The Rite of Blessing and Sprinkling Holy Water (Missal, p 387) is appropriate because the gospel is that of Jesus restoring hearing and speech to the deaf man with the speech impediment.
A. Lord, Open Our Ears and Lips
We live in era of communication explosion: fax, E-mail, internet or web, and so on. And at the same time it is an age of isolation and loneliness of people. What people have is information, and what they have lost is personal relations. In this eucharist we pray to the Lord, to open our ears. that we may again listen to one another and to God speaking to us. May we also learn again to speak to one another, person to person.
B. Ephphatha! Be Opened!
The sign that Jesus is the promised Savior is that he first goes to the poor, the sick, the marginalized people, for they need him most. Not only material poverty is meant. The deaf and the mute, the hard of hearing and the stammerers are we who are shut up within ourselves, often closed to God and one another. Jesus comes to open our ears and mouths to the words and deeds of God, that we may listen to his message and respond to his love, and that we may also hear the poor and speak to them with our help. Let Jesus in the eucharist heal us and commit us to God and people.
Penitential Act
We ask the Lord and one another to forgive us that we have been deaf to the Lord speaking in his Word and in the cries of the poor. (PAUSE)
Lord Jesus, touch our ears and open them to your message and to the appeals of those in need: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, touch our tongues, that we may speak words of endearment to those we love: Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, touch our tongues, that we may speak words of endearment to those we love: Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, touch our eyes, that we may see and feel the needs of those lonely and abandoned: Lord, have mercy R/ Lord, have mercy.
Lord, touch us with your forgiving hand and open us to your love and to the needs of those around us. Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
B. Ephphatha! Be Opened! Let us pray to God with receptive hearts (PAUSE) Our saving God, Jesus, your Son, made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. Make us see that often we are stutterers and hard of hearing. Open our ears to the message of your Son, that it may stir our hearts and change our lives. Loosen our tongues to proclaim the great things you do for us through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior for ever. R/ Amen.
Or:
A question still hotly debated is how do we take care of the poor. Three billion people exist on $3 a day. Over one half billion on $1 daily. A quarter billion children work sometimes in dreadful conditions. Five people will die from malaria in the time it takes you to read this homily. Do we help the poor and ill just by paying our taxes? Or do we give at the office? Or do we get our own hands dirty? The answer to these questions is found in today's Gospel?
Mark is the only Evangelist who tells us this sensitive story. The Teacher had little over one year to live. The police were after Him. He and His people slipped north across the border into today's Lebanon and yesterday's Phoenicia. He spent some time hiding out in the still existing cities of Tyre and Sidon.
He may have spent as many as eight months on the run.
This week stories of conflict are left behind as we are treated to further evidence of what Jesus' ministry of proclaiming the kingdom of God is all about. The story begins with a rather flawed geography lesson. The sequence mentioned by Mark makes no sense but it may be that he is making a theological point because the places he mentions are the gentile surroundings of Galilee where the kingdom has been first proclaimed. The man brought to Jesus cannot hear or speak and is therefore cut off from the good news, but through Jesus' healing touch he is restored and the response to this action is one of unrestrained praise and wonder. The people realise that in Jesus all that the prophets had spoken of so long ago is being fulfilled and Mark is also making the point that this ministry embraces Jew and Gentile alike.
Michel DeVerteuil
Today's gospel passage is a healing story. We must be careful to interpret these stories correctly. For example, we would be wrong to draw the conclusion that since Jesus healed miraculously, all his followers are called to do the same. That would be to misunderstand the meaning of the miracles.
St John gives us the key to interpret Jesus' miracles. Whereas the other evangelists refer to the miracles as "wonders" or "powers", John calls them "signs"; for him the miracles point beyond themselves to the "kingdom of God". This is the world as God wills it to be. It is what Jesus lived and died for. The miracles therefore are living lessons on the kingdom. They are also signs that the kingdom is already present in the world. We can see fleeting glimpses of it, its first fruits, its heralds.
Jesus' miracles are like the educational films made nowadays which show the processes of nature speeded up. They are "fast forwarded". For example, we see in one continuous movement a seed germinate, become a bud then a beautiful flower, and then spread new seeds. In somewhat the same way, Jesus' miracles display (and announce the arrival of) God's plan for the world. They "go against nature" but only in the sense that in them God's kingdom comes instantaneously, whereas in real life it takes considerable time and plenty of painful effort.
