious, normally we mean that what was intended in a certain project actually occurred.  In other words, the intended effect can be seen. Perhaps we are even made aware that the intent was actualized because those “affected” by the intentions actually express to you that they “got it,” and sometimes they are even thankful.  These are important moments and affirm efforts and intentions. Those of us who teach can appreciate when a student, who perhaps has failing grades, suddenly gets a “C” or better.  And perhaps even more rewarding is when a student expresses how much they learned from you, not necessarily confined to the class subject content, but more from how you treated them as a unique person worthy of attention.

In my own experience, it is quite affirming when someone approaches me and tells me how something I said or did affected them in a positive way. Interestingly though, many times the effect was not necessarily intended on my part.  That’s even more of a surprise.  What is this saying about intentional actions and expected results or responses?  I have carried on many discussions with others about this very topic and indeed how frustrating it is when there seems to be no response, or at least not the one expected, from those whom we are hoping to “challenge” or affect.  There can be a “tiresome” effect on the “messenger” in these situations, and a very discouraging sense of not being heard.  No one is listening it seems.  God is describing this frustratingly consistent scenario to poor Jeremiah in today’s first reading (Jer 7:23-28):

“I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets. Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers. When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you.”
Still, God is asking Jeremiah to go to these stiff-necked (and quite deaf) people again. I am thinking to myself, “why go?”  If we already know that they will not listen, why go out to them and just repeat words that will not be heard?  Jeremiah must have thought along these lines as well.  If our words and actions are not going to be received in the manner intended, then what is the point?

Luke’s gospel (Lk 11:14-23) picks up on this theme as well when he describes how the crowd responds to Jesus’ driving out a person possessed by a “mute” demon:

“Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed. Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.”

Note that the demon is mute in this story. When someone is mute, they are not able to speak.  I wonder if muteness in this story is also related to the inability to hear and respond.  Once Jesus drives this mute demon out of the man, the man could speak.  However, now it seems that the demon of muteness has been unleashed into the crowd in a curiously reverse effect.  The crowd can “speak,” but their response to Jesus’ ability to drive out this demon demonstrates that they cannot “listen” to what is going on here.  Instead of receiving this healing as something positive and a sign of the “kingdom of God,” they categorize it as coming from Beelzebul, the prince of demons!  Their “muteness” is similar to the “stiff-necked” Hebrew people that refuse to listen to God through the words of Jeremiah.

The stubborn expectations of the crowd render a “muteness” in that they are not able to receive what is being given to them. In addition, they are derogating the healing action itself by claiming that “Beelzebul” is behind this power to drive out demons.  This type of “muteness” that prohibits receiving grace seems to always want to blame someone or something in a scapegoat fashion.  This allows us the enjoyment of not having to look at ourselves.

Jesus then asks them that if He drives out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do they drive out demons. The demon of muteness is now staring them in the face!  Unless Jesus had a good poker face, I can only imagine what his expression must have been in the face of this frustrating and heart-breaking interaction.  They simply refuse to “get it.”  Jesus uses the image of the “strong man” carefully “guarding his palace” as a description of this demonic “muteness” that refuses to see much less receive the gift of healing from the Divine Healer:

“When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils.

I wonder how we can allow the “one stronger” to overcome our demons and “take away the armor” on which we rely? How does our own stubbornness prevent us from receiving the healing that is being offered, the goodness to which we are invited?  Does our “armor” of resentment galvanize our expectations that are not met and compound our stubbornness by prohibiting our ability to see and respond in ways that could bring healing to ourselves and others?  What are the blame games that we engage where everything becomes masked in a “muteness” that speaks but cannot listen?

I think we probably engage in this type of muteness some if not most of the time. So, why does God continue?  Why does Jesus continue to heal despite the armored hearts of all those around him?  Perhaps because God has no expectations in the sense that we understand expectations.  God’s expectations are only the divine intention of love and relationship.  Only steadfast Love and Mercy in patience can overcome our “armored” expectations, allowing them to collapse the efforts of futile self-protection.  And when this happens, the “spoils” that are “distributed” are indeed the flow of this Divine Love and healing out to everyone.  The question is whether or not we will allow ourselves to SEE that we are “with” God already and cease the attempts to deny this as evidenced in our “scattering” actions against God, i.e., against ourselves and each other.

“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

If we see that we are “with” God, how do we convey that to each other in invitation? How do we do this in the face of non-responsiveness to our intended good will in word and action?  Perhaps the answer lies in Jesus’ total trust in the Truth that He was always in and with God.  How difficult (or simple) would it be if we allowed ourselves to be grounded in this same truth?  Instead of relying on our expectations, which tend to “scatter” the Divine interconnection that we have with each other in God, we could accept and embrace that we are already “with” God and have only to see and embrace this increasingly more. Then the effectiveness of our intentions and actions does not rest only on what we can “validate” from the reactions or responses of others.  Instead we begin to trust that any “effectiveness” can only be measured within the divine intention of Love in patience and mercy!

Peace

Thomas

The soul is the delicate yet durable cloth  woven and laced together in loving pattern  by the merciful strokes of God’s Passings…
    And the sheen of our soul is the ever-glowing  awareness we have of this sacred-stitched fabric.