Mark 7: 31-37
Today’s Gospel message reminds me of a man I met many years ago in Guatemala. Francisco was one of the most remarkable preachers I had ever seen or heard. You see, Francisco was blind and never went to school. Unable to read, he had memorized large portions of the bible that had been read to him. Francisco’s little boy, Angel, would often lead him to one of the village homes and Francisco would begin his preaching to the small gathered crowd with the words, “I was blind, but now I see!”
It was fascinating to see this blind and illiterate man challenging the more educated and sighted people, and saying, “Now let us turn to Mark, Chapter 7, and read.....” His very presence bore testimony to the fact that in Christ, seeing and hearing means much more than just the use of the physical senses of the eye and the ear.
In today’s gospel, the story of the deaf mute was written by Mark and apparently aimed at the members of his community who could not bear witness of Jesus effectively because they cold not hear his word. They were deaf to the words of Jesus, which is why they had what Saint Mark considered “a speech impediment” in speaking about Him. As the Gospel reads, “Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him Ephphatha (Eph—Pha—tha), that is “Be Open.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue released, and he spoke plainly (Mark 7:33-35).
Why did Jesus take the deaf man away from the crowd?
And why did he have to go into such a detailed and graphic process when he could have simply have only said a word and the man would have been healed?
I think that in the details of the story, Saint Mark is saying something to his readers. By taking the deaf man far from the noisy and distracting crowd in order to heal him, Saint Mark is probably saying to them: that in order to be healed of their deafness to the word of God, they needed to distance themselves from many of the people that surrounded them. Especially since the healing encounter with Jesus happens in the private intimacy of one’s heart. So what does this mean for us, what is the message for us today? Well.......... Do we also realize that we too are deaf? Does it not occur to us, that as individuals and as church, we do not yet fully understand the message of Jesus. Is that not the reason why we too have a speech impediment, and the people of our time no longer understand us when we try to tell them the Good News?
So how can we begin to hear?
How can we begin to understand?
To answer these questions, we need to dig a little deeper into the Gospel message.
Since ancient times, the Church has used this gospel story as a symbol of baptism, because through baptism we first receive the power to hear, in other words, to understand, and to speak supernatural truths. Before baptism, we resembled one who is deaf and dumb. We could not speak to God in prayer because we had no faith; neither could we hear the voice of God. We were deaf and dumb concerning the Kingdom of God. However, through baptism, the Holy Spirit came to dwell within us and supplied us with the tongue that speaks to God and the ear that is sensitive to the divine voice. Yet, what baptism initiates, the Holy Eucharist continues and perfects.
A wise and holy monk once said: “You came to Mass poor, deaf, and dumb. In the midst of the world’s noise, you could hear nothing of what God is saying to you; even now, you stand here, a stuttering child unable to speak. But by the grace of today’s Holy Mass, your ability to hear heavenly things is perfected anew, and your tongue is loosed.” What baptism began the Holy Eucharist should perfect. In baptism, we are born anew and in the Holy Eucharist, we receive the food of eternal life, which increases the measure of divine life within us as we advance toward Christian perfection.
The Holy Eucharist completes Christian initiation, which began at baptism.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Those who have been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by Baptism, and configured more deeply to Christ by Confirmation, participate with the whole community in the Lord’s own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist. And in that now famous statement from the Second Vatican Council’s document on the nature of the Church, Lumen Gentium, we hear that the Eucharist is, “The source and summit of the Christian life.” All of the other sacraments, in fact all of the other works of the church are oriented to the Most Holy Eucharist, for it contains “the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself.” The Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith.
As St. Irenaeus wrote many centuries ago, “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.”
This is the beauty of the Eucharist, the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is our faith and this is why we should desire to return to the altar, week after week, if not day after day. As you approach the altar today, think of your baptism when the Holy Spirit and His life came to dwell within you, making you a new person in the spirit. And think of How Christ will dwell within you today, filling you with more of His divine life, conforming you to Him.
Once you were deaf and dumb, now through Baptism, you are friends of Christ, and through the sacrament of His Body and Blood, He is perfecting you. Do no take the Eucharist Lightly!
And finally, like Francisco, my dear friend of Guatemala, we are to understand as Christians, that seeing, hearing, and understanding, means much more than the use of the physical senses of the eye and the ear, and is something that happens deep within us, and lives within our hearts.
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