“Be opened!”

Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

September 5, 2021

When Jesus arrived in the district of the Decapolis, people brought to Him a man who was deaf and mute. At once, Jesus responded to the man in the most personal and loving ways. In no less than seven steps, each of them crafted to the unique needs and temperament of the man, Jesus healed him. First, “He took him off by Himself away from the crowd.”

When we gather for Mass, we are surrounded by many others; and this is a blessing since the faith of others strengthens our own. At the same time, Jesus tells each one what we need to hear. The large crowd did not hamper Jesus’ ability to say and do exactly what the deaf man needed for healing. For example, Jesus “Jesus put His finger into the man’s ears.” Why? Because the man was deaf! Jesus could not explain to him by speaking what He was doing. But by touch, He made clear what He intended to heal. Jesus, likewise, touched the man’s tongue to indicate He intended to heal his speaking. By “looking up to heaven,” He invited the man to join Him in prayer. Then, Jesus “groaned” and said “Ephphetha,” “Be opened,” and the man was healed. He was able to hear and to speak. AND the first One he conversed with was Jesus! That’s a miracle. That’s prayer. That is the love we encounter in Jesus, present with us in the Eucharist. And that encounter not only brings healing and light to our lives; it also deeply moves the heart of Jesus. Notice that Jesus “groaned” just before He healed the man.

This is the only time in the Bible we are told that Jesus “groaned.” With that groan from the depths of His heart, Jesus revealed how moved He was by the burden of pain the man had been carrying. This “groan” of Jesus stands in stark contrast to the indifference the Prophet Amos condemned in his day, when he said (vs. 6:1-6): “Woe to the complacent in Zion…lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches…” Jesus was never complacent. He never sought “a culture of comfort.” He was never insensitive to the cries of the poor. Rather, He made Himself one with us in our suffering; He had no place to lay His head. He emptied Himself of heavenly glory and became one like us in all things except sin, even suffering death on the Cross.   Catholic Radio has a program that reports on the Church in Africa and Asia; it’s called, “Where God weeps.” To help us see the love of God in our world today, it invites us to be attentive to the persons in whom God weeps, to those in whom He groans.

There is one time in the Bible when we are told that the Holy Spirit “groans,” Romans 8:26f, where St. Paul writes, “The Spirit too helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning that cannot be expressed in speech.” As Jesus groaned in loving solidarity with the deafmute so too the Holy Spirit groans within us when we bring our burdens to God. This helps us to understand the rich blessing that Jesus described in the second Beatitude, (Mt 5:4), “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

Today is Feast day of a great Saint who died 24 years ago, September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa of Calcutta. When asked about serving lepers in India, she said: “Someone once told me that not even for a million dollars would he touch a leper. I responded: ‘Neither would I. If it were a case of money, I would not even do it for two million. On the other hand, I do it gladly for love of Jesus.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus also said a word that is found nowhere else in the Bible, a word that must have left a deep impression on those who witnessed the miracle. St. Mark recorded it literally, not in Greek, Hebrew, or Latin but in Aramaic: the language that Jesus spoke among the poor, the first language He learned from Mary and Joseph. Being deaf, the man He healed had never heard a word in any language; and then, the first one he heard was “Ephphetha!” meaning “Be opened!” Without a doubt, Jesus commanded the man’s ears to be opened, but far more than that: He exhorted him to open His heart and soul to the gifts of faith and hope and love, the great virtues that only God can give. This single word is such an important one that, during the Baptism of an infant in our time, 2000 years later, there is still found “the rite of Ephphetha” in which the priest or deacon touches the ears and mouth of the child and says the following prayer: “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May He soon touch your ears to receive His word, and your mouth to proclaim His faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.”  This word “Ephphetha,” springing from the heart of Jesus, expresses exactly what Jesus urges us to do today: Be opened! Every time, we come into God’s presence, let us hear Jesus say to us, “Be opened!”

Today’s Gospel passage ends with these words: “Jesus does all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” –-Mk 7:37  This is what Jesus longs to do for you and me: to open the ears of our body and soul to His voice, and to open our mouths in praise of His goodness. Isaiah’s will be fulfilled: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.”