The person in this story can neither hear nor speak and is therefore a truly touching symbol of those who cannot communicate. They cannot hear God's word of truth, wisdom and consolation, the words of those who would like to enter into communication with them. They cannot hear the life-giving words spoken by nature, the truth of themselves, the greatness or the weakness of their own beings.
The "impediment" in his speech symbolizes well our inability to initiate conversation - with God, other human beings, nature, oneself. The phrase "the ligaments of his tongue were loosened” tells us that the power to communicate is within us all. It is kept in check by the negative forces within us, like fear, hurt and anger. "He spoke clearly" is also a very telling phrase - it refers to the great wonder of good communication, a power we have within us, if we can only do it right.
Jesus takes the man "aside in private". This is surely an indication that his healing often requires intimacy. When we try to do it publicly, we run the risk of using persons to bolster our ego or for our personal ambition.
The healing process in this story is very physical. Jesus "puts his fingers into the man's ears" and "touches his tongue with spittle". This reminds us that the meeting of bodies is very important in the ministry of healing. Jesus also "sighs"; this is telling us that he takes on himself the pain of the man. He "looks up to heaven" - a sign that he knows the source of his healing power is there. It is also a sign of a deep respect before the person's vulnerability.
The passage concludes with one of the several stories of Jesus imposing what biblical scholars have called the "messianic secret." At present, scholars are divided on the issue. Some think of the deep significance of this mysterious aspect of Jesus' ministry, a meaning which is always manifested slowly. We need to enter into this mystery as we can.
My own feeling however is different. I take it to mean that the “secret” of Jesus reminds us that as always we must interpret the story of Jesus from our own experience. Jesus is then the model of those who choose to minister from the truth of who they are. He does not start from the false idea of what status society finally confers on them.
The text brings out the important aspect of what Jesus really achieved. It notes that the people “published widely" what he had achieved; their “admiration was unbounded”. It then adds, “He has done all things well”, and specifies further, “he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."
This is always Jesus’ point of view. He is always there to help people, to make sure that the deaf hear and the dumb speak. Those who had little or no capacity for communication are now able to speak clearly.
Reflection
What do you lack? We may have sight and hearing, but what do we lack? Take an honest inventory of yourself. Have you found contentment? Are you close enough to God to receive his guidance and strength? Have you secured peace of heart and peace of mind, invaluable assets in life? Deciding what we lack is the first step in securing it. Christ can fulfill our needs -- needs that are to some extent physical, but, more so, the deepest needs of heart, mind, and soul.
The man in Mark 7 lacked the physical ability to hear. But many of us lack the spiritual ability to hear. We suffer a kind of a spiritual deafness. The affliction of not listening to people, or, to put it another way, the affliction of physically listening to people, yet failing to comprehend, to understand, and come to grips with what they are saying, is a plague upon the Church. For, you see, it is possible to listen to a person, yet fail to really hear them...
This healing, which follows the pattern of healings in Mark, is intended to be read as one more indication of the arrival and nature of the messianic times. Each healing and each miracle is like a pointer to one more aspect of Jesus as 'the Christ'.
At the end of the healing, the crowd's reaction and amazement is a direct allusion to the reaction described in Isa 35:5-6; and for Mark, the healing taken with the reaction is an indication that the glorious future, which was long awaited, is already a reality in Jesus. But there is still the 'messianic secret' when Jesus orders them to tell no one of the miracle, yet the more he tells them this, the more they ignore him. Mark is anxious that no one should think of Jesus just as a healer: the messiah only becomes truly visible in the cross and resurrection.
Since this miracle is only found in a much cut-down form in Matthew (15:29-31), this is a very good place to see just what a distinctive theological voice Mark had. Moreover, the details of the Ephphatha, which has had such a profound impact on the liturgy of baptism, is only found here.
2. There is a little ritual in the rite of baptism — alas it is often omitted — whose name and form is taken from today's gospel: 'The Ephphatha'. The celebrant touches the ears and then the lips of the one to be baptised saying: 'The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May he soon touch your ear to receive his word and your mouth to proclaim his faith ...' This simple ceremony captures not only what is the kernel of today's gospel, but a most profound aspect of our faith: its 'giftedness'.
3. In the first reading we hear the prophet describing the people in terms of their disabilities: stumbling, hard of hearing, with poor sight — the sad reality of the human condition. But holding out the promise of God's help, and aid, and mercy: the gift of the Promised One will be the gift of new sight, new hearing, and new lips. And the miracle in today's gospel is a demonstration that this time has come: Jesus is the gift of the Father to us.
