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Introduction: Am I Deaf to God’s Word?
In this Sunday’s brief reading (only six verses), the evangelist Mark describes Jesus’ healing a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. This Gospel continues Mark’s theme of Jesus’ healing power – both physically and morally. And in this passage, Mark further highlights that healing is not only for the Jewish people of that time, but for the Gentiles. In other words, for everyone! You and me today.
Mark opens this passage by describing how Jesus continued his public ministry into Gentile territory – on the other side of the Sea of Galilee to the district of Decapolis. Unlike the many historic prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus seemed to be always on the “look out” for foreigners, outcasts, strangers - people who did not “fit in” or “belong.” He was always “pushing the borders” of his service and life. Where have I “pushed the borders” in my life? Who is “in” and who is “out” in my life?
Nobody is excluded from the healing touch of God. No one is “out” in God’s house. The deaf-dumb man in this story is doubly afflicted. Being a foreigner, he suffers isolation from the Jewish people with their rich culture and religious traditions. And he is also – sadly – excluded from practically everyone around him by his physical impairment. He cannot hear. He cannot communicate who he is and what he wants. Have you ever experienced not being heard?
In language that echoes the healing of the paralytic (Mark 2:3), Mark tells us that “They brought to him a man who was deaf and dumb and begged him that he might lay a hand on him.” Mark then describes Jesus’ curing the man through a series of ritual actions (touch, spitting) known to have been used by both Greek and Jewish healers. And in an incredibly dramatic scene, Jesus “looks up to heaven, groans, and says to him: Ephphatha! Be opened!” The Aramaic phrase literally means “be released!” What needs to be released in you?
Mark indicates that this healing has moral significance through his precise use of the word “straightaway” (translated in today’s verse as “immediately.”) “And straightaway his ears were opened and his tongue loosened ….” By the use of the word “straightaway” together with the repetition of ‘straight,” Mark is hammering home that a lot more is happening here than a simple cure! The whole event echoes ideas and language in a famous passage from the Hebrew prophet, Isaiah: “Then will the eyes of blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared. Then the tongues of the mute will sing.” (Isaiah 35:5-6). In short, Mark is suggesting that Jesus is opening up all people to God’s word! And that’s the concluding question that we are left with: Are we open to God’s word?
I would invite you to take time to read and ponder the words from the Gospel of Mark 7:31-37.
What word or words caught your attention?
What in this passage comforted/challenged you?
Further Reflections and Questions:
Lord, I hear your words to me, “Be open!” Unblock my ears that I may listen to your word. Open the door of my heart that I may grow in sensitivity to the needs and suffering of others. Free my tongue so that I may speak in gratitude for your loving kindness and mercy.
Jesus’ actions initiate a new age. He doesn’t heal from a distance. He comes close enough to touch us, one by one. Can you identify a time or place where a simple “touch” made all the difference?
“He has done everything well.” This recalls the Genesis creation story where God “does all things well.” Now the new creation is dawning in Jesus, and I am the one being recreated and restored. Do I see this new creation, this rebirth within me?
Although we struggle with our own weaknesses, limitations, and failures, we are each called to be “wounded healers” to those in need. Where can you be a “healer” today? Where can you touch pain?
Deacon David
Deacon David Suley
St. Patrick Catholic Church
Rockville, Maryland
Published with Permission
