Fifth Friday in Ordinary Time
13 February 2026
A house divided
Today’s readings bring this week’s theme to a sharp edge.
We have been listening to Jesus expose the danger of outward religion without inward conversion,
of practices that remain external
while the heart stays untouched.
Today, Scripture shows us the consequences of that divide,
and the healing God desires in response.
The first reading comes at a turning point in Israel’s history. Solomon,
once praised for his wisdom and humility,
has drifted.
His heart is no longer fully given to the Lord.
Scripture is blunt about the result:
his kingdom will be torn apart.
The prophet Ahijah dramatizes this by tearing a cloak into pieces and giving most of it away.
What began as an interior fracture
—Solomon’s divided heart—
becomes a public, political division.
Israel itself is split.
This is how Scripture consistently understands sin:
it is never private for long.
What begins unseen in the heart
eventually reshapes relationships, communities, even nations.
Solomon did not lose the kingdom because of a single bad decision,
but because his listening slowly weakened.
His heart no longer belonged wholly to the Lord,
and the kingdom followed his heart.
The line that lingers is simple and tragic:
“Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.”
Division becomes normalized.
What should have been whole remains fractured.
That prepares us for the Gospel.
Jesus encounters a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment.
The details matter.
This man cannot hear clearly,
and because of that,
he cannot speak freely.
In the ancient world,
such a condition meant isolation.
He would struggle to participate in worship, conversation, and community life.
He is physically divided
—from sound, from speech, from others.
Jesus responds in a way that is deeply personal.
He takes the man aside.
He touches his ears and tongue.
He looks to heaven and sighs
—a rare glimpse into the emotional weight Jesus carries for human suffering.
And then He speaks a single word:
“Ephphatha” — “Be opened.”
We use this phrase at baptisms,
as a blessing by God to open the baptized ears to the Gospel.
Immediately, the man hears and speaks clearly.
Placed next to the first reading, the contrast is striking.
Solomon’s heart closes,
and a kingdom fractures.
This man’s ears open,
and his life is restored.
The connection is not accidental.
Throughout Scripture,
the ear is the symbol of obedience.
To “hear” God is to belong to Him.
When listening fades,
confusion and division follow.
When listening is restored,
communion begins again.
This Gospel is not only about physical healing.
It is about what happens when God reopens our capacity to receive His word
—and to speak it truthfully.
Jesus heals the very faculties needed for relationship:
the ability to listen
and the ability to respond.
That speaks directly into the theme we have been following all week.
Religious life collapses when the heart stops listening. Communities fracture when people stop hearing one another. Faith becomes distorted when God’s voice is replaced by convenience, fear, or habit.
Jesus does not heal from a distance.
He enters the brokenness.
He touches what is closed.
And He restores communication
—between God and humanity,
and among human beings themselves.
The crowd reacts with amazement:
“He has done all things well.”
That phrase echoes the language of creation itself.
Jesus is not just repairing something broken;
He is re-creating.
He is doing again what God has always done
—bringing order, harmony, and life
where disorder has taken hold.
And this leaves us with a question that continues to build across the week:
Where have our ears closed?
Where have our hearts grown divided?
Where has listening given way to assumption, resistance, or noise?
The Gospel’s command is simple,
but not easy:
Be opened.
Opened to God’s word.
Opened to repentance and conversion.
Opened to healing.
Opened to one another.
Because when hearts remain closed,
division becomes the norm.
But when God opens what we have closed,
He restores far more than we expect.