23rd Sunday of The Year – 09 September, 2012

Isaiah 35:4-7; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37

The central theme of today’s readings is an invitation to us to become humble instruments of healing in Jesus’ hands by giving voice to the voiceless and caring love to the needy and the marginalized in our society. The readings also invite us to open our ears to hear the word of God and to let our tongues be loosened by the Holy Spirit to convey the good news of God’s love and salvation to others.The Story is told of Telemachus, a martyr whose self-sacrificing commitment to Christian ideals opened the blind eyes and deaf ears of the Romans and their fifth century Christian emperor Honorius. According to the story, this Turkish monk was led by an inner voice to go to Rome in order to stop the cruel and inhuman gladiatorial fights between slaves. He followed the crowds to the Coliseum where two gladiators were fighting. He jumped into the arena and tried to stop them, shouting "In the name of Christ, hold back!" The gladiators stopped, but the spectators became indignant. A group of them rushed into the arena and beat Telemachus to death. When the crowd saw the brave little monk lying dead in a pool of blood, they fell silent, leaving the stadium, one by one. Three days later, because of Telemachus' heroic sacrifice of his own life, the Emperor decreed an end to the games. In today's Gospel, which describes the miraculous healing of a deaf mute, we are invited to open our ears and eyes, loosen our tongues and pray for the courage of our Christian convictions to become the voice of the voiceless.
Today’s Scripture readings offer us an invitation to become humble instruments of healing in Jesus’ hands by giving voice to the voiceless, the needy and the marginalized in our society. Today’s Scripture also invites us to open our ears to hear the word of God and to allow the Holy Spirit to loosen our tongues to convey the good news of God’s love and salvation to others. The first reading, reminds us that God's eyes are constantly focused on the helpless. God especially cares for "the frightened, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute," and He encourages the powerless to "be strong and fearless."
This is why, in today’s second reading, the apostle gives us some basic and challenging principles of social justice. He exhorts Christians to show no partiality based on external appearance and to practice God’s "preferential option for the poor." He warns the faithful against scorning or shaming the poor while showing special consideration to the rich. Today’s psalm sings of a God who gives sight to the blind, raises up those who are bowed down and welcomes strangers. The psalmist thanks God and asks us to rejoice because “the God of Jacob keeps faith forever,” by keeping His promise of peace and fullness of life for His people. Today’s gospel describes how Jesus, by healing a deaf and mute man, fulfills Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy, "The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped." The ailments listed by Isaiah are symbolic of our interior illnesses: blindness to the needs of our neighbor, unwillingness to hear God’s voice and the inability to speak words of praise and gratitude. Through this miracle story, Mark also reminds us that no one can be a follower of the Lord without reaching out to the helpless (“preferential option for the poor”).
The human touch and the symbolism of Baptism: The section selected from Mark’s gospel begins with the healing of a deaf man and ends with the healing of a blind man in the non-Jewish area of the Decapolis. (Mark 7:31-10:52). Jesus shows his tender consideration for the weak by leading the dumb man away from the crowd so as not to embarrass him. The miracle is described in seven ritual-like steps: (1) Jesus leads the man away from the crowd (2) puts his fingers into the man's ears (3) spits on his own fingers (4) touches the man's tongue with the spittle (5) looks up to heaven (6) sighs (7) and speaks the healing command: "Ephphatha" ("be opened.") Why does Jesus carry out this elaborate ritual, while in other miracles he simply speaks a word or touches the individual? It is probably because the dumb man cannot hear Jesus' voice or express his needs. People of that day believed that the spittle of holy men had curative properties. The early Church Fathers saw an indirect reference to baptism in the way Jesus healed the man. In baptism, the priest or deacon who baptized us touched our ears and mouths that we might hear the word of God and speak about Christ to others, sharing the “good news” with the poor, the imprisoned, the fearful, and the broken-hearted.
God’s love in action: What we see is not simply the healing of a physical defect, but a concrete sign of the transforming power of God's Love. The power of God's Love is working in our lives to transform sorrow into joy, sickness into health, death into new life. The dumb man who is unable to communicate also symbolizes our own communication problem vis-à-vis God. In order to perceive and proclaim God's message, we need to be transformed. The miracle is not only about the physical healing of a person who was deaf and dumb. It also points to the opening of a person’s ears so that he may hear the word of God, and loosening of his tongue so that he may speak his profession of faith in Jesus. The miracle has great relevance to us, because a person can have perfect hearing, and yet not hear the word of God, have perfect speech, and yet be unable to make an act of faith.
A challenge for the Church: All the three readings speak of a God who is partial to the voiceless and the afflicted. Today, however, many of us have lost the ability to recognize the voice of God calling us for action in our modern society. We are asked to give hearing and voice to the deaf and the mute. The person healed became a witness to the power of God. A Church that is to bear witness to the example of Jesus' love must not neglect “those who are bowed down.” Through its healing presence the Church must give voice to the voiceless.
Instruction to Keep Silence: Why did Jesus ask the man to keep silence? Jesus knew that he still had more to accomplish before his final showdown with the religious leaders in Jerusalem. If the crowds were to attempt to make him the leader of a revolt, a probably result of spreading the story of this healing around, it would spoil his heavenly Father’s holy plan.
Life messages: 1) We need to help Jesus to heal the deaf and the mute today. Jesus desires to give us his healing touch in order to loosen our tongues so that he may speak to the spiritually hungry through us. He invites us to give him our hearts so that he may touch the lives of people in our day through us, just as he touched the lives of millions through saintly souls like Francis of Assisi, Fr. Damien, Vincent de Paul and Blessed Mother Teresa. Jesus’ compassionate touch will help us to hear the cries of the poor and the sick. It will teach us to show kindness, mercy and consideration to others. His healing touch will also help us convey peace and hope to those around us.
2) We need to allow Jesus to heal our spiritual deafness and muteness. We may find it hard to speak to God in prayer and harder still to hear Him speaking to us through the Bible and through the Church. Hence, let us imitate the dumb man in the gospel by seeking out Jesus, following him away from the crowd, and spending more of our time in coming to know him intimately as we study Holy Scripture and experience him directly in our lives in personal prayer.
3) Let us bring Jesus’ holy word “Ephphatha” to a generation blighted by the materialistic cultural aggression of our times: In their day, the Romans imposed their language and culture on Palestine. Modern secular culture, in fact, is no better. Religion and God are being evicted from schools, colleges, courtrooms, politics and public life. One cannot speak of virginity or marital fidelity without a contemptuous laugh from others. The unborn child with a precious soul is often considered a “mere nuisance" or “damn embryo” with no human rights. In today's motion pictures, all religious gestures are either forbidden or relegated to the ignorant or superstitious. We are told that sixty-five percent of our Catholic youth have no formal religious education beyond the eighth grade. They are exposed to the culture of free sex, loose relationships, liquor, drugs and violence. No wonder, then, if they become deaf and blind to Christian ideals of morality, holiness in life and social justice. May our Lord touch us through this Gospel so that we also can say “Ephphatha” (Be thou opened) to everything and every one shut in or closed, to God and His loving providence.
(Adapted from Sunday Relections of Fr. Tony Kadavil)