They Brought Him a Man!

 (Homily 23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)

     The message of this Sunday revolves around the theme of the messianic miracle, orchestrated in the images of deafness, blindness, lameness and speech impediment; and the miraculous healing that followed. For in the first reading, the Israelites paid deaf ears to the Word of God. But the Prophet promises that God is going to heal them of this spiritual deafness, blindness, dumbness and stagnation. And in deed, the healing of the deaf and dumb man in the Gospel goes a long way to reveal that the Messianic times prophesized in the first reading has come. The miraculous healing of Jesus is therefore the fulfilment of the messianic healings prophesized by Isaiah. In the same vein, the second reading, in practical terms continued the exposition of this theme, thereby presenting a community that faced the temptation of not listening to the Word of God and to the voice of the poor. The writer therefore, reminds us to stay away from the worldly tendency of making preferences in favour of the rich at the detriment of the poor and the weak.

     The first reading (Is. 35:4-7) started with the solemn invitation to courage, trust and hope in God: “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, Be strong, do not be afraid” (v.4). This passage is taken from the first part of Isaiah; it is among the prophecies of the pre-exilic period. From all indications, this passage must have been chosen because of verses 5 and 6 that speak of the healing miracles that will accompany the return from exile. The prophet encourages the people for two reasons: First, because their God is coming to liberate them. Second, because with this God, the desert will no longer be a place of malediction, of hunger and thirst, but a place of divine intervention. Little wonder the Prophet assures them: “for waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. And the burning sand shall become a pool” (vv. 6b-7a). This is what God does for His people. He turns negativity to positivity. He changes curse to blessing. The prophet addresses the Israelites who were faint-hearted, and in their feelings of discouragement, depression and despondency, he brought them words replete with hope. The prophet brought them a message of joy and hope: “Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God coming to save you” (v4), this indeed, serves as a pre-announcement to the Incarnation. And he continued “the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will sing for joy” (vv. 5-6). The prophet likened the Israelites to a lame person, because they cannot leave the place where they are prisoners. They are blind, because they move about in the darkness of Babylon and cannot find the way to freedom. They seem deaf and dumb, because they have closed their ears to the Word of God. But the great Good News is that God is coming to their rescue.

     As a matter of fact, ‘deaf, dumb, lame and blind’ are the elements that make up the mission of the Messiah in the prophecy of Isaiah (61:1-4), they so called “messianic miracles”. Even in the Gospel of Mathew, when John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one to come, or we should expect another?” Jesus replied and said “Go and tell John: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the Good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Mt.11:4-5). And this mission has its fulfilment in the words and in the person of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the Gospel today. Be that as it may, the healing in the first reading can be better understood from the eschatological standpoint. With the words “He makes the deaf hear and the mute to speak” (Mk.7:37), although not very explicit, however, our evangelist has plausibly communicated that the prophecy of Isaiah is now fulfilled in Christ.

     The Gospel narrative (Mk.7:31-37) presents one of the two miracle accounts peculiar to St. Mark, the other account is the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida in Mark 8:22-23. In both accounts Jesus is presented as a Healer, who employs physical healing techniques, unlike the other evangelists who presented Him as a healer solely through a word. Little wonder, it does appear Mark emphasized the physical means of healing, for instance: putting his fingers into his ears, spitting and touching his tongue. Today, it is all about the pathetic story of the deaf-mute man that was brought to Jesus. The evangelist did not tell us that he himself went, not even that he wanted to go, but that he was brought to Jesus. How did they treat him? Did they treat him as an equal or they treated him as we often do to the disabled among us? Another question that comes to mind is this: why did they bring him? To support him or to use him to see whether Jesus would heal him or they wanted to see with their eyes all that they have heard about Jesus? But upon their arrival, Jesus did something very much fascinating; Jesus took him aside, far from the crowd. They started to communicate in the language of signs. But Jesus went on to touch his ears, to spat on the ground, to touch his tongue and looked up to heaven. And immediately his isolation started to disappear. He must have felt at that moment that something is beginning to happen, and behold upon Jesus’command “Ephphatha”, It is done! He was freed, unbound, liberated and healed. While the crowd kept on waiting for them, when they saw both of them communicating, they were greatly amazed, and thus their vision of him changed instantly.