4. The gift of new sight shows us the true nature of the creation: the universe exists in dependence on God's will; we human creatures exist because of his love, and our destiny is not within the creation, but in union with God.
5. The gift of new hearing allows us to hear the word of God in our gatherings, in the situations and ups and downs of life, and in our consciences. We can come to know that God loves us, cares for us, and calls us to be his ministers and his witnesses.
6. The gift of new speech allows us to praise him in prayer, to proclaim the truth to sisters and brothers, and to announce the good news of Jesus.
7. God's gift to us is the gift of receiving and the gift of transmitting. We are enabled to hear the word of God, and we are empowered to communicate the word of God. In opening our ears and lips, Jesus gathers us up into his own divine life.
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Prayer Reflection
- doctors and nurses see the sick as objects rather than people,
- parents are too busy to spend quality time with their children,- teachers prefer classroom lectures rather that one-to-one sessions,
- pastors in your Church no longer sit and converse with members of their communities,
- the confessional has been replaced by the office with secretaries and answering machines,
- spiritual guides approach their work like busy professionals.
Western culture needs care-givers like Jesus who take people aside in private, away from crowds, put their fingers into the ears of those who have not heard words of forgiveness and encouragement, make personal contact with them as intimate as Jesus putting spittle on the tongue of the man who had an impediment in his speech; people who feel very deeply the pain of the person entrusted to them so that in communion with them they will raise their eyes to heaven and sigh.
Only then will those whose ears are blocked be able to hear
that they are worthy of love and friendship,the ligaments of their tongues will be loosened
so that they will feel able to speak clearly the truth of what they feel.
Lord, we bring to you the many people who cannot hear
and have an impediment in their speechso that they do not experience the joys of human communion:
- they have heard so many negative things about themselves that compliments do not get through to them;
- they are fearful of being rejected and cannot risk saying what is within them.
Send them people like Jesus to lay healing hands on them,
people who recognise how deep-seated their problems are
and take them aside in private, away from the crowd,
where they can say what is in their hearts;
people who will make a human contact with them,
almost putting their fingers into their ears and touching their tongues with spittle;
not arrogant people, but the kind who will look humbly to heaven
for the wisdom to say and do the right things;
who will not be aloof either,
but will sigh as they feel the pain of those they are listening to.
They will say, "Be opened," and people’s ears will be opened;
at their touch, ligaments of tongues will be loosened and speech will flow.
Lord, we think today of the many people who live in their own world,
unable to communicate with those around them:
- the elderly abandoned by their families and residing in homes with strangers,
- young people isolated from both peers and elders,
- immigrants who cannot hear what is being said to them and cannot speak in their own language,
- people of deep faith categorised by majority religions as pagans or idolaters.
They have heard no words of love or even of respect
and are impeded from sharing what is most important to them.We ask you to send them people to whom they can be brought,
as the man in the gospel was brought to Jesus, to have hands laid on them
so that they can hear the liberating words, "Ephphatha"
and their ears can be opened to hear a voice they can recognise
and they can feel a human presence which will loosen the ligaments of their tongues.
Lord, we thank you for Charismatic Renewal in our Church.
Through Life-in-the-Spirit seminars many have been brought to Jesusto have him lay hands on them.
Their ears were opened so that they heard your word spoken personally to them,
the ligaments of their tongues were loosened
and they who up till then were silent in your presence
as if they had an impediment in their speech
now speak clearly and freely in joyful praise.
Lord, we thank you for the humility showed by your son Jesus
when he ordered those he healed to tell no one about it.Help the leaders of your Church to walk in his steps,
not relying on their status as bishops, priests, deacons or lay ministers,
but on their willingness to meet people at their level,
in private away from the crowds,
sharing their common humanity and feeling their pain.
Lord, we pray today for societies divided on grounds of ethnicity, race and culture,
religious belief and practice, long-standing territorial disputes.Their history of mutual suspicion has made them incapable
of communicating with each other.
Like the man in the gospel story their ears are blocked
and they have an impediment in their speech
- neither side can hear what the other is saying,
and they cannot speak without being misunderstood.
We pray that Jesus will lay hands on them and do all things well for them
so that their ears will be opened and they will be able to speak clearly.Lord, we thank you for revealing to us the deep meaning of your messianic secret.
