God’s original intention in creating us was that we may share in a blessed communion of life and love with him and with others. In this life of communion we should be able to hear God who unceasingly communicates his love to us, and then, in return, sing his praises, glorifying his Holy Name and proclaiming to everyone his mighty deeds. Unfortunately, the communication between humanity and God has been severely hampered by the effects of original sin. And the actual sins that each of us continue to commit make real communication even more difficult. Sin renders us deaf to God and unable to proclaim his goodness. Sin also leaves us deaf to the needs of others.
Happily, our loving God, always rich in mercy, has never given up on us. From the time of the fall of our first parents, he has had the desire to restore humanity to himself. He wanted to break down the barrier of sin that impedes our hearing of his words of love, and to heal the wounds of sin that distort our ability to praise him. Hence God announces through the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading the good news of healing and salvation: “Here is your God, / he comes with vindication; / with divine recompense / he comes to save you…. / The ears of the deaf will be cleared… / the tongue of the mute will sing.”
Did the people of Isaiah’s time think that the prophet was promising that the Messiah would really perform such healing miracles, or did they think he was simply using symbolic language to depict the greatness of the Messiah’s mission? We do not know. But what was a prophecy in the mouth of Isaiah became a reality in public ministry of Jesus, as we read in today’s Gospel. Jesus himself is the promised God who has come to clear the ears of the deaf and to free the tongue of the mute to sing.
St. Mark presents a detailed description of how Jesus restores the powers of hearing and speech to a man whom some people brought to him that he may lay his hand on him. Normally, Jesus healed the sick in public, before the eyes of onlookers, but in this case, he takes the deaf man off away from the crowd. He intuitively understands the needs of every person, and he deals with each of us in a unique way, in the way that is best for us. Jesus performs his healing of the deaf man in several dramatic steps – touching his ears and his tongue, spitting, looking up, groaning, and finally saying to him, Ephphatha! (the Aramaic word for “Be opened!”). Jesus did not need to do all this; he could have cured him from a distance, simply by saying the word. But these gestures had a profound impact on the man, who is the source of our knowledge about what really happened. Surely the man never forgot the first word he heard: Ephphatha! Jesus’ gestures are also for us. They help us understand that he exercises his divine power by means of created things that we can see, hear, and touch. This is most powerfully evident in the Sacraments.
There is profound meaning in the physical touch of Jesus. He touches the body, the flesh of the man he healed. Tertullian, a third century Church Father, wrote about how it is through our flesh that we receive saving grace from Christ in each of the Sacraments: “The flesh is the hinge of salvation… the flesh is washed so that the soul may be made clean. The flesh is anointed so that the soul may be consecrated. The flesh is signed so that the soul may be protected. The flesh is overshadowed by the laying on of hands so that the soul may be illumined by the Spirit. The flesh feeds on the Body and Blood of Christ so that the soul too may be filled with God” (The Resurrection of the Flesh, 8. Cf. CCC 1015).
The man to whom Jesus restored the power of hearing that he may no longer be deaf to God and the power of speech that he may profess the saving deeds of God is a symbol of every man and woman of every age. In Baptism, Christ takes us aside and personally heals us, restoring our interior faculties of hearing and speech that were disabled by original sin. This is especially clear in the symbolic “rite of Ephphatha” which may take place after a child is baptized (the rite is optional). The priest touches the ears and mouth of the child and says, “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the mute speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.”
Having been restored by the touch of Jesus himself to the fullness of life and communion with God, we are meant to live in communion with all our fellow believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our unity in faith, as St. James reminds us in the second reading, means that there should be no partiality toward the rich over the poor. Those whom the world considers poor are chosen by God “to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that he promised to those who love him.” The poor among us teach us to acknowledge our absolute need for God. When we are poor in spirit, our heart is more attuned to God. That is, our interior faculty of hearing is more open to God. And, now that we can speak, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” is part of our proclamation of the Gospel (Mt 5:3).
What interferes with my communication with God? What is my personal experience of Jesus’ care and love for me as a unique individual? What lessons do the poor teach me about God and his loving care?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 20, no. 7. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.