Isaiah 35:4-7 / James 2:1-5 / Mark 7:31-37
This church, like many other churches, has a high ceiling.
A church, or a building, with high ceiling, makes it look grand and spacious.
And a church with a high ceiling would make us think and reflect further and deeper.
With a high ceiling, we would likely look up and see what is at or around the ceiling.
So, we see the triangular pediment and the cross, and the unique cornice design.
There is a place in which we will certainly want to look up at the ceiling.
The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City has a high ceiling with a fresco painted by Michelangelo.
That ceiling fresco has a series of nine paintings showing God's creation of the world and man, God's relationship with mankind, and mankind's fall from God's grace.
The ceiling fresco is an awesome sight, and we would just keep looking up at the scenes in the fresco.
Each scene has something to tell us about who God is, as well as about ourselves.
In the gospel, when Jesus healed the man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, He did some rather interesting actions.
He put his fingers into the man's ears, and touched his tongue with spittle.
And then before Jesus said “Ephphatha” which means “Be opened”, He did a seemingly ordinary action.
Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed.
Jesus looked up to heaven to tell the man that God is sending the healing grace from heaven.
That sigh is a reminder that in the creation of man, God blew His breath into the man's nostrils and man became a living being.
What Jesus did, that looking up to heaven, and that sigh, also teaches us something.
We are to look up from the things of earth to what is above, to where God is.
God sends us His blessings of healing and answer our prayers when we turn our eyes to Him.
And that sigh of Jesus reminds us that God gives us the breath of life and sustains us with His love.
But in Jesus Christ, we are reminded that God came down from heaven to be among us.
This coming week, we prepare for the visit of Pope Francis to Singapore.
As the successor of Saint Peter, the Pope is a sign of God visiting us and sending God's blessings on us.
Indeed, the visit of Pope Francis is a wonderful gift and a marvellous blessing from God.
We may wish to be up close to the Pope and to shake his hands, and to ask him to pray over us and to bless us.
But just as Jesus looked up to heaven to invoke God's healing grace on the man, we too can do likewise.
With faith and with prayer, let us look at the Pope, whether it is up close, or from a distance, or on the live-stream.
Jesus is visiting us in the person of Pope Francis.
With the breath of prayer, let us offer to Jesus our needs, for healing, for forgiveness, for reconciliation, for peace.
Yes, blessed be the Lord our God who is coming to visit us and to bless us.
Let us be spiritually prepared and be open to receive God's blessings. and the answer to our prayers.