Help us always to find it within the limits of our human experience of people
who can now be introduced into the great mystery of human communion.
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Illustrations:
1) "I want to be alone."
We are more alone and less alone these days than ever before. Humans have always lived in communities, in tribes, in families - for protection, for food, for companionship, for love. In the twenty-first century urban living is the norm, with large populations of people gathered around a commercial/communal core. But even as we live lives more closely packed, we are more solitary. Education and economics have made it possible for more people to "make it" on their own. What for centuries had been the culturally and economically determined "norm" - to marry and produce a family in order to survive - is no longer viewed as a necessity. In America, the new norm is singledom. Half of all adults are unmarried, and 15% of those singles live by themselves. In Scandinavia it is estimated that by 2020 half of all "households" will be occupied by only one individual.
But singledom does not mean we are alone...
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That's what still wins people over to Christ. It's the consistent witness we live before them: the kindness and gentility that are consistently evident, the willingness to listen without judging and to help without expecting something in return, the smile that's always there, the warm hug or handshake that we can count on, the friendship that doesn't blow hot and cold, the faith that is evident in good times and other times, as well. We articulate Christ's presence and power most effectively not with eloquent words but rather with a steady, faithful Christian life that others can see and believe in.
Michael B. Brown, Be All That You Can Be, CSS Publishing Company
While the woman learns that the power of faith lies internally, the disciples learn that faith can't be measured by proximity to Jesus. They are right next to the Lord and yet they see the woman as a bother. They don't lead her to Jesus or attempt to heal her daughter, her faith does that. They are too blinded by their social and religious prejudice to offer miracles to anyone.
Jesus words are obviously not meant to cut down the woman (her compassion runs too deep to care if she is insulted). The words of Christ are meant to reprimand the disciples-and us-when our politics and religious agenda blind us to compassion.
Which faith most resembles mine? Am I like the cocksure disciples steeped in religious and cultural prejudice, deeply self-assured of my proximity to Jesus? Or, am I like the outcast woman of Lebanon, indentured by compassion and uncaring of insults if I can just save one soul?
Jerry Goebel, Even the Dogs
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4) Miraculous Healing
Good point, but what I really wanted to know was whether he believed in what we would call miraculous healing, so I asked, "Actually, I wanted to know if you believe in miraculous healing." "Yes," he answered in a matter of fact way, "Why do you ask? Do you want me to stop the surgery?" John Jewell, What About Healing?
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5) The Buzzard, the Bat, and the Bumblebee
A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.
In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up! That's the answer, the escape route and the solution to any problem! Just look up.
Source Unknown
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Staff, www.eSermons.com
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A psychologist friend of mine once developed a personal growth seminar entitled, The Friendship Mirror. It began with an exercise in which you were asked to write down the names of ten people you consider to be friends - people you enjoy being with ... people you like ... people you feel most comfortable relating to. Then he'd ask you to describe them in terms of their age, race, height, weight, education, views, whether they're married or single, with children or not. When you finished, what you found was a striking similarity between the people you like the best and ... are you ready for this? Yourself!
Surprise! We tend to identify most easily with those people who are like us. "Birds of a feather flock together," they say. Which is nothing new, of course, but it's something we do well to be reminded of, from time to time, for to grow up is to grow out and to mature in faith is to widen your circle to include those who don't just mirror your image, but challenge you to think and act in new ways.
Philip W. McLarty, The Boundaries of the Kingdom
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8) Believing in Jesus: Erasing Boundaries
It happened to be Christmas, and on Christmas morning, this missionary went to one of the attics where scores of Jews were staying. He walked in and said, "Merry Christmas." The people looked at him like he was crazy and responded, "We're Jews." "I know that," said the missionary, "What would you like for Christmas?" In utter amazement the Jews responded, "Why we'd like pastries, good pastries like the ones we used to have in Germany." So the missionary went out and used the money for his ticket home to buy pastries for all the Jews he could find staying in the port. Of course, then he had to wire home asking for more money to book his passage back to the States.
As you might expect, his superiors wired back asking what happened to the money they had already sent. He wired that he had used it to buy Christmas pastries for some Jews. His superiors wired back, "Why did you do that? They don't even believe in Jesus." He wired back: "Yes, but I do."
David Reynolds, Crossing Boundaries
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He used to tell of Mrs. O'Leary who would hop on the Fifth Avenue bus on Sunday morning in Manhattan and pass the great churches along that thoroughfare. As the bus would approach each church, she would eye the sign in front with the sermon title and decided, on the basis of what she read, whether to get off the bus and attend that church. Dr. Macleod's constant refrain was, "Pick a title that will make Mrs. O'Leary get off the bus."
