Gospel & Reflection for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Mark 7:31-37
Returning from the district of Tyre, Jesus went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, right through the Decapolis region. And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly. And Jesus ordered them to tell no one about it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their admiration was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said ‘he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’
Reflection
Friends, this September and October the relics of St Bernadette Soubirous will journey on pilgrimage to Ireland for the very first time. This incredibly special, once-in-a-lifetime event will provide an opportunity for people of all ages and backgrounds to experience the special gifts and charisms of Lourdes in their own Diocese. Our Diocese of Waterford & Lismore will host the relics on the 17th and 18th of this month in the Cathedral in Waterford.
Lourdes is a place of peace, acceptance, and on occasion, miracles. Countless numbers of people travel there in search of a cure, and many say that they were ‘cured’ in Lourdes. To examine such claims, there is in Lourdes a special Medical Bureau which investigates cases of claimed cures to see if a medical or scientific explanation might be established. It’s made up of doctors from different faiths and no faith. They make sure for example: that a patient’s records establish the presence of a serious medical condition; that the cure occurred without any medical intervention; that it was instantaneous or with a baffling rapidity; that the condition has not reoccurred for over a year and that there is no indication of fraud or psychological delusion.
The Bureau is very specific and demanding in their work and while those investigating never use the term ‘miracle’, since 1858, while over 7,000 people have reported experiencing supernatural healing, of the fewer number of cases examined, 70 people have had what those in the Bureau describe as a ‘medically inexplicable cure’. The last such inexplicable cure was recorded in 2018.
Of course, there are many people who question, scoff and dismiss the idea of miracles and miraculous cures in the world today. Interestingly, in His own day, no one ever denied that Jesus was a miracle worker. Even His opponents and there was many of them, never refuted that He performed miracles. They questioned the source of His power to work miracles – claiming often that it was the work of the devil – but they never denied them. Even one of the world’s earliest historians, Josephus Flavius, who lived in the first century and not religious, acknowledged Jesus as a miracle worker, referring to Him as ‘a wise man who worked startling deeds.
Our Gospel today describes one such startling deed.
St. Mark’s account of the healing of the deaf man is one of the few examples we have where an Evangelist includes Aramaic, the actual spoken but almost extinct language of Christ. Jesus says: ‘Ephphatha’ – ‘Be opened’. Such detail is not used to present Jesus as some “one-man medical centre”, as I once heard Jesus described as. This detail associated with His miracles say something important not about the miracle itself, but about Jesus and what it is He wants to do for us.
The deaf man of the Gospel represents all believers, he represents us. His healing points to Jesus’ desiring to heal the reluctance of people to listen to Him and to speak in His name. God speaks to us always but listening to Him is one of the most courageous things that we will ever do. Listening, real listening, is courageous because it involves entertaining the ideals of another. It brings with it the risk of having to change our minds, our convictions or our behaviour, in response to what we hear. Listening to God, reflecting on His example and expectations in our lives, is a call not just to hear but to act. It is to respond to what we have heard in thought, word and deed. No wonder then that many choose not to hear or listen to Him!
At every Baptism, a special prayer is said over those being baptised:
‘The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May He soon touch your ears to receive his word; your mouth to proclaim his grace; to the praise and glory of God the Father.’ That lovely prayer acknowledges the importance of hearing but also on acting properly on what we hear. It is everything that Jesus wants us to take to heart today.
Friends, breaking open our deafness is essential for our lives and spiritual journeys. Therefore, may all people of God listen, speak and act as God calls us to, because maybe, in these challenging and difficult times of ours, there is no greater miracle than having the courage and faith to do just that.
Fr. Richard