Be Opened

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

September 9, 2012

In today’s Gospel taken from Mark 7: 31-37, Jesus healed a deaf man. As soon as Jesus came into the district of Decapolis, people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment. Jesus did something different in the process of restoring the hearing and speaking ability of the needy man. He took him away from the crowd, put his finger into the man’s ears, and with spittle, he touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven from where our help comes from, Jesus groaned and said to him “Ephphatha!” which means “Be opened!” The man’s ears opened immediately and his speech impediment was removed and he started speaking with ease.

Did you notice that Jesus did not say to the deaf man “Hear!” or “Speak?” Rather he used the expression “Be opened!” This is an indication of how we are to live. We are to open up ourselves to the Word of God. Psalm 119: 11 says: Your word I have hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you. And in verse 105 of the same Psalm 119, the Psalmist declares: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. In the gospel of John 6: 63 Jesus says: The words I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life. We are to open up to the Word of God- the Word that is a lamp to our feet; the word that is a light for our path; the words that are spirit and life; the words that strengthen us to avoid sinning against God. When we open up ourselves to God, when we open up ourselves to the Word of God, God enables us to open up ourselves to each other. We will be able to see Jesus not only in the Eucharist, but also in others. When we open up ourselves to the Word of God, our thoughts and hearts will be purified, and when our thoughts and hearts are purified, we will be able to see God in everybody. Matthew 5:8 says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” If we stretch this famous beatitude of Jesus further, we will have the following: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God in everybody and in everyone.” 

I don’t think there is anybody in this Church that is deaf. Deafness is not a problem for most of us here. So today’s healing of the deaf man may not really interests some of us that much. But yet, Jesus used the expression “Be opened!” Our problem may not be physical deafness. But we may be too busy to hear Jesus. With our ears wide open and able to hear what is said far away, we still are not able to hear the sweet voice of our Lord. Because of this kind of deafness, we are not able to recognize him in the events of our life. 

We are so busy that life is slipping by at a very fast rate and we need to slow it down. We are so busy that we don’t even see or notice others. We don’t notice the teeming number of the not-haves in our society. As a nation, we seem to be deaf to the crying and mourning of those crying for a helping hand. We seem to have been deafened by the huge and massive wealth in the nation that we seem not to hear the voices of those who have not benefitted from this massive wealth. The unfounded fear of losing capitalism has deafened us and impaired our speech. We no longer speak the language of the Spirit which is love. Those who don’t speak the language of the Spirit- love, have speech impediment. They may be speaking clearly and hearing clearly, but as long as their speech is not the speech of the Spirit, they have speech impediment. If we don’t hear the voices of those on the margins of our society, we are deaf just like the man healed by Jesus today. We need to hear the healing voice of Jesus saying to us “Be opened!”

Sisters and brothers, Jesus healed the deaf man. Sometimes we can be deaf to life, to others and to Jesus. In 1 Kings 19, the story has it that prophet Elijah was in a cave, then he was told to go out and stand on the mountain before God. There was a hurricane but God was not in the hurricane. There was an earthquake but God was not in the earthquake. There was a fire but God was not in the fire. After the fire there was a gentle breeze. Immediately Elijah knew that God was in the gentle breeze so he went out to the entrance of the cave and covered his face. We need this gentle breeze in our life in order to hear Jesus speak to us. 

Before Jesus healed the deaf man in today’s gospel, he took him off by himself away from the crowd; he took him to a private place, looked up to heaven and then prayed for the man’s healing. We need to step aside sometimes in private with Jesus so that we can hear him speak to us. Let us open up ourselves so that we can hear the language of the Spirit, and that language is love. True love demands that we think of others especially those at the bottom of the ladder of life.