10) Ice Skating
How, they said, could there be thin ice when it was so cold. Most of the kids, more because of fear of being punished then fear of the lake, stood on the shore and watched as five of them, three boys and two girls, shouting that the others were “chicken” skated all around the lake and had a grand old time. Then all five of them were for just a moment in the same place and, well . . . You know what happened.
Then one little boy, the worst chicken of all because he was smart, ran into a house and called 911. In ten minutes a police helicopter arrived and lifted the five kids off the ice island.
Do I have to tell you what the cops said to them? Or their parents? Or how long they were grounded from skating?
11) “Little monk” who opened blind eyes:
At the Annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, 1984, Ronald Reagan, the former president of the United States, told the old story of "the little monk," Telemachus, a martyr whose self-sacrificing commitment to Christian ideals opened the blind eyes and deaf ears of the Romans and their fifth century Christian emperor Honorius. According to the story, this Turkish monk was led by an inner voice to go to Rome in order to stop the cruel and inhuman gladiatorial fights between slaves. He followed the crowds to the Coliseum where two gladiators were fighting. He jumped into the arena and tried to stop them, shouting "In the name of Christ, hold back!" The gladiators stopped, but the spectators became indignant. A group of them rushed into the arena and beat Telemachus to death. When the crowd saw the brave little monk lying dead in a pool of blood, they fell silent, leaving the stadium, one by one. Three days later, because of Telemachus' heroic sacrifice of his own life, the Emperor decreed an end to the games. In today's Gospel, which describes the miraculous healing of a deaf mute, we are invited to open our ears and eyes, loosen our tongues and pray for the courage of our Christian convictions to become the voice of the voiceless.
13) "Five past two."
11) “Little monk” who opened blind eyes:
At the Annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, 1984, Ronald Reagan, the former president of the United States, told the old story of "the little monk," Telemachus, a martyr whose self-sacrificing commitment to Christian ideals opened the blind eyes and deaf ears of the Romans and their fifth century Christian emperor Honorius. According to the story, this Turkish monk was led by an inner voice to go to Rome in order to stop the cruel and inhuman gladiatorial fights between slaves. He followed the crowds to the Coliseum where two gladiators were fighting. He jumped into the arena and tried to stop them, shouting "In the name of Christ, hold back!" The gladiators stopped, but the spectators became indignant. A group of them rushed into the arena and beat Telemachus to death. When the crowd saw the brave little monk lying dead in a pool of blood, they fell silent, leaving the stadium, one by one. Three days later, because of Telemachus' heroic sacrifice of his own life, the Emperor decreed an end to the games. In today's Gospel, which describes the miraculous healing of a deaf mute, we are invited to open our ears and eyes, loosen our tongues and pray for the courage of our Christian convictions to become the voice of the voiceless.
12) "The Touch of the Master’s Hand":
In the poem “The Touch of the Master’s Hand,” Myra Brooks Welch tells the story of the auctioning of an old dusty violin. The violin was about to be sold for a mere $3 when a grey-haired man stepped forward, picked it up, dusted it off, tuned it and began to play. The man played such sweet music that, when he finished, the bidding jumped into the thousands of dollars. What transformed the dusty old violin into a precious instrument? The touch of the Master’s hand. The same “touch of the Master’s hand” continues to transform our lives today. By God’s touch we become His instruments to accomplish the marvelous works described in today’s Psalm 146: to secure justice for the oppressed, give food to the hungry and set the captives free.
Two older men were talking. One of them was bragging just a little bit. "I just purchased the most expensive hearing aid ever made," he said. "It is imported and is guaranteed for life." The second man asked: "What kind is it?" The first man answered, "Five past two." We can laugh about the hearing loss that comes with aging. It is a minor problem that will affect most of us sooner or later. In fact, experts predict that years of rock music, leaf blowers, and noise pollution in general will result in millions of baby boomers with hearing loss. According to a recent study by the National Institutes of Health, there has been a stunning 26 percent increase in those suffering permanent hearing loss between the ages of 35 and 60, compared to 15 years earlier. (With Adam Hanft, Dictionary of the Future (New York, NY: Hyperion, 2001), p. 3. Today’s gospel passage tells us how Jesus healed a deaf man who was mute.