In
the Gospel reading for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B),
Mark 7:31-37, perhaps, Jesus’ Aramaic word, “ephphatha” is a very powerful word to register in our heart. The
word, in English, can mean “be opened”.
The
Gospel narrative (Mark 7:31-37) describes Jesus healings the speech and healing
impediment of a Galilean. But, in reviewing the flow in the Sunday Gospel
readings from the 17th Sunday on to this Gospel reading for the 23rd
Sunday, I am convinced that “ephphatha”, as spoken out of Jesus’
mouth, is intended to open up our “spiritual pathways, removing obstacles
between God and us. This is symbolic to healing our spiritual ignorance.
On Cycle B, the Gospel readings from the
17th Sunday to the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (John 6)
and the Gospel reading for the 22nd Sunday (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15,
21-23) describe how our spiritual ignorance (agnoia) responds to God’s grace (John 6) and deals with the Law
(Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23).
In John 6, the spiritual ignorance let
people chase Jesus not to appreciate his divine salvific power’s signs but
simply to be fed again and again. As he began his Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus
reminded the Galileans, who were miraculously fed to satisfaction (John 6;1-15)
but still live in hunger (peina), were ignorant about the meaning
of his miraculous sign in the feeding (John 6:26). This suggests that the
Galileans’ hanger recurs as long as they remain ignorant.
The Bread of Life Discourse (John
6:22-59), which is read from the 18th to the 20th Sunday
in Ordinary Time (Cycle B), describe
Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse, as his way to help such ignorant Galileans to
wake up to the truth that their ignorance (agnoia)
keep them in an endless samsara-like
cycle of hunger (peina) and to become
awaken to the meaning of the Living Bread of Life that Jesus is offering as his
self gift to overcome this problem. However, as John 6:60-6, which is read for
the 21st Sunday, describe, they choose to remain ignorant and their
ignorance prompted them to reject Jesus and what he offers: the Living Bread of
Life. Because of their ignorance, they were unable to understand the hidden
meaning in the Living Bread of Life (ho
artos ho zon), which is symbolized in Jesus’flesh (sarx) and blood (haima). And, the meaning if the essence of life as
both sarx and haima are metaphor of life (zoe)
and its essence. In other words, their ignorance prompted the Galileans to
reject life that Jesus offered and let them remain in their life of ignorance and
hunger. Ignorance keeps them in ignorance and insatiable hunger.
In Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23, which is
read for the 22nd Sunday, the spiritual ignorance (agnoia) is described with the Pharisaic fundamentalism
toward the Law. Therefore, what is common in these Gospel narratives is that
our spiritual ignorance is a stumbling block to our transcendence, which is a
necessary condition to understand Jesus and his teaching – to appreciate what
he offers, namely, what God provides – grace and the Law.
The transcendence is about taking our
senses beyond physical and natural phenomenon into mysterious, spiritual, and
supernatural phenomenon, as Jesus intended in his Bread of Life Discourse. It
is also about liberating our consciences from the Law to the cleanliness of our
heart. In his epistle to the Romans, Paul further address this matter.
As the spiritual ignorance grounds our
senses to natural and physical world, it also keeps us as slaves of the Law.
That is why ignorant people, such as the Galileans in John 6 failed to
understand the spiritual aspect of the miraculous feeding and the spiritual
aspect of the Living Bread of Life. And,
this resulted in rejecting Jesus – the Messiah.
The same problem blinded the Pharisees’ spiritual eyes to the inner
defilements and kept in an illusion of fundamentalist observance of the Law.
The Gospel reading for the 23rd
Sunday (Mark 7:31-37) symbolizes the removal of this stumbling block – the
spiritual ignorance, with Jesus’ powerful word of ephphatha!
Of course, if you choose to remain
spiritually ignorant, Mark 7:31-37 is a mere miracle healing story of Jesus
curing a man with speech and hearing impediment – just as the ignorant
Galileans regarded the Jesus’ miraculous feeding only as a material and
physical feeding event, rather than a spiritual sign, even Jesus later
explained this spiritual aspect through the Bread of Life Discourse. But, if
you let Jesus remove the obstacle, which is ignorance, then, your spiritual
path ways get unclogged and opened up. Then, you can appreciate Mark 7:31-37 as
a narrative of Jesus’ work of opening our spiritual senses to overcome ignorance
through a metaphor of healing the hearing and speech problem.
As our ignorance is removed, we can hear
the Word of God and can speak right words, accordingly. We live a life of
wisdom, rather than a life of ignorance. Because of the reciprocity between
wisdom and the Holy Spirit (Isaiah
11:2), a life of wisdom is a life in Spirit (Romans 8), as well as life lived
according to the gifts of the Spirit (Ephesians 5:22-23), which correspond to
the cardinal (heavenly) seven virtues to counter seven deadly sins
(vices). As Paul extensively describes
in Romans 8, a life in Spirit, which is a life of wisdom, free from ignorance,
is also a life of transcendental freedom. Therefore, in this freedom, we no
longer suffer from fundamentalist mentality, which grounds us only to what
human senses can understand – namely, natural reality. In this freedom – a life
of wisdom – a life in Spirit, we understand that the Living Bread of Life leads
us to resurrection and eternal life, as it is the spiritual food, rather than a
natural food. We also understand that flesh and blood of Jesus, which are what
Jesus describes as the Living Bread of Life, symbolizes the very essence of
Jesus’ life that comes through the Living Bread of Life. We do not get trapped
in literal expression, such as flesh and blood. Likewise, we do not become
apprehensive about the letters of the Law, as our focus is to keep our heart
free from defilements.
To rejoice in a life of wisdom, a life
in Spirit, a life in light, and life in the risen Christ, as Paul says, we must
first let our life in flesh be crucified (Galatians 2:20, 5:24 ) in order to overcome our defilements,
rooted in our carnal desire (epithumia) – to cleanse our heart of leaven of the
Pharisees (Matthew 16:6), as this “fungi” all the problems with defilements,
including ignorance (agnoia) and
hunger (peina), as well as other
carnal desires (epithumias) arises, as indicated in Mark
7:21-23, as read in the Gospel reading for the 22nd Sunday.
Let Jesus
shout “ephphatha” to us – to unclog
our spiritual pathways for our heart’s cleansing, so that we our spiritual eyes
can see and our spiritual ears can hear (i.e. Isaiah 35:5) – so that the Holy
Spirit is upon us to keep us in a life of wisdom, keeping us from a life of
ignorance, as in Isaiah 11:2.
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