Homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Gospel of St. Mark 7:31-37
September 5, 2021. Theme: Ephphatha!
There’s a strange but interesting Aramaic word in today’s Gospel: “Ephphatha”. It’s one of the very few original-language words we have preserved from the lips of Jesus. And as St. Mark tells us, it means “Be opened”. You know, this healing story has held such importance in Christianity that we still sacramentally re-enact it today at baptism during what is called the “Ephphatha Rite”. The baptizing minister touches the ears and mouth of the newly baptized while saying, “May the Lord Jesus, who made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak, grant that you may soon receive his Word with your ears and profess the Faith with your lips, to the glory and praise of God the Father.”
Since Jesus worked so many miracles when he was among us, it makes me wonder why did the Holy Spirit inspire Mark to include this particular one for posterity’s sake? And why has the Church seen fit to remember and re-enact it in the baptismal liturgy throughout the centuries? Was it simply to remind us that Jesus had mended hearing problems and enabled people to vocalize again or was it something much deeper than that? I think it might be because it stands for the deeper healing we all need no matter who we are and no matter when or where we live. Could its inclusion in the Gospel be to remind us that we all somehow need this kind of healing ourselves? Could it be because we who are able to hear with our ears still remain deaf to the voice of God and the cries of others? Could it be because those of us who have the gift of speech too often use it to denigrate and divide instead of unite and build up?
Did you notice how after the miracle occurred, people kept talking about all that Jesus had done to totally transform this man’s life? That’s precisely what the Ephphatha we experience at Baptism is supposed to inspire us to do. Having had our ears opened to the Word of God we are empowered to use our lips to speak of Jesus and all he has done for us to those whom we encounter in everyday life. In this way we Christians become part of the story and continue its miracle all over the earth. In other words, the Ephphatha we receive at Baptism makes us part of the mission of Christ, enabling us to become his healing ambassadors in a very broken world and among very broken people.
Our Ephphatha healing mission is so vitally needed in today’s world. We need only turn on the media or listen to conversations around us to verify that way too much of today’s hearing and speaking is argumentative, disrespectful and divisive. Way too often these days people’s lips are used to speak bitter and disrespectful words. All too often people will not use their ears to try and really hear what someone who disagrees with them is trying to say, or to even simply acknowledge that they have the right to speak it. There is great need for healing in our social interactions and it must begin with those of us who have had our ears and tongues blessed and opened by Christ in the Ephphatha. It is not, of course, an easy thing for us to do but quite honestly it is our responsibility as Christians, as “other Christs”.
We need to patiently listen to others before we speak so that we can hear what they are really saying. And when we respond we must do so with as much calmness and charity as we can muster so that the message (which is Christ) doesn’t get rejected because of the messenger (which is us). We need to make sure that the conversations and debates that we have in daily life, or that we engage in online, are tempered by peaceful respect and come from a place of genuine love for our neighbor. We must never forget that our goal is not to win an argument or to prove somebody wrong and ourselves right. Our goal is the salvation of souls, the bringing of others to Jesus, whose very Name itself means “God heals”. We want others to know the same love, the same peace and the same mercy that we ourselves have experienced and received from him. This is the kind of inner healing so many in our world need today.
As Catholic Christians, we are fully equipped to successfully live the Ephphatha mission of our Baptism because of the Eucharist that we celebrate, receive and adore. At the Eucharist, we hear the Word of God proclaimed and so are taught the truth that we must speak. At the Eucharist, we come into intimate personal contact with the Risen Lord Jesus, and receive the healing power of his presence within us. And in our prayer after Holy Communion, we can adore the Lord dwelling within us and beg from him the graces of healing that we need, for we cannot go out and give to others what we ourselves have not first received.
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