Mark 7:21-37
In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus cures a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment .
“Can you hear me now?” This is a Verizon phone ad created about a quarter century back when technology was becoming very popular. Verizon had a man on the phone supposedly calling people from different parts of the world and different settings, wanting the viewers to be interested in purchasing their phone options by illustrating that the phone can reach anyone anywhere in the world - even under water.
This man's physical issue of being “hard of hearing” or even completely deaf, is something many of us can relate to. Being in this condition also affects our speech. We humbly have to ask for the speaker to repeat what they are saying; we sometimes ‘fake it’ that we heard and smile or shake our head, though our speech may be garbled or slurred as we struggle to be a part of the conversation.
A group of people brought him up to Jesus in hopes of a cure and they were not disappointed. Jesus in His mercy and compassion used His own saliva and spit and touched the man's ears saying, “Ephphata”, which means “Be opened!”, ( or in a sense, ‘can you hear me now?) and immediately he could hear and speak clearly. Jesus heard his silent plea, knew of his struggles and how he depended on others to help him.
As the world becomes noisier and as we daily see hundreds of people walking, sitting, driving or running their exercise with earplugs, the Psalmist reminds us that “they have ears but do not hear..” because they turn the world off. So, perhaps we can reflect on these words, we could ask ourselves: Lord, can You hear me? Am I spiritually deaf? Will you open my spiritual ears and clear my speech so that I may with the Psalmist pray: “Praise the Lord my soul!”
Sister Celeste Hupert, CSFN
