Fr. Manuel João, comboni missionary
Sunday Reflection
from the womb of my whale, ALS
Our cross is the pulpit of the Word
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Mark 7:31-37: “He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
JESUS HEALS OUR COMMUNICATION
The episode of the healing of the deaf-mute narrated in today’s gospel is found only in the Gospel of Mark. It takes place outside the borders of Palestine, in the Decapolis, a pagan territory. The geographical note is a bit unusual because, to descend towards the Sea of Galilee, Jesus first moves north (from Tyre to Sidon, in present-day Lebanon) and then descends on the eastern side of the Jordan, in the territory of the Decapolis (in present-day Jordan). Jesus is a “boundary-crosser” and often does not follow the straight path because He wants to reach everyone on our winding roads and bring the gospel to the vast pagan territories of our lives.
The text states that the deaf-mute was “brought” to Jesus by other people who “begged Him to lay His hand on him.” There are other instances in the gospels where the initiative to seek healing for someone is taken by others. This occurs particularly when the sick person is unable to come to Jesus himself (see the paralytic of Capernaum: Mark 2:1-12; and the blind man of Bethsaida: Mark 8:22-26). But we all need to be “brought” by our brothers and the community. Jesus then “took him aside, away from the crowd,” not only to avoid publicity but to facilitate a personal encounter with this man.
The method of healing is quite unusual: Jesus “put His fingers into the man’s ears, and then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ which means ‘Be opened!’” Usually, a gesture or a word from Jesus is enough to perform a healing. Here, the evangelist may be emphasizing our resistance, on one hand, and Jesus’ involvement in our situation, on the other. This account reminds us of the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida, in the territory of Galilee, which will occur later (Mark 8:22-26). Whether pagan or believer, we all need healing of our spiritual senses to have a new relationship with God and with our brothers. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy in the first reading is fulfilled: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.”
Points for Reflection
1. Everything Begins with Listening.
In Sacred Scripture, hearing is the privileged sense in the relationship with God. The verb “to listen” appears 1,159 times in the Old Testament, often with God as the subject (biblical scholar F. Armellini). That is why the first commandment is “Shema Israel,” Hear, O Israel (Deut. 6:4). Being deaf was a serious pathology, a punishment (see John 9:2), because it made one unable to hear the Torah. That is why the prophets announced for messianic times: “In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll” (Isaiah 29:18). In reality, the path of the believer is a progressive opening and sensitivity toward listening: “He wakens my ear to listen like those who are taught. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious” (Isaiah 50:4-5).
We live in an acoustically polluted society, with the risk of “otosclerosis,” the hardening of our ear, through habituation or defense. This “physical deafness” can have repercussions in the spiritual sphere. God’s voice becomes one among many and is even drowned out by other voices amplified by the media. The believer has an extreme need to be continuously healed of the deafness of the heart.
2. From Listening Comes the Word.
From listening comes true speech, authentic communication. The healing of the tongue follows the healing of the hearing: “His ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly.”
In a hyper-connected world, the Babel of incommunicability grows, manifesting in false and manipulative language, bullying, and domination. Words are trivialized, diminished, and made insignificant, leading to communicative blocks, loneliness, and muteness. This situation affects not only the family environment and interpersonal relationships but also society and the Church.
We should be particularly concerned about the Church’s and the Christian’s aphonia. A mute Christian can hardly communicate the good news of the gospel. The Church’s aphonia erodes the prophetic dimension of faith, with the risk of making it complicit in the injustice that spreads throughout the world.
What can be done to “speak plainly” like the man in the gospel? How can we recover the prophetic voice of “the one crying out in the wilderness” to make the Word resound in the many deserts of today’s world?
Perhaps we lack that half-hour of silence mentioned in the Book of Revelation: “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” (8:1). Perhaps, in the Church, we are too accustomed to lecturing and less to being silent. Without silence: there is no discernment to grasp the “gravity” of the moment we are living; there is no sensitivity to open ourselves to the wonder of divine intervention; there is no enlightened word to interpret the present! Like the prophet Elijah, we need to frequent the Horeb of our faith, the cross of Christ, to grasp the new mode of God’s presence in the “still, small voice” (1 Kings 19:12).
Perhaps we lack the morning hygiene of the soul. Every day, we carefully wash our ears and mouth, but we often neglect to cleanse the ears and mouth of the heart. We should remember, every morning, the event of our baptism and, dipping our hands into those waters, inwardly repeat in prayer the baptismal “Ephphatha”: “The Lord Jesus, who made the deaf hear and the mute speak, grant me to hear His word today and to profess my faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father!”
Fr. Manuel João Pereira Correia, MCCJ
