Scripture:
Isaiah 35:4-7
James 2:1-5
Mark 7:31-37
Reflection:
Be Opened!
There was a time in my life, when what I heard when listening to the readings at Church seemed too deep for me to understand. I took every word literally and did not know how to go beneath the surface of those words and understand the true meaning of them. I asked myself, what was a metaphor and what was it really trying to say? Do the poems or psalms literally mean what the words were saying or was it pointing to something else that related to the world? Things were not that clear because my ears were not open to understanding clearly. My mouth could not speak the words that my heart felt because the gift of words were not fully developed in my mouth.
This is the lesson of todays readings. We need to pray for understanding and knowledge so that when God says the word Ephphatha!’ (that is, ‘Be opened!’), we know what it really means. Then we can open up to let the Holy Spirit come within us and work.
Years of listening to loud music results in a gradual loss of hearing. Likewise, years of listening to the noise and voices of the world causes our spiritual hearing to decay. Repent of any spiritual deafness or muteness. Allow Jesus to take you off by yourself, away from the hubbub of the world that crowds around you (Mk 7:33; cf Mt 6:6). Let Him touch you anew and renew your baptismal innocence. “Be opened!” (Mk 7:34)
To give hearing and speech back to the deaf and mute man restores his ability to enter fully into human communication: to hear the voice of a friend, Jesus, and to express himself with ease. His many years of suffering led to an incomparable privilege: the first voice he hears is Christ’s, the first person he speaks to is Jesus. “Here is your God.” O once deaf and mute man, “he comes with divine recompense, he comes to save you.” If we “adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ,” we will be healed of every infirmity and be “heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him.” Amen.
Deacon Peter Smith serves at Our Mother of Sorrows Parish, in Tucson, AZ. He is a retired Religion Teacher, Athletic Director and Facility Manager from Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School, a Retired Soldier of the United States Air Force, a Grad Student at Xavier University of Ohio, and a member of the Passionist Family.