(Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year 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 raising 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. Child of God to any closed door
experience you are having now, I declare Ephphatha
in the Mighty name of Jesus, Amen
(Fr. Vitus Chigozie,
SC)
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