     Let us return to the story once more, upon bringing him to Jesus, Jesus took the deaf-mute away from the crowd, he took him aside. Why? It is because He wanted to get involved empathically in the situation of the man. He developed interest in the existential situation of the man, because of his handicap, which often creates in persons with disability a sort of inferiority complex; they don’t feel comfortable in the presence of many people. Christ understood this special need and took him aside, so that the man will not be embarrassed. But above all else however, Jesus does not want the news to spread around that He is the Messiah. Remember, we are in the Gospel of Mark, and biblically, the messianic secret is so dear to our Evangelist (Mark).

     In the process of the healing, Jesus used what I may call human elements to realize a divine mission. With those gestures that were somewhat strange Jesus accomplished the miracle. Besides, with those gestures Jesus situates himself into the cultural context of that time:

● laying on of hands: was a Jewish ritual gesture for healing.

● putting of fingers in the ears and touching with saliva: were common gestures of healers of that time. Saliva symbolizes the breath of a person, so it was as if Jesus gave him new life, and of course He did. On the other hand, the last two gestures more than an appeal to the cultural context, are beaming with theological meanings:

● the rising of his eyes to heaven entails that Jesus is in constant communication with the Father.

● afterwards comes the healing word “ephphatha” (be opened), or better a healing command that reveals Jesus’ authority as the Messiah.

     In all, Jesus effectively carried out the miracle of the healing of the deaf man with speech impediment, “And his ears were opened, and at once the impediment of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly” (v.35). Indeed, through this, Jesus revealed who he is: the Anointed One, the One sent by God, The Messiah. Jesus performs the miracle in Pagan territory, “in the Decapolis territory” (v.31b), and as such, Jesus intends to communicate by this very gesture that Salvation is for all, not only for the Jewish people.

     This wonderful gesture of Jesus attracted the admiration of the bystanders, who confessed: “Everything he does is good, he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak” (v.37). That is the proclamation full of stupor of those who witnessed this miracle and the other miracles of Jesus. “Everything he does is good”, this expression re-echoes that, which ends every work of God in the account of the Six days of creation in the book of Genesis: “God saw that it was good” (cf. Gen.1-2). This further reveals that there is a constant continuity between the action of God in the Old Testament and the work of Jesus in the Gospel in particular and in the New Testament in general. The same God that created man and liberates his people from Slavery in Egypt and Babylon is the same God who in Jesus cares and heals his people. As God did everything “good” so also Jesus continues to do “good” everything. Little wonder, in the passage of today’s Gospel, the verb is used in the present tense “everything he does is good”, to delineate that Jesus works are not to be conjugated in the past, for he is “athanatos” (immortal) and that his work of liberation is on-going.

     On the other hand, the story of this deaf-mute man is our story too. The passage only gave him identity as “a man”, which can be any of us. Sometimes we are deaf and dumb and as such in need of Jesus’ powerful words that heal and liberate. Sometimes we are deaf to the Good news of Christ; we are dumb to His words because we fail to proclaim it with our lives and existence. We do not only demonstrate that we are not deaf to the Word of God only when we listen to it, but also when the act of listening produces action in us. In the words of St. Paul: “akuoe pistos”, faith comes by hearing (Rm. 10:17), not ordinary hearing, but a hearing that becomes an obedient listening that produces moral obedience.

     Similarly, in the Second reading (Jm. 2:1-5) we are exhorted to adopt the right treatment of the poor. Sensitivity to the poor is indeed presented as an aspect of the Christian message that must continue. St. James affirms that God does not discriminate, and as such we should not let class distinction enter into our faith (v.1). In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul puts it succinctly well: “There is no favouritism with God” (Rm. 2:11). And if at all, there is a preference or a privilege in God and in the comportment of Jesus, it is for the poor, the weak and the needy. Indeed, to say it with St. James, “It was those who were poor according to the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him” (v.5). He chose the poor because they are humble, and without presumption of self-sufficiency, more open to the gift of God and more disposed to love God. Here, poverty is not referred to material poverty, but to those who are humble and conscious of their dependency on God.

     Today therefore, the prophecy of Isaiah is not only fulfilled in the healing of the deaf-mute, but also in every one of us when we were baptized, for in the rite of Baptism, the priest says the Ephphatha blessing of the ears and the mouth thus: “The Lord Jesus made the deaf to hear and the dumb to 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”. Again, today his Word resounds deep within us, Jesus takes us apart and speaks to our deafness, our dumbness, our stubbornness of heart, our solitude and our isolation. May He once again touch our ears to listen obediently to his word and our mouth/tongues so that we may be authentic witnesses of his word. We earnestly pray for Jesus’ touch in our lives, for His is a touch that heals, restores and liberates.

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)