The Speech Impediment That Really Hurts

Rev. Marcel Emeka Okwara CSsR

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

St. Mary of Assumption Church, Whittier, California

September 6, 2015

Today’s Gospel taken from Mark 7: 31-37 tells us that as soon as Jesus came into the district of Decapolis, people brought to him a man who had multiple problems: speech impediment and trouble hearing clearly. Jesus took him away from the crowd, put his finger into his ears, and with his own spittle, he touched his tongue. After that, he looked up to heaven (from where our help comes from), and said to him “Ephphatha!” which means “Be opened!” Immediately, the man’s ears opened and his speech impediment was removed and he started speaking with ease.

Did you notice that Jesus did not say to the man “Begin to hear!” or “Begin to speak?” He simply said to him, “Be opened!” This is an indication of how we should live our lives, that is, to open our hearts to God and to God’s Word. 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 are spirit and life.” If we open our hearts to the Word of God, we will be able to see Jesus not only in the Eucharist, but also in others. If we open our hearts to the Word of God, our thoughts and hearts will be purified, and 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 words of Jesus further, we will have the following: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God in everybody and in everyone.” 

Now, deafness may not be a problem for most of us. Our problem may not be physical deafness, but spiritual one. Some of us are too busy to hear Jesus. Some of us are too busy to hear the Word of God. With our ears wide open and able to hear what is said far away, we are still not able to hear the redeeming voice of our Lord. Spiritual deafness does not allow us to hear the Good Shepherd and to recognize him in the events of life. It does not allow us to see or notice others. Spiritual deafness does not allow us to hear the cry of the needy ones in the society. It prevents us from hearing what needs to be done to make our society a more humane and compassionate one. It deafens us from hearing the truth—truth that saves. There are those in our society who have been deafened by the huge and massive wealth in the nation that they are no longer able to hear the voices of those who have not benefitted from this wealth. Capitalist economy or market economy is the economic system practiced in US and elsewhere, but we cannot be deafened to hearing the obvious truth that unregulated capitalism would leave so many people poorer and more vulnerable. We cannot be deaf to the words of the Holy Father, Pope Francis who has called for the protection and preservation of our common home—planet earth. 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 in the Gospel.

The unnamed man that Jesus healed in today’s Gospel has a speech impediments as well. The word “impediment” means anything that hinders or obstructs someone from doing something. “Speech impediments are a type of communication disorder where ‘normal’ speech is disrupted.” The affected persons may stutter when they speak. Serious speech impediments may render someone unable to speak at all. 

Beloved in Christ, the speech impediments we discussed above are physical problems. We oftentimes feel sorry for those with such disorders because they are not able to communicate with the rest of the society. But there is another type of speech impediment, and it is this type that really hurts. People with Physical speech impediments can easily be numbered. But those with spiritual speech impediments are too numerous to be counted. You and I may be suffering from it. If the language we speak is not the language of the Spirit, which is love, then we have a speech impediments. If we praise God in church, and thereafter worship the Devil out of the church, we have speech impediments. If the language we speak is that of division, hate, discrimination and racism, then we have speech impediments. If we don’t speak peace, we have speech impediments. If we don’t speak justice for all, we have speech impediments. If we talk about others instead of talking to them, then we have speech impediments. If we talk about others in a condescending and insulting manner, then, we have speech impediments. If our speech hurts others, then we have speech impediments. If we glorify money more than human beings, we have speech impediments. If our mouth utters foolishness and falsity, then we have speech impediments. We may be speaking clearly and hearing clearly, but as long as our speech does not glorify and honor God and does not build our human family, we have speech impediment.

Before Jesus healed the deaf man in today’s gospel, he took him away from the crowd; he took him to a private place, looked up to heaven and then prayed for his healing. We need to step aside sometimes alone with Jesus so that we can hear him speak to us.