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9/5 - 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
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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
(Is 35:4-7), 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.”
In this very practical pastoral letter, James points out to the members of the Church that they should treat others, whether they are rich or poor, with equal honor and courtesy. James is not writing speculative theology, but reacting to real hurts inflicted on real people, and calling real Christians to a higher level of charity and responsibility. The poor man, James says,
is poor in the eyes of the world but rich in Faith because he recognizes his dependence on God for everything and acknowledges that dependence in the way he lives and acts. James insists that Christians “should show no partiality.” In a society like ours, which values people who have much money, great power, and/or celebrity status, James’s admonition turns our cultural assumptions upside-down and inside-out. That’s what makes our showing respect to everyone we encounter, despite social and/or economic status, and our treating all people as children of God, our brothers, and sisters in Jesus Christ, a most valuable, living witness to Jesus who died to save us all. St. Theresa of Kolkata would often remind people that God visits us in the guise of the poorest.
Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus, by healing a deaf man with a speech impediment, fulfills Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” Mark uses the highly unusual word mogilalon (literally: with difficulty of speech) to describe the deaf-mute whose healing is recounted in today’s Gospel reading, for mogilalon is precisely the same Greek word used in the Septuagint (Greek version of the Hebrew Bible) for the word dumb in Isaiah 35:6. In a culture where physical disabilities and sickness were commonly interpreted as signs of a person’s sinfulness (as a “curse” from God), many
Jews would have considered this man to be stricken by God — a sinner. Hence, Jesus shows tender consideration for the weak by leading the 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.”) Jesus humbles himself to share the limitations of this one deaf man. By undignified dumb show, the love of the Lord heals the deaf man’s soul as well as his ears. Jesus’ listeners, who were familiar with Hebrew Scriptures, would have recognized another signal in Jesus’ command, “Ephphatha! Be opened!” The ancients be- lieved that words contain power. If translated, the word would lose its power.
We all suffer from spiritual deafness at one time or another. It is not necessarily that we can’t hear. Sometimes we don’t want to hear. Just as we don’t want to listen to a person who has a different opinion on some subject, we also don’t want to listen to God. But Jesus does all things well. He can heal us just as surely as he healed the deaf man. We need to give him the time and the opportunity though. That could mean spending more time in prayer. And possibly spending that prayer time listening, instead of just asking for our needs. One thing is sure. Jesus will heal us of our spiritual deafness if we humbly ask him to.